Winter Calves

At Blue Ridge Farm, we calve later that most commercial operations, to reduce stress on the animals as well as calf losses in cold and snowy weather. Our calving season usually starts in April and runs through the end of May. This year, despite our best intentions to avoid awful weather, we had a blizzard almost every weekend in April! We prepare an end of the big barn as a calving area, put up fencing panels and fill the area with deep straw to keep mamas & babies warm. We had four mothers take advantage of these special accommodations this year. When babies are very chilled, we put them in a warming area, use a hairdryer and towels to get them warm and dry, and give them a bottle of colostrum in case they are too chilled and tired to nurse when reunited with mama. We were very blessed not to lose any calves this year!