I have been home in Texas taking care of my mom after she had foot surgery. Part of taking care of my mom involves looking after the ranch.   On Tuesday afternoon I went out to do my daily rounds and check on everything. When I returned to the area by the barn and house, I noticed a cow in the tank bed; from a distance I notice that something was wrong. I walked over to the cow and discovered that she was in labor and about to have a calf.   I hung back and pulled out my camera to capture the process.

Growing up on a ranch you would have thought I had seen calves be born before but I had actually only been involved with the birthing of calves when there were issues.   So I found this to be one of most amazing and beautiful miracles I have ever witness on the ranch.

When I got over to the heifer the “waterbag” had passed and ruptured. I saw the vulva contracting and could tell the calf was moving into the birth canal. While all this was going on the heifer was still grazing on the grass and walking around – kind of acting like nothing was going on.  All of a sudden I saw the forefeet appear and part of the head.   Then the heifer laid down and pushed out calf.

When the calf came out it was covered in placenta membranes materials. The heifer immediately began licking the membrane material off of the calf, starting at the head and continued onward down the body. The calf and heifer were still attached with the afterbirth (and birth cord) and through the process licking the calf, the heifer separated itself from the newborn calf.

As the heifer licked the calf, it came to life.   As soon as all of the membrane materials were off the calf, it stood up and began to smell on it’s mother. By this time heifer was back to grazing on grass.   It only took a few minutes for the calf to find the heifer’s utters and begin nursing.

Because of the where the heifer gave birth in the tank bank. The calf was born in a pile of mud, so getting up was kind of tricky. It actually took the calf several tries to stand up because it kept falling back into the mud.

Once I saw the calf was nursing I went to the barn and put some fresh hay in the cattle pen and then brought some hay over the heifer. The heifer welcomed the fresh hay and even ate from my hand. After the calf nursed and got it’s footing, the heifer led the calf over to the pen. I continued checking on the heifer and calf for the rest of the day and by that evening the both were back with the rest of the herd.

Watching the experience was amazing, beautiful and moving. It was one of those priceless experiences. What surprised me the most about the process was how little the heifer seem to be bothered by the process and how little time the process actually took.

I took over well over 300 shots during the birth process, the following are a few of my favorites …

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