Mrs Down's Diary

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.

For full story see West Sussex Gazette February 4

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