This Michael doesn't wear a glove, he wears a jacket!

Sadly we all know that death happens. Today I'm going to talk about death at the farm but how it can bring new life.

Sometimes when a cow is calving bad things happen. A few days ago a cow was giving birth but was having lots of trouble. The calf was HUGE and coming out backwards. This is not good! In most cases, this is when the human steps in and helps by pulling the calf. It needs to be a quick process because the cows sack has broken and the calf can't breathe. In this case they were unable to get the calf out in time so it passed away. It's gone to the land of green grass and no predators.

Now what happens to the cow if her baby dies? There are two options, sell the cow because no one really wants to feed a cow that doesn't produce any profit for another year. Or they can adopt another calf onto said cow. Adoption only happens if 1. there are twins 2. the cow dies leaving an orphan calf 3. the cow doesn't accept it's baby. Luckily twins were born this past weekend and they are real cuties. Here's a picture of Bud and Rhoda.

When the other twins were born, I was really sad when they tried to adopt Louise to another cow but it didn't work. That was good!! Back to Bud and Rhoda, because that cow lost her baby Bud and Rhoda have to be separated. Bud was the chosen one to be adopted onto the cow. Now here is the adoption process for a cow:
~It costs nothing! All free!
~You must remove the hide from the dead calf
~Then you create what we call a "jacket" and tie it onto the selected calf
~Because of the scent from the jacket, the cow should believe this is her baby
I must admit, calves with jackets are super cute. It's gross thinking about it but yet it's a good way to keep a cow. So Bud is now sporting a jacket and so far so good. However, I had to change Bud's name to Michael. Check out this picture and think about why I changed his name.

Get it? Bud Michael was born black but the calf that died was white. Now the cow must be confused because she don't know if her baby is black or white!

*Side note: sorry his jacket is nasty...the hair is falling off. Lane just said "Michael's designer jacket is showing a little wear." HA!