Ben and Joy: Fair

Last weekend, Ben and I went to the Indiana State Fair. We always try to go earlier rather than later, so we are able to see more animals. This year the highlight was being able to witness a birth of a calf! I had never seen a cow giving birth before, so it was pretty interesting. I was concerned, fascinated, and disgusted all at the same time. I took a ton of pictures and tried not to post any really gross ones, but some may find the ones I posted too raw, so consider yourself warned and proceed at your own risk...

Here is the mama cow as the baby was just beginning to come out (if you look closely, you can see the hooves). She kept licking her udders, but I am not sure why. Maybe she was trying to make sure they were ready for her baby?

Here is a close up of the hooves coming out. You can actually see the tongue of the calf too! If you are interested in the normal birthing position of calves, this site has a good picture.

The calf's legs were a little twisted, and it was delaying the cow from delivering, so this man carefully helped to untwist the legs.

After they untwisted the legs, they continued to work with the cow to get the calf out. Here you can see more of the legs and the head too!

It's a boy! At this point, I really wished I had taken a video, because it happened so quickly! After they made sure the calf was okay, they checked the cow for twins (I would not want that job!), but there wasn't another, so they rubbed some straw on the new calf and quickly got out of the way so the mother could tend to her baby.

The mother got up pretty quickly and hurried over to her baby. It was pretty heart warming to see. I thought this was a cute picture, despite the fact that the bars are in the way.

Here is a close up of the calf. I wouldn't be surprised if he is trying to get a bad taste out of his mouth. ha ha.

Here is the mama and her new calf. You can see why it was impressive to see the mother jump up and hurry over to her baby shortly after he was delivered. She was huge!