The coldest days of winter are behind us now in southern New Mexico and with longer days and warmer temperatures comes the most precious of times on a ranch … it’s calving season.  Not to romanticize the whole thing too much – this time of year is also synonymous with long hours often stretching late into the night, many hours in the saddle checking cows and the occasional need for an assisted birth.  Still … I love calves!

All calves are wonderful (they’re almost as good as foals!).  Of course I’m a bit biased but I find Hereford calves to the most adorable of all varieties with their bright white faces, deep red curls and bright pink muzzles.  I particularly enjoy the registered calves for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I can pour my creative efforts into naming each calf – a practice best skipped for commercial steers. 

The first calf of the season was born just an hour or so before sunset on a chilly February evening – I named her Calliope.  We checked in on the pair again just after dark to make sure everything was moving along as it should and left them to let natural instinct do its job.   While mother nature is chiefly responsible for covering the watch over the all the cows on our range (because she certainly knows more about the process than we ever will), the registered girls require a little extra after the real work is done.

In the morning we went out to check on the pair, tag and get the birth weight.  Miss Calliope weighed in at 100 pounds – a good size for this cow’s second calf (which she had no problem delivering all on her own).  We’ll weigh Calliope (and all her brothers and sisters) again this fall at weaning.  There is quite a bit of information to record to ensure that we are continuing to produce the best quality animals we can!

Having grown up on my family’s small (by comparison!) ranch in northern Idaho where my grandparents raised a casual herd of commercial Polled Herefords, I  had no idea that there could be so much more to cattle.  I am learning so much and loving every minute of this hands-on education … I even enjoy the ratios, formulas and acronyms!

I’m looking forward to the continued learning process and sharing it here with you – but for now, let’s just enjoy the sweet newness of the first calf of the season.