I usually really look forward to the start of calving, but when it gets near the end I can’t wait for it to finish. This year is no different.

However, it feels like spring came around very quickly, which is probably because we are using a lot of short-gestation bulls and they all seem to be calving very close to their due date (or even before).

When calving starts, they come thick and fast.

We have six reasonably good calving pens and several more that we only use when the pressure is on.

I like to give the cow and calf three days to bond before moving them into group housing. There are always some that may need a while longer, and a few can be moved quicker.

To date calving has been going reasonably well, with only one major incident.

All the spring cows are calved over an eight-week period, so when we hit peak numbers calving the reality is that some cows might not get moved in time from the communal pen to the calving pens prior to calving.

A freshly calved cow and her calf.

A few weeks ago, I went to check the cows before I went to bed (as I try and do most nights).

On approaching the cattle house, I could hear a lot of noise. Cows were roaring and there seemed to be a calf roaring as well.

In the communal pen there was a cow in the middle of calving. She had the calf about halfway out and the activity was upsetting the other cows.

I tried to get her up so that I could move her to a calving pen, but she refused.

So I gave the calf a little pull and it fell out of the cow. Unfortunately, the calf bed came out straight after.

Family help

At this stage I sent for a little family help. We tried to get the cow up, but she wouldn’t budge.

By now the whole pen of cows was excited, and we couldn’t keep them away from the cow and calf.

Eventually, we decided it would be easier to move the rest of the cows out of the pen so that we could get the calf bed cleaned and put back in.

At the time I was very annoyed and uttered a few choice words, but I’m farming a long time now and I’ve seen a lot of mishaps

They ran us around the pen a few times, but just as we had them all going out one decided she wasn’t leaving, ran back to the other cow and jumped over the top of her.

You can imagine what happened next. She put her foot through the calf bed, causing a gush of blood. The cow was dead in less than five minutes.

At the time I was very annoyed and uttered a few choice words, but I’m farming a long time now and I’ve seen a lot of mishaps.

You wonder about the things you could, or should, have done differently. Then there is the financial value, which was probably well over £1,000.

It would be nice if these types of things never happened, but they do, and they will again. You can’t turn the clock back. You just have to find a way to deal with it and move on.

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