Ready to pop

For the last few days, we've been keeping a sharp eye on Maggie. That's because she's ready to pop.

Seriously, she was bred on Sept. 8, so according to an online gestation calculator, that means her due date is tomorrow (Saturday, June 13). Now of course, as with humans, due dates for cows are merely suggestions, so we don't know precisely when she'll go into labor.

A few days ago, we pulled the animals off the big pasture and released them into the lower pasture, where we could keep closer tabs on them. Last night, when we gave them their evening grain and confined them to the corral (per our usual routine), I checked Maggie before bedtime and noticed, by flashlight, that she was swishing her tail in agitation. That is often a sign of early labor, and so I got up at 4 am this morning (barely light), fully expecting to find a calf on the ground.

No such luck. Today, we released the animals into the very small pasture just around the house where we could watch Maggie closely and scoot her into the corral if need be. Nothing doing. She grazed and chewed her cud all day with nary a care.

But she's huge, and I'm sure just as anxious to have her calf as I am. Stand by for news!