Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Ruby's Firstborn son....Tippy

The continuing saga of Tippy - The Unweanable One! Tippy was born in May of 2006. We named him Tippy (short for Tri-Tip- so he wouldn't get any ideas of being anything other than food!) Mama Ruby was bred again in October of 2006 and that was a good time to wean him. Actually, it was well-past time to wean him. So he was sequestered in another field for a month, in my opinion, not long enough, but I'm the city girl so what do I know? When Tippy was brought back into the field with his Mama and big sister, he immediately began nursing again. This is NOT usual! So in April of this year, Tippy went to what we fondly call, Summer Camp. He is with all males and can't nurse. We brought him home last weekend (almost 4 months without nursing) and he went straight to his Mama and began to nurse. His baby brother, Huevo, was in the way and Tippy stepped on him. Poor baby limped for 2 days. Needless to say, Tippy the Mama's Boy is back at Summer Camp, what I like to call Boarding School till he goes to the butcher in November! Our friends, the McThompsons, where Tippy is staying, say they've never seen a cow continue to nurse after they are weaned. Ah, well, leave it to the Knotwells to come up with a perpetual nursing cow!

3 comments:

John Knotwell said...

Wow, now that's a strange duck... or cow. Maybe you could move Tippy to a freezer in Utah? That might get him weened.

Rebecca said...
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Growing plants with Ms. Dunham said...

Hi there, this is a blast from your long ago past! We were stationed together at FCTCP San Diego 80 -82. I got a wild hair and thought I would google you. I babysat John a couple of times, and now...Wow he has a wonderful family himself. Hope you are all well. Jo Ann Dunham