I love calving season. Besides the obviously cute calves, I love the way I can get really close to the cows on an individual basis. Don’t worry, I’m not about to go soft and treat my animals as pets. I find it important to have mutual trust working so closely with animals.

On the minus side it involves long irregular hours. It involves a lack of sleep and missing out on some activities off farm. Every farmer needs an understanding family and friends and a bit of leeway from the Farm Centre. Well okay, that last bit might be a little different.

It’s when things go wrong the pressure is really felt. Calving had been progressing nicely and the jack continued to gather dust. Then at the start of this week I had four stillbirths in a 24 hour period, one being a tough pull and another needing a vet. It was a real mystery. Why this sudden outbreak, and mostly first calvers too? I delivered the lot to the Department of Agriculture lab in Cork. The only way to get value for a loss is a proper post mortem.

Since I would be waiting for results I was recommended to top up the selenium and iodine levels even though I was feeding full rate pre-calver minerals. Apparently the first and second calvers would be the first to show deficiency. I stayed at home from a meeting on Tuesday night to give the mineral booster shots. There was another stillbirth Wednesday morning but none since.

Calving an already dead calf can present problems for the cow too so there’s three getting a little TLC away from the main herd. One sick cow can take the same time as twenty others but it should be worth it in the long run. Having minded them from their own birth, I want to give them every opportunity now.

Personally it really wrecked my head. Stress is a serious problem and in a situation like this it is easy to lose focus. That’s when things can go really wrong with jobs not completed and accidents. Hopefully I’m through the worst now and can get back to enjoying the cows and the calving season.