Naming Calves

It is one of my jobs to name the heifer calves born on the farm. We need to do this because we register our cows so there is a record of their blood lines, which makes them worth more.

The first calves I named were also the first ones I saw born. They were twin heifers, named Speedy and Pokey because one was fast and one was slow. Original, I know. Then there came a calf who liked to jump over the top of the pen we had her in inside the machine shed. I named her jumpstart. And the process evolved from there. Pretty soon I discovered that it might be easier if I came up with "lines" of cow names. We had a cow named Vail, which just screams to be made into a line of ski resorts. Snowmas, Aspen, Hogadon all come from that line. A cow named Jade wanted to become a line of precious stones. Her offspring include Ruby, Pearl and Sapphire. You get the idea.

For a little while now I have been running short on different lines and even names within lines. For example, we now have a line of vegetables. I just named a calf Radish the other day. And the line of different bears is going to have to change soon. There really aren't very many of those. Another calf I named the other day is Adda for Adams like Grizzly Adams because her mom's name is Grizzly. See how far I'm having to stretch that one?

Here are a few pictures of some of our newly named calves.

This is Rhubarb. Her mom is an unregistered cow. Her sisters are Keylime and Coconut. She has one niece named Peach. She is part of the "pies" line.

The calf standing in the center of this picture is Nola. Her mom is Nadine. She doesn't have any sisters, but she has a great-grandma, grandma, aunts and cousins on the farm: Nellie, Niomi, Nicole and Nora. The calf standing to the side is Radish, whom I mentioned earlier. Her mom is an unregistered cow and she has a sister, Beet.

This is Spritz. Her mom is Sprinkle, her grandma is Teardrop, and her great-grandma is an unregistered cow. She has other family here including Pint, Ounce, Rain and Stormy.

And this is Rome. Her mom is Jumpstrt and her sister is Paris.