Cow Birth

Yesterday we got a call from the local dairy farmer saying that a calf was about to be born. I have been waiting for an opportunity to observe this, but for the past few months it seemed to happen when I was unavailable. Tonight lucky for us, for the dairy farmer, and (maybe) for the calf.

The farmer called me earlier in the day to alert me, but I was taking a customer to the top of a mountain so could not rush over to the dairy farm. As it turned out, the cow did not give birth as early as they expected and we got another call around 8pm. We hopped on our bikes and sped to the dairy farm with camera in hand. Once we arrived we waited and waited and chatted with the farmer and his seven year old daughter for over an hour before the dairy farmer's father came in to check on why the cow had not given birth yet. He just walked in, rolled up his sleeve, and plunged his hand into the cow up to his armpit. Within seconds he announced that it was a male calf - not what the farmer wanted to hear because this was a high-producing cow and they had paid more to have high quality bull sperm in the hopes of making another milk machine.

He announced that they would have to help the delivery as the calf was turned in the wrong direction. Now the younger farmer grabbed a belt and reached in to attach it to the calf's legs. He pulled as his father attached the other end of the belt to a winch and they proceeded to winch the calf out. There were several minutes where only the feet were showing, then suddenly the entire calf literally popped out and was laying on the floor before I even know what was going on. The placenta was still wrapped around the calf, which means that had the cow given birth later in the night, when the farmer was not there, there is a good chance that the calf would have suffocated. The farmer and his daughter (seven years old, remember) jumped into action and began wiping the calf clean - something that the mother usually does by licking it. In this case, they were more worried about the mother getting enough calcium, as with hard labors like this the mother often gets too week to stand and can die as well.

Apparently, we saved the calf's life. Had we not been there to watch, the farmer and his wife would have left when it appeared that the cow would not give birth - expecting it to give birth in the middle of the night.