Another calf! Meet Nathalie.

We have been thinking for years that getting an extra foster calf to put on Buttercup would be a good idea. We saw a Normande calf available from a dairy that was shutting down and fell in love with her. The plan is for her to be a milk cow alongside Buttercup when we sell Venus and Myrtle.
We have a tendency to want to keep ALL the (female) cows, but grass supplies are limited.

Buttercup wasn't super impressed on meeting her and tried to smush her quite a few times.
Experts tell us that if we persist with feeding both calves together with mum tied up she should eventually relent. Nathalie was just over 2 weeks old when we got her which is just over a week ago now.

Venus is less anti her but doesn't have nearly so much milk

To allow us to manage her feeding we have to be able to lead her on a rope so we can guide her around and help her get enough milk. She wasn't impressed with this initially and threw herself to the ground several times in a big sulk. Going better now though.

Cute pic with Dorne

Night time sleeping quarters. Our calves normally spend 24hrs a day with their mums but Dorne and Nathalie are sleeping together in the stables overnight to make sure that Nathalie gets a good feed in the morning

They then spend the day with the herd, Dorne gets milk during the day but as yet Nathalie does not, so she gets another feed in the evening before bed. This is her first time outside as at the dairy she was living in a little stall. She had a nice run around and was then quite exhausted as her legs weren't used to that much activity.
She is a sweet little thing (actually she is huge compared to the Jersey calves, she is already bigger than Stu who is 6 or 7 weeks old) and we really hope Buttercup accepts her soon.

Things are slowly getting better and she can now feed when Buttercup isn't tied up as long as she sneaks in alongside Dorne. Dorne is a feisty little character which is good because she is smaller and younger than Nathalie, but as Nathalie is quite placid she has no problem holding her own.

Cow herd all together.