Having a new calf born here isn't generally a great event, usually we go out and find one of the cows has delivered and the calf feeding contentedly, but in early January we had a more dramatic event. Zippy our 16 month old heifer had been showing signs of pregnancy. Our fault for not getting rid of the bull on time, but we had hoped to breed all the cows and sell him before any of the younger heifers came on heat. Dick has been talking for a while about what we would do when her time came, believing that she was too small to deliver the calf, and as we had nowhere suitable for the vet to do a ceasarian.... he spoke of having the 22 ready in case she was suffering too much.
One afternoon Rhianon was down near the barn and I thought I heard her call out "Sniffy [a goat] is in labor", "OK, OK I called out, I'll be down there soon". So I finished the chores I was doing and went down there to be confronted by my daughter who seemed somewhat annoyed at my tardiness, then I discovered that she had called out "Zippy is in labor". I checked and sure enough there was one hoof showing, and a distressed, exhausted heifer. I sent Rhianon to get Dick and while she was gone I got the calf puller ready. When he arrived he said to let her work a bit more then if things didn't progress we would try to help her. After about half an hour the other front hoof was visible and Dick tied bailing twine around both hooves, while Nathan steadied the calf puller in position Dick reeled the calf out as Zippy pushed. We were all amazed to see that calf slip out, alive and well and within minutes up on his feet asking mom for a feed. So we had a happy ending to what could, or rather should have been a disaster.
The next day Roberta [32 months old] had her first calf, I was begining to wonder if she would ever have a calf, she's a rather stocky cow so it was hard to figure out if there was a calf in there or whether it was just her. Her calf had problems from the start and we only saw him feeding once, he fell a couple of times and may have injured himself as he had a big lump on his jaw, he died three days later and Roberta was very obviously distressed by it. When I watch as an animal mournes the loss of it's baby or even it's own Mother it makes me somewhat uncomfortable with the thought of sending the male animals off to market one day, but that is just a fact of farm life.
Sue Gallien
Zippy with her two day old calf.
Roberta with her day old calf.
Below is what Rhianon wrote about those two days events...
I thought that today would be the same as any other day but as things turned out it was better than most. When I went outside after Mom and Dick got back from getting the food waste I went down to the barn to visit the goats, but I heard a struggling noise in the corner of the barn, it sounded somewhat like a cow. I was right, I went over there and it was Zippy, a young heifer struggling to have a calf. I turned on the barn light, then went out and shouted to Mom and Nathan "Zippy is trying to have a calf." About five minutes later Mom came down and asked "Which goat is giving birth?" I said "NO! Not a goat, Zippy", she replied "Oh no, I thought you said Sniffy", then I told her 'She's over in the corner." Mom looked at her and asked me to go and get Dick, "OK" I replied. I ran up to the hoop house to get him, he was in the back-hoe, he stopped it and said, "you're going to have a heart attack!" I told him "Zip is having a calf and the feet are already out”." Dick replied "the chances of getting it out of there are..." he hesitated "LOW". We went down to the barn, then I came to get Nathan, I said "We need your help with Zip" he responded, "ZIP! I thought you said Sniffy." He went to the barn and I followed with bailing twine.
Dick was just heading out of the barn and we chased a bull away into the paddock. When I arrived at the barn I asked Mom what Dick was doing, she told me “]that he's getting a light. He returned with a light with a long orange cable, which I plugged in to two outlets but they didn't work, so Nathan plugged it in to one that I couldn't reach. We just watched Zippy for a while, and then Dick tied the bailing twine around the calf's ankles and pulled as Zippy pushed. After a while Dick used the calf puller, as Nathan held it in position. It worked! In no time the calf was out. It was a boy and we put shredded paper and fresh hay into the corner of the barn and put a gate across so no other cattle could get in with them. Because it was so cold Nathan went to the house and got a bucket of warm water for Zippy to drink. The calf is black with a really little white spot on his forehead.
The next day I had just been out playing with the goats and checking on the new calf. Then I was just about to go sledding when I heard Dick's whistle, I looked at him, he was moving the round bale feeder, he called out "Roberta is calving." I went up to him and looked, we decided to let her try by herself for a while because it was lunchtime. After eating we went out to check on her again, she was showing no signs of distress so we left her alone. Dick asked me to check on her frequently while he and Mom were getting the food waste. The third time I went out to check on her I saw as the calf just fell out of her. It's a boy too, he's just black.
