Welcome...

“If this was America I’d be a Cowboy...which would possibly be a bit cooler!”

Friday 11 November 2011

My name is...


Well done to Alec Roxburgh for his winning suggestion. Thanks to him, this pedigree calf has been named after the epic ice-cream treat introduced into the market by Walls (now Unilever) back in the early eighties and still available at Iceland and Asdarr in a range of radioactive colours and flavours! (Yes I know its quite tasty, in a "dirty-secret" kind of way, but it doesn't really contain any dairy products, just a load of shite and E numbers - the complete opposite to its namesake here!!!)


Commiserations and thanks for the other suggestions.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Where the f**k did that come from!?!

Life is full of surprises, as the cliché goes. However prepared and organised I may seem on here, the truth is that sometimes as with all of us, things come out of the blue, or out of a cow’s vagina in this case, in the form of a calf. On Sunday morning I saw something rather odd in the top yard. I wiped my eyes and tried to home in on what I thought I saw, and indeed, a randy little bull calf was “taking advantage” of a fresh born little calf as it attempted to suckle from its mother. Naturally it collapsed as it was barely able to take its own weight, let alone the full weight its pervy brother rutting away. My first, flash-thought when I saw all this was that it was actually a co-joined mutation having a fit, so I was actually pleased how things turned out. Nature is a strange thing. Of course we separated the new calf and its mother and they are out of danger now.

We have a female calf to name therefore – so get naming! All suggestions welcome, beginning with “V”. (See the list of names we already have in the “Name That Calf” blog posted on 8th August). I wasn’t expecting another calf quite so early, but as we had a calf in December last year, it makes sense. A cow can come back “on heat” at around seven weeks after giving birth and has the same gestation period as human cows and so if you “do the math” it makes sense, ie, last year’s calf was born on 20th December, seven weeks later is early Feb – add 9 months and here we are.

In-House

The more attentive among you may have worked out that the animals are now inside and separated across various yards and spaces. We did this last Thursday and Friday as we were aware that the weather was likely to break and that the ground was already getting slushy. This is to be avoided, as trampling by hefty animals damages the grass roots and creates an uneven surface hindering re-growth. Given that the nutritional value of the sparse remaining grass is particularly low at this time of year, the decision was made. We had fed the animals with a few bales of silage in the fields but the fields were beginning to resemble a quagmire. This is because most of the Weald consists of a deep top layer of clay and unlike sandstone or chalky soil it doesn’t drain so well. The only problem with animals being inside is that its too warm. I say this because these warm, damp, still days we are experiencing are the perfect conditions in which pneumonia can thrive. It is a real threat, so we need to be all the more attentive and ensure that the yards are as clean, dry and muck free as possible. Any sign of a listless animal and we'll call the vet immediately. I just bloody hope it gets cold, pronto!

We always wean the calves at the same time as bringing them in. Its easier and less stressful all round. So, we now have 4 main yards and two separated areas plus a cow and new calf in a separate pen and a calf with a pulled rear leg muscle in another pen to ensure it doesn’t get bullied and is able to get to its feed. Here’s what we have:

Yard 1 - 14 cows + one calf (Vegas, the randy little sod!) and one bull, Robin

Yard 2 – 16 recently weaned calves

Yard 3 – 12 cows + one bull, Monarch

Yard 4 – 8 heifers from last year, approx 20 months old

Straw Pen – 4 steers/bullocks from last year

Crush Pen – cow + newborn

Box 3 – injured heifer calf

Bull Pen – A young bull, soon off to market + a steer to keep him company

Total = 60

I suppose I did this list to give you a bit of an idea of what we are dealing with really. Also, each yard and pen has different feeding requirements and each needs to be bedded up with straw and scraped out by the feed racks most days, so there’s no blanket formula for feeding etc and its pretty time-consuming. Yards 1 and 2 are full of, hopefully, in-calf cows and so need to be closely monitored as well. If last Sunday was anything to go by, I’ve got my work cut out!