The English Paysanne

A moment from the week at La Singlarie The last calf ( a male) of 2016 was born this afternoon.

It has been a week since one of our cows had her emergency Cesarean and thankfully she is doing really well, she had a bit of a high temperature at the beginning of the week but after two antibiotic injections she will be let out tomorrow to join the herd. Her and her calf who is also absolutely fine and feeding well have been in the hanger for the week to let her get over the operation as the hustle and bustle of herd life may of interfered with her stitches healing, the fight for best position at the hay and with the free range of walking the fields may of been a bit much. Vanille and Bambou have been keeping her company, chatting over the gate. They are a bit fed up being turfed out of the bestest place ever (the hanger), not sure why they love it so much in there and we have had a week of unbroken sleep as those donkeys love to make a noise clanger the metal fences, at least it hasn't rained on them. The calf, another male has had his ear tags put in...

So yesterday our second calf of this year was born, sadly not so easily as the first. Mum went into labour late morning but by 3pm no signs of her progressing appeared, after manoeuvring the herd from one field to another, putting up temporary fencing along the way we managed to get mum into the hanger and called our vet. Saturday afternoons they are shut so we had to wait our turn for the emergency on call vet to come, which he did at 4pm. On examination the calf was very big, to big for her to give birth naturally so an emergency cesarean was on the cards. An operation made a little easier when the cow is standing, this cow once locked down was having none of it and laid down, perhaps a little tired. After trying to push her up and farmer J using a winch we hadn't got very far so the procedure would have to be done with her laying down. The vet asked if we were squemish, twelve years ago I would of said yes but now I can handle most things in the animal way...

Not in this field Or in the woods Did find a ferral cat Not here Or here with the herd There he is Saturday morning we had the first calf of 2016 arrive to a first time mum. if I hadn't seen her licking it I would of said it was a deer in the field (it was far away and my eyesight is starting to deteriorate) but no farmer J went to check it was OK and a calf, which it was and a male. Role on Saturday evening with farmer J ready to place its ear tags in while mum was far enough away. It is best to get the tags in sooner than later as when first born they are a lot easier to handle and if done really quickly they haven't enough time to call out alerting mum, who may be an angry cow and the rest of the herd come running to see what's going on. However this calf was not having any of it, he was really lively already. Best left a while till he calms down and sleeps again. Sunday morning he was no where to be seen, not with mum or in any of t...

A moment from the week at La Singlarie Calves in training.