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[endless_kaoru]

My dad had me out to help with a rough calving today -- the heifer had cast herself (that is, rolled over in such a way as she couldn't get up and was compressing her lungs) and the calf had one front leg cocked funny, so she was having a hard time delivering it. So we rolled her over, tied some ropes onto the calf's legs, and pulled it out.

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[endless_kaoru]

I tried to take a pic, but all I had was my cell phone, and the mama cow is renowned for being quite protective. Plus, Mr. T, our bull, was pretty fussy about us messing with his heifer, so I didn't want to push him and mess around with another one.
I'll have to wait a few days until she calms down, and I can get my camera out there with a zoom lens.

We don't normally get many stillbirths and whatnot. We have a hard of... I think it's a bit over 100 now. Nine births so far this season, and we've only had issues with two -- the one I mentioned, and another heifer decided that she was going to reject her calf (she won't feed it, and now has a problem with her udders because of it. Stupid thing. It's still healthy though -- it runs around and suckles off all the other heifers. We're hoping that the one that lost her calf today will adopt the orphaned one.).
Last year, there was only one lost calf that I can recall -- it was born late in the season and we're not sure if it was stillborn or froze. There was another one that got trampled, but it lived -- just always had it's head cocked to the side.

[haine_otomiya86]

I love how your bull is named Mr. T. Awesome!

[endless_kaoru]

Actually, I have no idea what his name is, or even if he has one. He's just our rent-a-bull for this season. But he's a black angus with a mohawk and an attitude. This means that he must be called Mr. T. (That, and our last three bulls were called "Ferdinand" and I got bored of that name, so I declared him the first name that came to mind before anyone had a chance to call him Ferdinand.)