New Babes! Jaffa had twins

Wed after the utilities came back on, Jaffa didn't come up to the barn for breakfast. I knew something was up and so I finished milking and chores and went out to check on her. Sure enough, she was having her baby. One of the kids (not really kids, adults) came out to see if I needed anything and I had her get my camera. By the time I got the camera she had already delivered one baby (bull calf) and I was waiting for the afterbirth and all of a sudden with another contraction came two little feet! Twins are not common with cows, but not totally unusual either. When twins are born the same sex they grow to be healthy, normal cows and bulls. However, when a set of twins are born that are different genders (as with our twins, one girl, one boy) there is a good chance that they will be sterile due to a crossing over of hormones during the pregnancy. Sterile twins calves/cows are called Free Martins. There is a test to determine if they are sterile, but we will consider them Free Martins and either sell them or grow them for meat. If we have them butchered in a year it will give us 600-800 pounds of meat for canning and the freezer. This might sound like a lot of meat, but we are feeding 8-10 adults and this will probably last us a year if we spread it out and are frugal (we don't eat meat everyday.)

Here you can see a clear sac and little hooves coming and the bull calf by Jaffa's head

The front hooves and nose come first. Here her head is out (hardest part!)

It's a girl! She instinctively heads for Mama's head

Mama begins cleaning

While Mama cleans her babies the afterbirth comes (she will have two of these because of the twins)

Close up

Good job Mama! It was cool out and the babies are wet, so we took them to the barn to dry off.

A couple days later in the barnyard (there is a calf resting on both sides of  Jaffa)

This is the heifer calf, she is spotted like her mama

This is the little bull calf, he will be steered in a few weeks