rips…

…and other disturbances…

here comes the rain…

It's raining a lot in our area at the moment, which is good since our forest and some of our higher-lying pastures were starting to show signs of drying out. “Drying out” is otherwise not much of a problem on our farm, but other farms in the area was worse hit and the forest was becoming tinder-dry almost everywhere. So, for once we welcome the rain.

The rain was probably even more welcome a couple of hours drive further east, where the biggest forest fire since World War 2 finally was put out. A real soaking of the forest-floor is necessary to make sure it stays out.

new life on our farm…

Three new calves arrived this week, and that finalizes this year's calving-season.

Calving took place outdoors for all three, which means we didn't watch it happen. Cows are excellent mothers so “calving out” is rarely ever a problem – for calf and cow. What is sometimes a problem is finding the cow and calf within a reasonable timeframe, and bring them back to the barn.

There are plenty of hide-away places on our farm, and a cow naturally seeks out a place where she won't be disturbed by us or the other cows while in labor and when she takes care of her new-born. All well and good, but that usually means calving takes place in the least accessible places.

We should ideally not find or at least not disturb them too early, since the cow can feed and take care of her calf a lot better than any human can during those critical first few hours.

If we move them too early the calf may not have received enough of the life-giving first milk from its mother, and may therefore get a bad start in life. If we wait too long we may end up with wild calves running around in the scrub and woodland on our farm, and those can be pretty hard to catch.

A well-fed and groomed calf that can walk quite a distance home to the barn alongside its mother, means we got the timing just right. The first calf, born on Sunday 14th, did just that. The cow only took an hour or so to walk and graze her way home – a stretch of around 600 meters, with the calf stumbling around her and catching a meal now and then. Nice, short, Sunday trip.

The two calves born on Wednesday 18th walked at least parts of the way home.
We found the first one around noon in a hide-out not too far from the barn. This calf was only one, maybe two, hours old when we found them, so we waited a while to make sure the calf was well feed and strong enough for the walk home. It took over 2 hours to span the around 400 meters to the barn, with the calf having several meal-breaks along the way. A quiet walk apart from being hindered a bit by some curious spectators, the other cows, that followed us the last part of the way.

The last mother with calf was found pretty late in the evening, as she had hidden in one of the furthest and most inaccessible areas of the farm. This was her first calving, but I can tell you: she had done a pretty good job of finding a sheltered place and taking care of her calf. It was raining heavily, so once we had cleared the woods we shortened the walk and provided Gator-transportation so we could get indoors before midnight. Pretty hard to make a feisty half-a-day old Jersey/NRF calf lay still in the back of a Gator that jumps around on uneven cow-paths, but apart from that it all went well with the calf and its mother. We were soaking wet though – life is wonderful.

So for a few days now we have to focus on things like feeding calves by hand while training them to drink from milk-feeders. Feeding and care is critical for these small creatures right now, so we can't leave anything to chance.

We must also keep a watchful eye on their mothers to make sure they are doing alright, and there's the training of the new cow so she becomes familiar with the milking-routines. Nine cows in production as of today, and that's peak number on our small farm.

Five somewhat older calves occupy the calf pen, and they also need plenty of food and lots of attention. With a total of 19 animals at the moment (cats not counted) it is all “business as usual” around here. Dealing with these animals will however never become “just routine” to us.

sincerely 

Hageland 19.jun.2008
last rev: 19.jun.2008