This post was originally posted on www.findingamy.net 

Documenting events is one aspect of photography that I love.   When I was down in Texas this winter, I was able to capture a birth of a calf.   Here is the story

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 the most amazing and beautiful miracles I have ever witness on the ranch.

When I got over to the heifer the “water bag” 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 the 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 of the calf, it stood up and began to smell on its mother. By this time heifer was back to grazing on grass.   It only took a few minutes for the calf to find the heifers 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 its 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 very little by the process and how little time the process actually took.

I took over well over 300 shots during the birth process, they can be viewed in the Ranch Portfolio.