Chaganra Farm

How it's been going in a photo. From the cold snow with wind to mud to warm rain followed by wind and cold rain.....I could use some weather stability. Found this bull calf born overnight at the edge of death, his mama had laid down beside him and given up on getting him to stand up. Thankfully a few hours warming up in front of the torpedo heater in the farm garage got him alert and able to nurse with assistance. He's back in with his mama, but separated from the big herd to get his bearings and the best shot at starting his life. Calf #14 of 2026.

I'll take this picture as a win. This is just one of the many reasons why we stress that all of our animals are born and raised here by us. The poser 'farmers' skipping this part, or just not telling consumers what they do (or don't do), make me crazy. And my crazy ain't always good.

Baa-baa black sheep. Actually mama ewe is brown with a little white on her head. This is a little earlier for lambing than I expected, but I'm happy to have moved our yearling ewe group into the greenhouse before it happened.

So.... I thought we were only going to have one calf today, but here's Polly with a little bull born this afternoon. I'll take it, with the afternoon sunshine, as another January blessing.

January is never an optimal time to have calves, but typically these are the strongest animals in the herd in the future. #1 for 2026 is out of Lucky, who raised a huge heifer from summer of 2024, but missed or possibly miscarried last year. When you are trying to grow your herd, year on year performance is a reason to keep cows around. One 'failed' pregnancy doesn't get them on the trailer, although I do try and figure out if there's something I'm doing wrong, or something else going on.

Bottom line is 3 calves from a cow who turned 4 just in September(EDIT from my original post, she was born in '21 not '20, even BETTER!) is successful in my book. Thanks for starting off the year Lucky!