On her own...

I'll stop with daily updates on the calf (soon? today?), but... she is so stinkin' cute! So... at least one more day of calf pictures...

For the calf's and momma cow's health, the dairy cows' calves are separated from the momma cow and bottle fed. So, Sunday evening, the baby was separated from Morning Glory, and Monday morning, she was introduced to the bottle.

Up and alert on Monday morning!

She was lying down when Regina brought the bottle. Regina dripped a little into the calf's mouth...

... and the baby caught on very quickly!

She soon was standing and sucking down the milk!

By Monday evening, taking the bottle was no problem at all...

It still took a little dribbling on her snout for her to recognize that the bottle was there.

 

But she drank it all down, and proceeded to suck on the metal gate afterwards in hopes of finding some more milk!

Regina ensures that the baby gets the milk that her momma, Morning Glory, is producing, at least for the first 3 weeks. Momma's milk has the nutrients critical for the well-being of the calf, including colostrum in the first days to provide immunity antibodies to the calf since bovines do not pass antibodies from the mother to the calf via the placenta.

On Tuesday morning, Carl took on the task of feeding...

She has learned to take the bottle very readily - Regina says that she has had calves that took several days to learn to take it and had to be almost forced to drink from the bottle at first - Not so with this one!

A view over Carl's shoulder as he holds the bottle

We are enjoying this new baby on the farm!