Every year I hear from farmers with a calf who just won’t suck. And others, further back the road of hardship, who have one that just won’t stand, usually following a difficult delivery.

There’s no more painstaking a task than nursing, sometimes stomach-tubing, an expensive calf for days on end, often to the torment and frustration of farmer and family.

But nature gives little miracles, and I’ve seen them myself – when you open the shed door and the calf is standing square or sucking away. The Dealer says stay with it and the beast might get there eventually.