Well, I'm still 2 weeks away from calving, but I've got some observations that are probably worth nothing to you that I'll mention anyhow... I have 2 first time heifers, and they aren't due until at least mid march, one of them is supposed to calve on the 28th for that matter, but both of them have already started the pudding-butt a week or two ago, the later of the two is getting an udder (not imminent though) that is considerably more noticable than the earlier one. The older cows all have completely empty bags and no pudding butt, and those are usually the ones that get it first. I'm not sure what to expect at this point. I'm going to take them up from the field at the last possible moment so that they keep getting exercise walking to the water trough. With the later-calving heifer, I have some worries of the BW of her calf if indeed she was bred when I though she was and if she has 5 weeks left to go, she is going to be one round girl by then. Fortunately she's a good size (1300 lb) and comes from a line that has never needed help calving.
Last summer wasn't a particularly hot one, actually cooler than most, though we had a nice warm fall (first frost on Oct 20th, which is late for here). I'll take a couple pics of the heifers this weekend, before and after they've eaten lol
