Calf Born in Arkansas Winter Storm Reunited with Mom, Both OK
By: KARK 4 News
Updated: February 25, 2013
GREENWOOD, AR - Life is back to normal on a Northwest Arkansas cattle ranch after some excitement last week.
Besides the snow, sleet and freezing rain of a winter storm, Thursday also saw a mother cow go into labor, delivering a calf that she struggled to keep warm.
When owner Doug Russell saw the shivering little one, he and wife Ann turned the mudroom of their Greenwood home into a temporary nursery.
The next day, mother and baby were reunited and both are doing fine.
"The Russells told me mom and baby are together and doing very well," Jesse Bocksnick, Sebastian County extension agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said Monday.
The mother of the unnamed baby boy did her best to provide shelter after giving birth near an old barn. Doug Russell found them while out feeding his other cattle.
"Baby was in house for about four hours. We dried him with a heating pad for a large dog, my hair dryer and towels and gave him some milk," Ann Russell said last Thursday. The calf "was a good housemate. He stayed laid down 90 percent of the time. Once he got warm he decided to get up. He went outside shortly after that."
The couple moved the calf into the barn under a heat lamp and his mother joined him a short time later.
February 22, 2013 - REUNITED -- A calf, born during a winter storm, Feb. 21, 2013, is reunited with his mom a day later. The calf's owners, Doug and Ann Russell of Greenwood, made a temporary nursery in their mudroom to help the baby get warm and dry. He was reunited with his mother a day later. (Photo courtesy: Doug and Ann Russell)
February 21, 2013 - BIG BABY -- This little guy, born Feb. 21, 2013, during a winter storm, spent his part of his first day in his owner's mudroom to warm up. (Photo courtesy Doug and Ann Russell)
Source: University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service
Besides the snow, sleet and freezing rain of a winter storm, Thursday also saw a mother cow go into labor, delivering a calf that she struggled to keep warm.
When owner Doug Russell saw the shivering little one, he and wife Ann turned the mudroom of their Greenwood home into a temporary nursery.
The next day, mother and baby were reunited and both are doing fine.
"The Russells told me mom and baby are together and doing very well," Jesse Bocksnick, Sebastian County extension agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said Monday.
The mother of the unnamed baby boy did her best to provide shelter after giving birth near an old barn. Doug Russell found them while out feeding his other cattle.
"Baby was in house for about four hours. We dried him with a heating pad for a large dog, my hair dryer and towels and gave him some milk," Ann Russell said last Thursday. The calf "was a good housemate. He stayed laid down 90 percent of the time. Once he got warm he decided to get up. He went outside shortly after that."
The couple moved the calf into the barn under a heat lamp and his mother joined him a short time later.
Source: University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service
