When guests come to visit, Craig introduces them to all of the herd cows by name. And that leads everyone to ask, “How can you tell them apart?” Well, the simple answer is the same as your answer to this question, “How do you tell your friends from each other?” Because they all have individual characteristics that are unique to them. Of course, if you aren’t used to looking for those characteristics, they’re hard to see (I have Caucasian friends that tell me they can’t tell Asians apart, and I have Asian friends who tell me that all white folks look the same :). It’s just a matter of knowing how to look for those differences. So I figured I’d do a series showing how we identify our buffs!

Brand new baby – can’t see horns but you can feel them (if mom would let you)
And since horns are probably the characteristic that most folks look at first, we’ll start there with a look at age classes. And to do that, let’s begin at the beginning. The calves!
The one sleeping on the left is a newborn. If you could touch the top of her head, you would feel the tiniest little bumps that will become her horns. And you would really feel some horns when her mom caught you doing that!
The next calf picture (sniffing my fingers) has little horn buds that are just showing up above the curly wool.
The little black faced “red” calf is about 4 months old,
and the last is a six month old calf. I think their little horns make them look like devils!

You can just see the little horn buds (this baby is about a month old)

This is a 4 month old calf (they’re not usually still red when we have snow on the ground, but this was an October calf!)

And here is a six month old calf, looking a little “devilish”!
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