I think this is Spunky the Ayrshire, edging in on Sassy's photo. Sassy looks appalled, but really she is just chewing her cud and flapping her ears against flies.
Mom pets her cow, Cream Puff, at a neighbor's farm where the Puffster is boarded. Cream Puff is a very friendly cow, she was a pasture pet as a calf as well and would come to the fence to lick us.
Dolly the Ayrshire, running around her newly expanded pen at Mom's. She has her tail held parallel to the ground. A particular challenge of photographing this calf is her almost all-white fur -- the get the exposure right such that she is not overexposed and when there is snow, differentiate her from he background. Still working on it!
Dolly the Ayrshire runs around her pen, into the calf hutch, turns around, and then leaps out to run around the pen again. This photo catches the leap out phase. Dolly is currently being weaned from her bottle & milk replacer.
Dolly the calf infant showing off ears out and ears back looks. Young dairy calves frequently stand like this, they are all bony body and legs and very uncoordinated, whereas beef calves are ready to run early and more compact.
Helena (left) and Rosie (right) cow smooching at Mom's. Critters with majority-dark fur and bright bright sunlight created some exposure issues ... dynamic range compression is doing some work in post-processing here.
Helena (black and white, Holstein) and Rosie (red-brown, Ayrshire) hang out in the pasture at Mom's. They are done with their hay bale and waiting for a new one. In the meantime, Helena takes some bark off a branch and Rosie samples the cedar tree (Juniperus virginiana). Cedars can be a nuisance tree. Deer and cows will munch on them over a winter and curb the trees' spread.
New calf infant! Rita's first calf is about 5 days old in this photo. This calf is almost all white and has very, very long eyelashes.
Nikon D600, 62 mm, 1/160s, f/4.5, ISO 1250, handheld. #CowsOfMastodon#FarmPhotography
Happy Friday! Ruby the Ayrshire calf walking across the pasture at Mom's. My first calf was almost all red, and also named Ruby.
Ayrshires' hair color is described as 'red and white', though yes, not exactly red. This calf has a richer, deeper red than the average Ayrshire. #CowsOfMastodon#FarmPhotography
Mom and her Brown Swiss named Cocoa Puff, at the farm where the Puffster is milked. The neighbors say that Cocoa Puff is 'persnickety' -- she'll only go in the milking parlor on one side, and often will try to push through the gate at the end of the lane in the parlor. But she was great for us in '22 at the cow shows and let Mom approach her in the pasture recently.
Nikon z6ii, 95mm, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 160. #FarmPhotography#CowsOfMastodon
Spunky (R) licks Rita (L) in the pasture. Rita looks like she's LOVING it ... which she probably is! Article below on why bovines lick each other. Both critters are Ayrshire dairy animals.
Rita the Ayrshire uses her tongue to get leaves, or she is scratching the side of her nose, or is she scratching the underside of her neck with that vertical piece of wood, or .... all three? With Rita, it is often hard to tell. She's got a different to us bovine personality. #CowsOfMastodon#FarmPhotography
Rita the Ayrshire has a far away, contented look as she uses an Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) as a scratching post. Good for the cedars: they grow anywhere -- roadsides, terrible soil, good soil, etc.. Good for us: cattle and deer will eat them, so it is seldom that we have to cut them out of pastures. Fence lines ... well, that's another story.
A Guernsey calf at a neighbor's farm. Coincidentally, I talked with someone at a close neighbor's party, and he knew this farm and had some animals there! And we both conceded that Guernseys as a breed are very different from 20 years ago (they were very frail-looking) and also that they 'grow weird'.
Different farms have different ear tag labeling systems .. I'm guessing that 'Bam' is the sire of this calf. #CowsOfMastodon#FarmPhotography
Happy Friday! Buttercream in the pasture at Mom's, with a little blep in the first photo, and some nose wrinkles in irritation at the insects in the second.