Anyone need a dose of cute? :)

I promised calf photos, and it just so happens that we had a set of twins yesterday!

Here's twin #1, a little heifer (girl). While she's small, she's stronger than her brother. Twin calves are notoriously small and weak, and often the mother only accepts one of them, rejecting the other. Here, she's all cozy in the barn, waiting for her mother and brother to come join her.

Twin #2 - a BIG bull calf! I really can't believe this guy is a twin, and I feel sorry for his poor mama as she's not a very big cow! Despite his size, he's quite weak, and he's got a little bit of a problem with his front legs - they roll over, and he walks on the fronts of his ankles. We didn't think he'd make it, but we caught his mother, and my husband got some milk out of her. I dipped my fingers in it and let the little guy suck the milk off my fingers. He got quite pushy - I guess I wasn't dipping my fingers fast enough for him - so he decided to get up and do something about it! We got him over to his mama, and he managed to suck for a little while. He was too tired and weak to stay up very long, but that first milk is vitally important, so we're feeling hopeful for him even though he's not out of danger yet. 

This is the best photo I could get - Mama was still pretty protective of him and didn't want me to come around the other side of the hay feeder (you can see her feet right behind him, she was guarding pretty close).

Here's my favorite calf this year (or he was before the twins came along) - he was born on Valentine's Day and had a "brother" (different mother) born the same day that looked exactly like him, even down to the funny markings you can see in his ears. Sadly, the brother died - we think one of the cows laid/fell down on him. :(

And last, here's our Brown Swiss calves we get from a dairy. They're a few months old now, but I just love their coloring and cute faces.