(Untitled)

[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.

Comments

[bonegrind]

I find myself scraping my debit card on me sometimes when my skin is moist to scrape off oil, dirt, etc.

Poor calf. With farm animals you're bond to expect causalities right? It always amazes me how many goats/cows are still born or die soon after birth. (i dont own any but i often buy bones and skulls from farms)

[passthebutter]

I think when you breed any animals you have to expect casualties. My parents have bred in the past and you get stillbirths etc even with dogs and cats. :(

[bonegrind]

Aw yeah. I suppose if you have a lot of animals you would expect even more causalities too.

Also you should totally take a picture of the heartcalf. Sounds precious.

[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

[sanscesse]

My father in law keeps all of the calves who "croaked" (either in birth or after) in a nice pile to the north of his barn. Its always a little surprising to happen upon!

[mixtape__murder]

Off topic but, Wyoming represent!

[sanscesse]

Are you from the equality state yourself?

[mixtape__murder]

Yup, born in Cheyenne and all my family is back there.

[suchoj]

I gotta ask you: do you just not smell the cow shit anymore? Is the smell pervasive in your house?

My parents live in major dairy land in California, and it's gross as hell. But not as bad as pig farms.

[endless_kaoru]

Well, the dairy farms are worse, IMO, because the cows are all in a barn at some point, said barn needs to be mucked out, and the manure all needs to go somewhere -- usually a big pile or, in my area, what looks like a rather murky in-ground pool.
The farm I live on is pastured beef -- that is, we have a barn, but the cattle are only in it when they feel like it (which is almost never) or when we round them up to send to slaughter. Otherwise, they're just out in a big grassy pasture, where their cow pies tend to just dry up and compost without much smell.

But I live near dairy farms, and I'll admit, the smell can get a bit overpowering in the heat of summer in an insufficiently ventilated barn, but for the most part, doesn't bother me.
I grew up out here, though; Personally, I think that cities smell terrible, with all the car exhaust and whatnot.

[suchoj]

Oh, that is much better than a dairy farm. Cities do smell terrible, I agree.

[runaway___]

I worked on a dairy farm for a few weekends back when I was thirteen or fourteen. I went to horse camp for a few weeks and I had to stay with the counselors during the weekend and one of their friends needed help with their cows. We were enlisted.

Good. God. THE STENCH. Blargh. There are no words to describe how horrible it was the first time I went in there. I got relatively used to it (I was mucking out stalls and chutes and whatnot) but to this day it haunts me. I'm a horse girl. Give me horse poop any day.

[suchoj]

Also, I was traumatized once when I drove past a dairy farm and saw a very dead, bloated cow lying in the farm's driveway. Awful thing to see.

[mejane_83]

I saw a pig like that once on a farm! Gross!

Slunk.

[capybyra]

There were/are? folks who would sell such a born dead calf as food. Dead Baby Cow- It's for dinner.

Re: Slunk.

[endless_kaoru]

Yup, sometimes calves can be harvested for meat. But I think anymore they require that the animal be killed in a slaughterhouse or something. To make sure the meat isn't spoiled and all that.
Besides, there isn't much meat to be had off a newly born one. It's usually a few days for them to flesh out.