New Zealand Life

Jasmine & Violet

On August 15, Mom and I looked at a few week-old calves so I could have two calves of my own. We met up with Kerry Tristam and he brought us to as shed with three compartments. We went into the middle compartment, and one calf came right up and started sucking at my fingers. She turned out to be a girl and I wanted her. Mom said okay, so Kerry went to put a NAIT ear tag into her ear. The ear tags have microchips in them, and are now required by the government. Kerry got out a rather scary looking hand-held machine with a thick needle point on one end (for puncturing the ear),and the tag on the other. He grabbed the little calf and then squeezed the handle, click! and the ear tag was in the calf’s ear. We then looked at the rest of the calves and decided we wanted the other black calf. She wasn’t as friendly as the other calf and didn’t enjoy getting her ear tag, but Kerri eventually got it in her ear. On the ride home, Mom and I were wondering what were going to name them. I wanted to name the friendly calf Ginger and Mom thought maybe we could call the other Sage. We were nearly decided on the names, but I decided to look at a list of flowers I had just to make sure. I went through the list and liked a couple of other flower-type names. Dad said he liked Jasmine and Violet of the list of favorite names. I liked Jasmine; and Mom wanted Violet. So our calves were granted the names Jasmine (Jazz) and Violet (V).

August 17:
Jasmine and Violet arrived around 2pm this afternoon! They were a little uneasy and scared from their ride in the pen, but quickly settled down. Jazz even ran around and gave a few little bucks! We arranged their feed and water buckets so they could both easily access them\ and then got them used to us. Mom and I would catch them and then talk softly and gently rub them under their chins. They really liked it and quickly warmed up to us. That night, they each drank about 2 liters of artificial calf milk. We laid out some hay for them to sleep on during the night.

August 18:
We decided that we would feed them at about 7am in the morning instead of 6 (like my lambs). Today I brushed both of the calves so that their coat shined in the sun, and fed them twice (morning and evening). They were both very excited about their milk, and butted at me and Mom for more! They butted hard in sensitive spots a few times. Ouch!

August 19:
Despite what some people say, we decided to feed out little calves three times a day—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—so that they would get 6L of milk in stead of 4 or 5L. They are a bit skinny though, so hopefully the extra feeding will fatten them up a bit! I brushed them again today and they are both using the restroom so their bowel movement is working just fine!

August 21:
Violet got her first halter lesson today. We bought purple training halters for both them from a local feed store (RD1). V was rather stubborn and didn’t really want to go were Mom wanted her to go, but she started to understand towards the end of her lesson. Mom and I brushed them again, and we’ve kind of gotten into a routine: I feed them breakfast, we both feed a calf lunch and then brush and train afterwards, and then I feed them dinner.

August 22:
They are now nearly 2 weeks old—two more days until they are. They are both extremely friendly and are both learning about the halter. Violet is progressing very well, and Jazz has just begun to learn. They will probably both be completely trained within a few days! They are very happy with their lives and are probably the most spoiled calves alive! J

We are now thinking about possibly getting two more female calves to increase our breeding herd. We have decided that if we get them, we will name them Dahlia and Rose.

~ Julia ~