What a difference a day makes. She has got her legs all figured out now. When we arrived this morning she got up and we watched her go to the cow and suck. Then she ran to us like she was showing off her new skills. Her left foot still flips over some, but that is improving by the hour. By evening she was using it very well. She seemed to be trying to nurse constantly, and was aggressively butting the bag, so we offered her a pint and she took it down quickly. We mixed her up another quart and she took that too, so I assume the cow is producing very little. Her stomach looked empty, but after the bottle, she was filled out and content. I hope with time the cows milk will increase, but I will be bringing her milk replacer until I see that little tummy full without it. That may be until weaning.
I knew this was a fertile line of cows but this is ridiculous. Her mother was a twin and has given birth to twins. She is an 8 year old Pathfinder cow and has always calved in the first three weeks. The maternal Grandmother had twins twice. The calves mother's sire is a bull I raised out of a 14 year old cow who has had 13 calves, and that cows mother is 18, still in the herd having never missed calving and is expecting her 17th calf any day now. This will be only the second time in all those years that she did not breed on the first heat. It appears this year she will calve about 30 days after the first cow, so second heat. Both these cows are still agile, in good flesh and youthful in appearance.
I was not able to figure out how to post a photo. I read the instructions, but I don't see "Add image to Post" below my test, and when I tried to go to photo gallery I got a message that said "We're sorry, but the system experienced an unrecoverable error. Please try again later."