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I am in the middle of calving my autumn cows, which started at the end of July and is due to finish in early September.
It would probably be more accurate to call them late summer calvers, but not when you consider the atrocious weather we have been having.
Over the years, I have pulled the calving period back so that most of them are calving in August, thinking that the weather would be better then. It’s certainly not working out that way. This is the third year in a row that August has been one of the worst months of the year.
What I usually find is that if the calving goes without problems, then it is guaranteed that there will be issues afterwards
However, it does not seem to bother the cows that much. Generally, they all calve outside and they get on with it, no matter what the weather.
Coming into the last week in August, I am three-quarters of the way through. Most have calved themselves and the majority have calved at night.
Summer mastitis has not been an issue this year, even though I have not done anything different from other years. I have tried to stay on top of fly treatment, and it seems to have worked. Or maybe I have just been lucky.
Problems
But not everything runs without difficulties. What I usually find is that if the calving goes without problems, then it is guaranteed that there will be issues afterwards.
The first heifer calved by herself (a nice bull calf), but ran away from it. We tried bringing her back, but she was not having any of it.
We had to bring her into the house and catch her in the headlock so that the calf could get a suck.
The next day she was completely mad about the calf and would not let us near it. We tagged the calf and let them out to the field, and the pair have been fine ever since.
I also had two more cows that had to be brought into the yard to give them a little assistance with calving, but it was nothing too serious.
Second heifer
Then, about 10 days ago, I had another heifer calving. She calved all by herself, but that was the only good thing she did. She started pushing the calf around, including under the electric wire. I kept pushing it back into her, but she kept shoving it out again.
Once I put the calf in with her, she started beating and kicking it again
Eventually I had to give in and bring her into the house. I put her in a calving pen with the calf, but that was only the start of my problems. She insisted on hitting the calf with her head and kicking it if it went near the udder. I put her in the head lock but there was no way I was going to try and get colostrum from her.
We gave her some meal and pushed the calf in the direction of the udder. Eventually, after several kicks, the calf got a hold of the teats and got a suck. When I let the cow loose, she still insisted on either kicking or head butting the calf.
So, I decided to put the calf in the next pen to keep it safe during the night. Next morning, she was looking for it, so I thought it was going to be OK, but I was wrong. Once I put the calf in with her, she started beating and kicking it again. So it was back into the head lock and I eventually got it to suck.
No progress
I struggled on with this a few more times, but I was not making any progress.
If anything, things were getting worse and she was getting rougher with the calf. I was afraid that she was going to seriously hurt it.
It is the first time in my farming career that I have had a cow that would not take her own calf
I had enough of this. I put the cow back out to the field and kept the calf in the house and decided to rear it on powdered milk.
The heifer is out of a really good cow and bull, but that did not matter. I am getting too old for this kind of torture.
I will fatten her up and if I happen to have another cow that can rear the calf, then I will try that. Otherwise, I will just rear it on artificial milk.
It is the first time in my farming career that I have had a cow that would not take her own calf. I tried my best, but it did not work out.
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