Introducing Tosho!
Wow doesn't time fly!? I hadn't realised it had been so long between posts and while I don't have a definitive timeline for posts, I never meant to leave it quite this long. For those who follow on social media, you've probably already seen the new addition. You were meant to here it here first ... but it seems I'm the slackest person on the planet! To be fair, I was completely exhausted after our National Show. 7 years of being on the show committee and I reached my limit this year. The show was a washout - that might be a post for another day - and then racing home to be able to stalk Kenzie ... well I fell apart.
With the loss of Moocall in Australia, it meant three hourly checks during the day, and night, to make sure a smooth calving. Moocall is an amazing device that you put on the cows tail and it sends you notifications of high activity indicating calving, thus saving you the stress of multiple checks throughout the day and night. But unfortunately, an agreement couldn't be reached with the telecom provider and it was not financially viable to continue to serve the Australian market.
With a June 14 due date, and the possibility of calving 10 days either side (as normal), Kenzie was being scrutinised for the first sign of calving. At 5pm on June 16, I noticed her tail was up and knew that calving was happening.
It's only the slightest, but a trained eye can recognise the sign. Of course, she waited until almost dark as well (typical!). So the stalking in earnest began. A quick call to a friend who wanted to be here to witness in person and the endless cuppas began. Because of course it was mid winter, cold and dark, I decided the easiest way to continue the supervision was from the comfort of my car. So in we loaded and round into the paddock we went. The car was running with lights on and every now and then I'd hit the high beams to check what was happening. By 6.36pm, poor Kenzie looked like she had absolutely had enough. We were still waiting for the appearance of feet. But were trying to also keep our distance so we didn't upset her.
Just after this was taken, we had the first glimpse of feet. When calving, you want the soles of the hooves face down, face up means backwards and usually requires intervention and possibly a vet visit. For us, thankfully, it appeared the feet were down.
The miracle of calving and nature is just amazing. Within 15 minutes of seeing the feet, Kenzie had situated herself next to the hay feeder and was facing us, making sure we couldn't see anything. Next thing she stood up and I said to my friend "she's had it". Sure enough, there was the baby.
Now heifers can be unpredictable things. Those hormones are going crazy and you just don't know how they are going to react. So with great trepidation I started the walk into the paddock to check everything was ok. It was 6.50pm by this point. Keep in mind, I had a total knee replacement in March so was still rather unsteady and not sure how I'd fend off a raging 400kg first time mum.
I am so glad I made that trip though because as I approached, I could see Kenzie was cleaning up the calf, but she was at the wrong end and the calf still had an intact sac over its head. I knew I needed to get this off and fast, and make sure the calf was breathing. Sometimes this requires straw in the nose to tickle the action. With no idea how I'd keep her away and bend down enough to assist the calf I raced back to the car and grabbed one of the crutches. Kenzie, thankfully, was not overly concerned with me being there and i was able to reach over and pull the sac off, allowing the calf to breathe.
Once I knew he was breathing, it was a case of sitting in the car and waiting for him to stand, and then feed. It's absolutely crucial that calves get much needed colostrum in the first 12-24 hours. Without this, their immune system does not work sufficiently and they often succumb to illness. Lucky for us, the little bull calf managed to stand within 30 minutes and we saw him latch not long after. This allowed me to head off to bed confident all would be ok.
A quick check in the morning to ensure that yes, he was definitely feeding, and the stress and anxiety of calving was able to be replaced with the joy of watching a newborn calf.
One thing it did highlight to me, was how easily it could have been a bad ending. Had I not been a super stalker, I wouldn't have seen the sac or been in a position to assist, most likely waking in the morning to a dead calf and assuming it was stillborn. For us, crisis was averted and Tosho is making great strides, growing fast and keeping us amused with his baby bull antics.
Until next time,
Erica xx