We saw a cow being born on Thursday. Not an unusual thing on a farm with a herd of 80, yet in the couple of months that I'd worked there I'd managed to miss all the births.
We were actually out on site when the birth started, so got the call 'get back now!', which we did, an arrived as one foot was sticking out. On which note, a quick heads up: if you're eating, or generally squeamish, you might want to skip the rest of this.
Ready? Ok, so the usual sign that they're about to give birth is that they separate themselves from the rest of the herd. Then a 'bag', which is the amniotic sac, pops out and - ideally - bursts. If it doesn't. it's bad for the calf as they can suffocate. Which is why we were there.
So, next out is one foot followed, ideally, by the other. In a clean birth, both should be poking out together, followed by the mouth. In our case, it was the calf's tongue, wiggling round like a tentacle in a bizarre sight. At this point, we intervened, wrapping a length of rope around the calf's two feet and pulling outwards and downwards and assisting both the mother and gravity. Out came the calf, simple as, and, after a quick check over (a healthy and quite large male) we dipped the umbilical in iodine (Elise got that job and spent the rest of the day trying to wash it off her hands), packed the stuff away and the two ropes for sterilisation and left them to it.
And that was it, apart from all the cooing and taking pictures.
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