Birthing Update

I had hoped to have pictures of at least one yak calf posted by now but it wasn't to be.

Since the last post we waited patiently (and sometimes not too patiently) for Crooked Horn to present us with our first calf of the season. And then we waited...and waited...and waited some more. I let her out of the barn, put her back in the barn...and waited some more. So much for either my breeding observations (hey, I really DO know what that looks like!) or our gestation length calculations. Two weeks later exactly from the date I had calculated Crooked Horn gave birth to a VERY tiny stillborn heifer. No complications other than the little thing being stone dead at birth. She was tiny, only 17.5 lbs as compared with our smallest of 27 lbs previously birthed here.

Now we are again awaiting births. This time it's Pemma Y who was due on the 13th of March and Trimmy who was due on the 16th. Still nothing on either other than they do look very pregnant. Trimmy goes into the barn easily so we have her out right now but Pemma Y is in there and she looks at my as if to ask, "hey! What am I doing in here?" She's not as easy to get into the barn so we'll leave her there at least for a couple more days to see how she progresses. If our calculations are as off with the rest as they were for C.H. then it'll make it 9 months instead of the academic 8.5 we've been told and read about. It's really hard to know as we don't feel that C.H.'s situation was quite normal due to the stillbirth.

They are starting to stack up. Pemma Y, Trimmy, Twelver (due today), Gotty (due next week). I gave up traveling back east because I thought I'd be up to my armpits in yak births right now. (Not literally, as yaks birth very easy and quickly and seldom need assistance.)If these first ones don't calve soon we'll need a bigger barn!