Farmer Writes: old cow for the hard road and calf for the bottle

The oldest cow in the herd had twin bulls the weekend before last. There’s always a few sets every year and, in some ways, I’d rather not see them.

They’re a bonus when they go right, but create work if something goes wrong or take a lot out of a cow and she can end up slipping in calving date in the two years after having them.

This particular set seemed ok. One was sucking while the other took a bit longer to get up so I gave him powdered colostrum as insurance.

The fact they were bulls was a welcome boost to bull calf numbers because the ratio has been firmly in favour of heifers so far. Put it this way, if I was a dairy farmer using sexed semen to get heifers I’d be delighted with the results.

It’s only a small complaint as once they’re healthy that’s the main thing. Calving is two-thirds of the way now so there’s still hope the numbers will balance out.

They went out to grass last week and all was going well. Then I got a reminder of how ruthless nature can be. For shelter purposes, I gave the cows a run of two fields but moved them on Sunday morning.

I was finishing up the jobs when I spotted one calf left behind so I ended up escorting him back to the main group.

He was lowing for the cow and that triggered the other cows but not his own mother who kept her head down grazing. That was unusual. He finally spotted her but the cow remained uninterested and when he made three attempts to suck he was kicked off each time.

I’ve seen this before. The old cow for the hard road. This cow knew her best chances of survival were to just rear one calf so she abandoned the other twin.

His hunger meant getting him in wasn’t an issue and a bottle of milk with a teat on it meant he followed me the entire way to the shed, thereby beginning a bucket-rearing enterprise.

Good weather

It was a small blip in what has been one of the better Marches I can remember. Cool and dry and it made working in it a pleasure. Even when the bad weather came it was in small doses and for the first time I can recall, heading into the last week of the month, there wasn’t a calf in the shed in March.

This March’s weather was a major plus and with an odd exception, the cow and calf pairs went out to grass within 24 or 48 hours after calving.

The strong northerly and easterly winds of the weekend before last made the working side of the yard bitterly cold. If there were positives, it was that it dried up the heavy rain quickly and also cows and calves were easy to locate as they knew where the shelter was.

Some of the older cows were let out hours after calving. The sun was shining and there was plenty of shelter so out they went.

The heifers wrapped up calving around 24 March and for the most part, they calved within three weeks. Most managed on their own and save for one calf lost due to a leg being down, there was very little intervention. They remain separated at grass from the older cows and just like last year they will remain at home for their first summer rearing calves.

Outside of finishing cattle, the only ones left in the shed are the cows due to calve, the breeding bulls and a few smaller heifers that won’t be bred. They are in the young stock yard and will be brought down home and left graze on the cow block instead.

Convenience meant they were left inside until they were transported down home. There’s grass for now where they are but it’s easier to separate them from the main group this way rather than try and round them all up at short notice.

It’s a small insurance against slow regrowth in grass if conditions remain cool.