Mrs Downs Diary February 11 2009

NEW calves are appearing in the main yard at a rapid rate. For the past week it has been virtually one every day. The bull must have been a busy boy. Very few cows have needed any assistance calving although we had an exciting night with a young heifer a couple of days ago.

John always checks the cows last thing before we go to bed. Which is not late by most peoples standards, but, as we are generally up and about by 5.30am, a bed time of 9.00pm is late enough for us.

John had mentioned that this particular heifer was looking rather uncomfortable. Her bag (the udder) was filling out and she had slackened off around the top of her tail. A sign that the muscles are loosening up to let the calf through.

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At 1.00am we both woke to the sound of loud mooing and bawling from the foldyard. The heifer had decided that a calf born earlier in the day was going to be her child of choice.

She was closely following this calf around the yard and trying to separate it from its real mother. Who was not at all happy about the whole situation and along with her gang of sister cows, was protesting vociferously. And volubly as well. Usually it is sheep who try this game on at lambing time, but cows can do it too.

There was still no sign of the heifer's calf arriving so we walked her into the cattle crush. Within minutes John had felt inside the heifer, attached the calving aid to the calf's feet and delivered the calf which fell with a whump to the ground.

I worry that the drop when a cow is calving upright will damage the calf, but John assures me that it is natures way of imitating the midwifes slap on a baby's bottom. A sharp intake of breath in response to the occurrence ensures that the cow, and in our case, the baby, starts breathing properly. Welcome to the world baby calf.

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The excitement of a calving can stir the herd up. In a confided space this can present problems for any recently born calves that are not yet herd wise enough to get out of the way. As a result, we had to get the vet in this morning to put a pot on the leg of another new born calf which had been trodden on in all the commotion. The pot will be on for about three weeks, but already the calf is walking confidently, in stead of the rather distressing limp it was affecting this morning.

In a week or two all of the silage should have been finished and John can bed up the silage clamp to give the herd more room to spread around in the fold yard. We shall then feed silage in bales in two round cages and, as they will be on straw, there is less chance of the slipping and sliding that takes place in the silage area at the moment. Till then, it's tuck in your tootsies and keep well out of the way of the big girls.