We got a bit of a surprise today...

As usual, Dad and I went out to bring the cows down from pasture and start milking this morning. Nothing out of the ordinary. It is a dairy farm after all.

I started putting down the mornings feed for all the ladies, while Dad went out to trail them into the barn yard, which sort of works as a holding area until we are ready to let them into the barn. Just as I was finishing up my work he came in and went well that heifer of your Mom's is calving, but I think it is hip locked so we have to go help her. He went back out, and came right back in, apparently she wasn't locked up because Encore (the cow) had finished having her before he could walk back up.

We were running late by that point so we quick put the cows in and I went up to check Momma and baby to see if all was well and find out if we got a heifer or a bull (was REALLY hoping heifer it was). Momma was up and baby was working on figuring out the whole four on the floor concept.

And here is the surprise...Encore is a big black and white beast of a Holstein 3 year old. She was carrying a calf by our Milking Shorthorn bull Promise. To date we had only had 2 red calves by him. One is Broadway, the other was a bull. There was no reason to think Encore was a red factor gene carrier. Well guess what...

Baby girl is the brilliant deep mahogany color of the Shorthorn. With white spots on her legs and face. I am thrilled. Mom and I have been hoping for another red girl since we got Broadway. Now we have one. A second plus to this is that now we know both Encore and her momma England have to be red gene carriers. That is so cool! I think I will see is Mom will let me service them both to a red bull...Maybe we can get some more red Holsteins!

I will try and remember to take my camera out tonight. This is one baby I wanna share with the world!