Big cow day - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Wednesday 22 October, 2014

by Rosemary at 5:54pm in Cattle Comments closed

Phew, vet’s office called this morning to say he’d be here at 9.30am. I expected (hoped) we’d be the last call of the day.

The cattle came in fine; the four cows were haltered and tied up with some hay; the three calves were haltered and left to throw them selves around (well, Rosie was OK as she’s been haltered before) and Charlie was put out in the field with some hay as he was being a pain in the tonsils and trying to mount the others that were tied up. Always has an eye out for the main chance, does Charlie.

First job was castrating Hamish; we secured him behind a hurdle up against the wall; local in and job done in less than a minute. In his thrashing around though, he’d knocked off a horn, so Alistair put in a local, snipped it off with BIG SCARY SNIPPER THINGS and cauterized the blood vessels. Poor Hamish. Not one of his best days ☹

Then the two heifer calves, Rosie and Sunny, were jagged to stop any unwanted pregnancy. That was easy.

Next, Alistair had a look at Charlie’s eye; he has a growth on the bottom eyelid. He also has warts on his chin – all the cows have them, usually on their udders and they disappear once they calve. Yep, a wart – so no treatment required as they’re not bothering him.

Then on to the main event - the scanning of the four cows to see if they are in calf. We just had them tied up with some hay and they were pretty much fine. Once the scanner is inside, the cow seems to relax and stand still. Alistair’s got a brand new scanner, which is dead neat; it’s about the size of a paperback book and fits in a wee harness that goes over his shoulder. The old one was big and we had to balance it on a wheelie bin (right height), which always made me a bit nervous. These bits of kit are expensive ☺

So, Breeze first, then Bonnie, Annie and finally, Blizzard. All in calf!!! So pleased. Storm went in with them on 23rd July, giving an earliest possible calving of 2nd May 2015.

That's Breeze's calf (apparently!)

From the scans, it looks like they are all due about the same time – and on Storm’s previous form, he’ll have caught them right away.

These will be Breeze and Blizzard’s fourth calves, Annie’s second and Bonnie’s first. Delighted that they’re all well. Just shows that fat cows do get in calf though ☺