Calving Musings

Having always calved indoors in February, we were all very much looking forward to calving outdoors in April. I imagined myself whizzing around on the quad bike in the sunshine checking the girls, just as I had done the last few years lambing in April, the energy of spring countering the early mornings and late evenings. Instead, we started calving two weeks early (we hadn’t realised native Angus have a shorter gestation period) in the middle of March and indoors, with the rain, wind and hail around us.

Livestock farming takes you to the highest highs and the lowest lows, especially when calving, being so close to life and death. I really felt this in our first week of calving, when we had our first (and touch wood only) case of Schmallenberg, which is an insect borne disease which results in the calf being deformed. The knock on effect is you will always lose the calf, and may lose the mother as she will need assistance calving and there may even be a hefty vet bill to top things off. In our case, our very experienced Farm Manager Paul, with the help of Dan and I, managed to pull the calf out of the heifer without the vet and without injuring her, but it was still pretty awful, and it then made us worry how many more there would be.

I was on duty the following weekend, and one of our girls calved but her teats were too large for the calf to latch. I brought her into our smaller calving pen and she let me first check all four quarters were working and then let me and the calf muddle through trying to latch. I was cautious at first, but by the end I was head under the udder trying all sorts of things to get the calf to suck, and watching the calf latch for the first time was the most incredible feeling. The cow’s trust to let me so close with her calf was incredible, and a first I will not forget (664 is now my favourite cow).

As I write this, we are well over half way through calving and the oldest have been tuned out into the fields. Seeing the calves play and jump around brings so much joy, and now we wait for the weather to catch up with the season.