It appears my lucky streak at calving the last couple of seasons is over.

The 2026 calving season has started horribly, with a cocktail of awkward calvings along with two Caesarean sections and a visit from the dead lorry – it has all led to a bit of head scratching.

Like most years, the first calf came as a surprise, arriving in the cubicle house. It really shouldn’t have been as the heifers were all inseminated nine months earlier – hopefully next year I’ll remember to put them in the calving pen a bit quicker.

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Next came the caesareans. A first-time-calving heifer was the first culprit, with the calf’s head back.

However, the head wasn’t simply to one side – instead it was positioned over the top of the back.

The vet was called and arrived promptly, but he had no luck getting everything to line up.

A quick discussion and a few choice words concluded with the side door being the best option.

Relief

At that stage my initial feeling was one of relief because I find nothing more annoying than not being able to make progress with an awkward calving, yet the vet appears, says hello to the cow and pulls a healthy calf out successfully.

I appreciate years of training, a lifetime of experience and skills are involved with the vet, but I also like to think of myself as an experienced stockman and don’t like to admit defeat.

That short-lived relief was followed by the usual gather up of hot water and a makeshift table.

Questions

The section couldn’t have happened at a better time as it was half term holidays for the kids.

They came out to see what we initially thought was a simple calving and ended up getting a VIP ticket to live theatre.

They had a blast and were able to ask lots of questions. However, my favourite from the list was actually not related to the actual event but instead, “how do you turn a bull into a bullock?”

That question had been delegated to Grandad earlier in the day – he had tried his best to answer appropriately, although my youngest informed him that it wasn’t a very good answer. With a vet on site, they saw their opportunity to get a professional view.

The section went well, apart from a dead calf and the heifer is doing fine.

Round two

The next evening was round two, although this was one was more mind boggling.

There were two feet but not a lot else and which two was difficult to determine.

Subsequently the vet was called again with a different guy coming to the rescue.

A brief investigation concluded that a front foot and a back foot were coming so again the side door was the option.

We slickly produced the gather up of everything from the previous night.

This section was trickier and I would say tougher on the cow.

The animal is grand but I don’t she’ll add anything to the six-week calving rate in 2027.

With the sections over, then came the breeches (tail presented first), calves coming backwards, along with slow lazy calvers – it has all led to higher losses than desired.

Reasons

Cows are a bit fat but I’ve been trying to manage that with straw, hay and lean rations through the dry period.

However, I may have taken the brakes off a bit prematurely and I’ll try and remember not to next year.

But beef-bred calves do seem bigger than previous years, even though they are the same short-gestation, easy-calving, proven bulls used in other years.

I have discussed it with a neighbour who also said he had several breeches this past calving season, while another friend said his calves are bigger than usual – those discussions do give a bit of reassurance.

Hopefully next year, my lucky streak will return on the back of a few tweaks in dry cow management.