16th September, 2023

Today was a classic Nasty Spring. Filthy weather, sleet, cold, wind fit to tear the roof off.

I fed the calves before work, which was crazy busy. What is it with bad weather bringing people out ? I can't think of anywhere better to be than home in bad weather. At least it was a short shift, 10am to 2pm. I milked when I got home, then had a cup of tea while I thought about what to do for the critters.

I figured the weather was going to keep the cattle and sheep under shelter and limit their time for grazing, which is fine for some of the fatties, they have enough blubber to hibernate. But the two heavily pregnant cows are under more pressure as the calf leaves little room for grass and they have to eat little and often. So I put out some hay for each of the groups closer to the house and then took two small bales up to the pregnant girls, only to find Jaffa wasn't with them. Which could only mean one thing.

Jaffa's water had broken when I got there, so I checked and the hoofs were huge, which was worrying because she is well overweight and nothing I do has ever dropped a kilo off her. Know the feeling ... Anyway, she was pushing so hard she was on her side with all four legs off the ground. I went to get the phone in case I had to call the vet and this is what I found when I got back.

Clearly sired by Jason's young speckle park bull, Rocky. The yellow colour is merconium, which is an indicator of a hard birth. The calf looked fine and alert though, and was keen to get up.

The calf was quite large, probably over 40kg. It took two of us to load it into a wheelbarrow to get it and Jaffa up to the sheep shelter, because the weather wasn't any good for a newborn on the exposed hillside that mum seemed to think might make a good birthplace.

Once settled in the shelter I checked underneath and was surprised to find the calf is a heifer ! Very large for a girl. She got right into looking for dinner and it wasn't long before she was filled up. It's always a good feeling when they latch on and you know things are probably going to be ok.

I had been going to feed out the hay, feed the chooks and collect eggs, then order pizza from the new place. As it was, after all the calf kerfuffle it was too late for that and we had chicken and prawn hotpots made up from leftovers. I thought briefly about going out to get icecream, but there comes a point when you need to batten the hatches and once the power started to flicker I just went and gave the calves their night feed and fed the dogs and hopped in for a lovely long hot shower.