The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Some days farming is just hard. The weather lately (between storms, flooding rains, and chilly temps again) has made it no picnic, but all in all everything was going fairly well even through the challenges.

This morning there were two more new calves, bringing us to 23. After church and lunch, I gathered eggs (the chickens are going gangbusters now, so that’s a job in itself…especially in the muddy conditions 😜), then met dad at the barn to take two more round bales to the dry cows and heifers, and salt/ACV to both groups. While on the way I had noticed it looked like Aviv was trying to have her calf. We stopped at the milk cows first and while there I noticed Shasta too was having a calf. Except I soon saw that the two feet sticking out were upside down 😕. Which can mean the calf is coming backwards, or forwards and upside down. Backwards especially is rough bc the calf can basically drown in the amniotic fluid if not born quickly enough.

So we used a polywire to get her out of the field and decided to bring Aviv too just in case she needed assistance bc I hadn’t seen any feet yet. Neither were very cooperative, but we finally got them in the barn and ran Shasta in the chute where we could discern the calf’s presentation. Those were back feet, so we put the chains on and started pulling. It wasn’t an easy pull, but finally the calf came out. Despite lifting her upside down by the back legs to drain fluid and beating on her chest, it appeared as though the life was already gone. No heartbeat.

We pulled the calf out of the way and let Shasta out of the chute so she could at least still lick her baby off, then brought Aviv over to see what was going on with her. The reason why there were no feet visible was because this calf was backwards too, but the back legs were bent at the hock. So I had to push the baby in as far as I could and maneuver one leg up at a time so we could pull the baby out. Thankfully this calf was a tad smaller and easier to pull, but alas, it was too late for this one as well 😢.

Two little heifers lost in one day. Two different bulls sired the calves. Very odd that both births were presenting wrong on the same day at the same time! I had not remembered to bring them a refill of salt and ACV for a couple days with all the rain and mud to deal with, so I don’t know if that affected them in some way, or if the wonky weather did it, just a happen so, or maybe an example of the enemy coming to steal, kill and destroy. 

Whatever the cause, God is still good, things could be worse, and life goes on, but it’s still sad. 

I had been washing eggs for a while after all this transpired and stepped outside to grab a box from the storage shed when I looked up on the hill at the cows and noticed that yet ANOTHER cow, Talitha, appeared to be starting to have a calf!

It was already after 7:30, the eggs weren’t done, and supper was still a pipe dream 😬. But I put away the eggs that were already packaged and walked up to check Talitha’s progress, hoping, praying and declaring that this calf was coming correctly!

I didn’t want to get too close and disturb her, so I had to wait a while to see enough progress to know that yes, there were two feet and a nose this time. Thank you Jesus! She was able to have him on her own, but he was a little bigger fella so it took a bit longer than some have this spring. 

I told everyone else before I came in from the pasture to keep those babies inside tonight! We’ll find out in the morning how well they listened 😉. 

At least we’re over halfway done with calving now…pretty crazy when you consider the first due date was 5 days ago!