Archived News

14th March 2010

It has been a week busy with cattle and another coming up.

Seventy five calves arrived on farm last week. Each calf was taken to the feeder and given help to find the teat and milk. 

A collar placed around their neck will activate the automatic milk machine over the coming weeks.  Males were castrated and every ear tag was cross referenced to a movement passport.

Simon prepares an injection to prevent pneumonia and the passports are ready for checking. After the routine is concluded the calves settle down to sleep.

It was a little like Chinese whisper’s yesterday morning.   Christopher and I were in a sports shop when I received a call from George who had heard from Laurence that Amanda had called to say a Beltie heifer was calving!  It was exciting news but a little surprising as we’d been given a due date of mid April.  We duly returned from less exciting tasks in town and went to Hackhurst to see how Kempslade Mabel was getting on.

We spent a little time watching Mabel who obligingly got up and walked about for us; the first thing Christopher noticed was that Mabel’s udder had not ‘bagged up’ as we might expect if she was calving.  As the day progressed, we kept an eye on Mabel who didn’t appear to be in labour, but was finding it difficult to lie down comfortably, any lady who recalls being 8 months pregnant will have great sympathy with Mabel!

It was Amanda’s weekend to work so we were discussing the signs Mabel had presented earlier that morning including what looked like contractions and whether cows have Braxton Hicks contractions just like humans. Mabel lost her last calf in early pregnancy so this will be her first calving and we were a little wary of her losing a calf now or that the calf could be dead inside.

By 3.30pm nothing had progressed so I popped home and updated Laurence. If there were possible problems later in the day Mabel needed to be brought into the farm yard and if we wanted the vet to check her out it would be better on Saturday rather than Mothering Sunday!

So decision made, the vet came out and gave reassurance that the calf was the right way up and the amniotic sac was in place but was unable to check for a heartbeat at this stage in pregnancy. 

After the internal inspection, Mabel was standing in the ‘race’ when her stomach wall was clearly kicked by the calf - alive and kicking! - fingers crossed for a successful calving.

We have a Routine Herd Test for Tuberculin this week.  This includes Harvey our bull, all females that have had a calf and any young bovines which will be used for breeding that have been purchased since our last test.

A testing routine, using a highly sensitive test; the comparative intradermal skin test is in operation for TB surveillance purposes. The vet will undertake the test over two afternoons, tomorrow and Thursday.

All cattle, with the exception of beef fattening units, are tested at intervals of 1,2,3 or 4 years depending on the farm's geographical area and its history. Movement restrictions are put in place where reactors or inconclusive reactors are found or where tests become overdue. All reactors are slaughtered.