Mother Cow Adopts Calf after 5 Days of Struggle

She's not gonna just surrender. Are you a little old thing?

This is a really nerve-wracking experience, I think.

Keep fighting, honey. Keep fighting. Keep fighting. Okay, I'm gonna get back there and hold the line.

Oh, look, look! She got on!

She got on despite—

yeah, I mean, well, she Yes!

Yesterday it took getting in the stanchion, but maybe if we've got her on alfalfa— yes, yes! Keep trying, keep trying. Okay, keep trying, keep trying. Man, this is the spot, man! I guess it's a little too cold for you little guys. Maybe you could come out later though when it's milking time, when it warms up a little bit. 25 degrees this morning.

Down goes the toy in there.

That, that'll, that'll work, I guess.

No, it won't.

Okay, top of your head warm. Day 2, working on this wood pile. We got this stacked. I think this is going to work out nicely. Rack number 2 coming in right here. I think that now that we've done one, leveled it, measured it, know where to put it on this riser board, I think that it's gonna go pretty fast. Where could I set you guys up on it? I said I'll set you guys up on a time lapse. Uh, Flossie, is it gonna be day 5 trying to get her to adopt this calf? Yesterday we saw Flossie lick the calf, yesterday afternoon. That's progress. We haven't seen that yet. So in a little bit, hour-ish, we'll go out there and milk and see what's going on. All right, we got that done. Let me show you my design concept here. See, we just— we got the columns, we leveled them out. The columns stay, the columns stay. I just realized, yeah, you have to walk around, or you can walk through with some wood here. Trying to think there's a better way to do that, but, um, anyway, we have these boards that are removable so you can walk through here. Like right now, there's no cross boards, and they just slide— they slide in and out of these— I don't know, what do you call those— slots. And you put some boards in if you're ready to stack it. And let's say we get down and we're done with this pile, we just remove the boards and then we can get at this, and we're not stepping over all these crazy things. All right, I like it. I think I didn't turn it this way. I think I realized now it'd be a lot harder to stack. Like if you— if you dump trucks dumping wood here or something, uh, it's really easy to stack. I'm gonna go get my baby's mama a snack. We'll milk. Call the Inquirer! That calf's nursing! We gotta get closer! I think the calf is nursing and Flossie's just standing there. Holy smokes, I think it's happening! Don't want to mess it up by coming on, but please tell if it's true. Please tell me the head— she's nursing! She is nursing, guys! Day 5, day 5, day 5, and that calf is nursing! Nursing. Mom's being peaceful. Look, Flossie's licking her. I think Cass milked it for all it's worth. You guys pushed through, you did it! I don't think that cow's hungry anymore. Day 5. They said it would happen in 3. I guess Flossie's got a little crazier eyes than everybody else. But yesterday I was less defeated than day 3. I think day 3 I had these expectations because that's what most people were saying it would take, 3 days. And I think I was expecting— I think I realized this yesterday— I was expecting them to bond. I was thinking that was a 3-day period for a bonding to take place. I don't think that was what's happening. I mean, maybe it's some, but what I realized yesterday is no, I wasn't trying to create a bond. I was trying to train. Just like if I were to train her to go into a chute, I'm training Flossy to accept this calf, to allow this calf to nurse. And that changed everything. And then That changed the perspective, and I think that's why I wasn't as defeated yesterday as I was. Yeah, yeah, you know what, she's nursing. Let's get this stuff. We'll get a shot of that, hopefully up close for you guys. Hot diggity, man. And, and Flossie's looking back, not to Butter, but goes Mm, makes that little noise almost like she's saying, go on, go on. Guess who's nursing? Are you serious? Yeah. On your own? Without— peaceful as can be. Oh, she— no, I walked out there, just— I just looked and it's happening. Yay! And in fact, Flossie's encouraging it. Oh good, she's giving a little bellow for her. And oh good, nodding her head.

Good, like she said.

Yeah. The calf is nursing. That's good. That's crazy good.

I know, 5 days.

It's 5 days. Today would have been 5.

A little bit longer than we had.

Yeah, she finally caught—

but no, it's totally fine. Well, yesterday she was licking. So can we name that calf now? Yes, because the kids were like, we don't want to name it, right? This is too early. And they were like afraid it was gonna like, you know, die.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, we were afraid that—

for sure we're gonna name it Maple. Yeah, because Gideon's voting for that. And poor Gideon, he can't really— he hasn't really got—

well, he got Snowball, but that's gonna end when Snowball gets—

I don't think that nickname will ever end.

I don't think it will either.

I think the poor guy will not be known by his beautiful first name.

I know, I know. It's funny, people will DM me and be like, how's Snowball?

Like, oh my God, these are your friends too.

All right, that kid's not going to be known by his actual name. He's going to be Snowball. Well, that's what my, my mom's friend Sandra, when she came, she was like, what is his— what's Mr. Brown's real name?

They don't know Mr. Brown's real name either. Now we have been at a distance. I'm not sure if I got close enough to be 100% sure. We'll be sure when we go out there and Flossie is out of milk. Okay, so let's hope that is the case. This is so good. I mean, I've— I doubted whether this was the right thing to do, and Rebecca kept saying, yeah, sure, it's, it's a good thing. You know, one thing is we're, we're going on vacation. We'll have a farm sitter. Arun will be farm sitting, and that'll take some pressure off. Like, if he doesn't milk her all the way out, we don't have to worry about her getting mastitis because the calf will finish her off. Ah, this is good. All right, okay, yeah, it was worth it. Hey, you two, have you given in? Aunt Flossie, I'd love to capture this on camera. You gonna see it here? I don't think she's hungry. I think she's— oh, there you go, there we go, there we go, guys! Look at that, there it is! Look. Yeah. Oh my gosh, Flossie! Thank you, thank you, you gave in, you finally gave in. I'm gonna get you some alfalfa. Here, honey, you deserve this, every bit of it, every bit of it. Oh, good problem to have this morning. We ain't gonna get any milk. Did you guys hear that? That, um, that's something she's only done. Oh, hear that? She is not— this is— she hasn't been doing this the last 4 days. That's something she only does when she's got a calf. See, see that? She's talking to it. What are you saying? All right, we finished milking Phyllis. I'm gonna get Flossy in here. I don't know, just to practice. And, uh, because pretty soon we're gonna be separating that calf. Come on, check it out. So we're gonna just practice. Come on, come on, we got you alfalfa. Come on, come on, come on. Intentionally only gave her 2 scoops in there so she'd be hungry. Oh, here she comes. Here, this is what I'm talking about. Come on, come on, you can have it if you come. Oh, she's, she's coming now. Let me set you guys down. Okay. There we go. You're a good girl. You are a good girl. Yes! Okay, I'm sure you got plenty. All right, let's see if— let's see what we got left. Are you gonna let me get anything? Is it good? Good problem to have this morning.

Nothing.

Nothing, nothing. Most wonderful problem to have today. Nothing. All right, I'm just gonna let her finish her alfalfa. Sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep. Look, I can touch everybody. I can touch everybody this way. Even old Nacho will squeeze in here. Oh, Escalito! Everybody in, everybody! Pet Nacho. I'm petting around. It's amazing what a little alfalfa treat will do. Yeah, you guys are all right, you guys are all right. I think he's impregnated every single one of these cows' babies. Mucho lamb babies. Come march. She's feeling good. You feeling good? She got a big belly full. You got a belly full. You got a belly full. You feeling good? If you're done, it's okay. I'll get you out. I'll get you out. There we go. There we go. That's making you nervous. You've claimed her, haven't you? We're gonna do one more day, one more day of them together in a small paddock just to ensure this sticks, and then I'm gonna let them be with everybody else during the day. Come on, she got her. Plus, you found the bucket. Come on. This little paddock is not enough for one nursing cow during the day. I'll give them some— throw some hay. She's gonna go for that grass first though. Really, we need to take our shade structure straight through there, but you can't— can you guys see that? It's a swamp. There's no way. We're not gonna get stuck or tear things up, so We've got to take it the long way, go up, and then drag it in there. It's on that water line. Pushes it. Yeah, it goes over it. Wow. Ah, kind of need a second person out here. I have to gird up my loins. Pick this up. Wow. Oh my gosh, I can't pick it up. I shouldn't say can't. I should say, how can I pick this up? Maybe if we shove it under there real hard. Maybe if we don't lift it up, we push down water line. Oh, there we go! Hahaha! I did it! Trying to stop saying can't. Instead, I'm trying to say how. There, it worked out for me. Because when you say you can't, well, you've already shut your mind off any possibility. But when you say how, your mind gets going. Beautiful, beautiful ending there. Flossie licking her calf. Boy, that was a, that was a struggle driving down there to get that calf, dealing with Flossie and managing that for 5 days being afraid Flossie was gonna kill that calf, being afraid it wasn't gonna work, being afraid that calf was gonna get all our milk. Yeah, it's all over now. We got us a calf share. Look at him, that's nice. I keep flashing the shirt because if Guys, we're doing a reorder. We're stocking up on our shirts, our Homestead Mama or Pigs for Everyone shirt, I think Great American Farm Tour shirt. If you order between now and Sunday, that's still enough time for Christmas. That's why I'm letting you guys know. And you order then, we're placing— you order by Sunday, replace all the orders on Monday, get turned around. This is 100% organic. I wish we had Filavision because this is so soft. We have long sleeves, short sleeves, different colors. And you gotta get the word out there, pigs for everyone. You can get those at shopjustinrhodes.com. I'll also leave the link down in the description. Now let's see, today's Burn It Up cooking show, I think we've got— quiet, I'm gonna surprise the beautiful one. We have leftover taco meat. I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do double-decker tacos for them. Do we have, uh, refried beans left? Yeah. Okay, can you get that stuff out? We're gonna make double-decker tacos. Gosh. We have some of these cassava flour, um, siete. Do we have 5? One for everybody but me. I'm animal-based. Okay, good. Let's let these fall out.

I went to her, um—

We need one of these.

I told Mama.

You told her what? About double-decker tacos. It was supposed to be a surprise. Oh. What'd she say?

Nothing, because I didn't tell her.

Jonah, you got the leftover rice going. Let's get the beans going. Let's get the meat going. This is gonna be quite the— we'll do the— we'll warm up the tortillas here. That's the trick to getting them pliable, soft. Basically, to put a tortilla on a hot pan until it softens, then we'll flip it over and put it on the other side until that softens. That was just demo. It's not soft yet. It's a juggling act at this point. We got rice going, refried beans, beef. Rebecca, you taking care of member texts? Yeah, thank you. Hey, how's this double-decker tacos sound to you today?

Right now?

Oh yeah. Hey, you look nice, got dressed. Thank you, I like it. Nice pose. Just, I need you to empty the dishwasher please. All right, those are pliable. Let's keep those one down. Let's make some eggs, Papa. Rebecca, we need to get our celebrating celebratory hug.

She does.

She did it. Rossi is a whole new cow out there. Zoning in on this too.

Oh, here comes Josiah.

Oh, Josiah's in on it too. Okay kids, I don't think you've ever had a double-decker taco.

Nope.

So what you do, you take a soft burrito, you put your bean in there. Okay. Then you take your hard taco And then you proceed. Okay, then you make a taco out of it. There you go, Josiah. Get you a plate and then put what you want on it. Oh, there's lettuce too, guys, if you want it. How is it, my man? Good. Isn't that cool? Because then you don't have to stuff your taco with the bean and put it to the side. That's the trick. You can get more contents in there. Let's see it, taco girl.

I know, this is actually This is when I used to go to Taco Bell as a teenager.

I know.

Love me some Taco Bell double decker.

I haven't seen you excited about a meal in a while. Being pregnant. Well. How is it? Yay!

Just like I remember it.

Everybody likes it. Oh, this is much better than Taco Bell. So much better. I tried to get the beautiful one to wear her Homestead Mama shirt. What's the problem?

It don't fit.

We're supposed to show these shirts off, but, but Snowball, he's expanding.

He put a kink in that one.

All right, up until Sunday, if you want it by Christmas, shopjustinrose.com. Got our shirts up, guys!