09/05/2026
Some have fancy Friday nights, while others have emergency elbow deep up a cows' backside Friday nights..Working quickly to save cow and calf.
I saw she was due today, but my allergies made me miserable and I didnt go check her, but my gut told me I should. My tiredness won.
My employee was finishing up her chores and saw she was laying in a stuck position and panting so she called me. Thankfully, else both cow and calf would have been dead by morning.
So Tyler and I put our boots back on and went and dragged her out of the sand bed, rolled her in a bucket *shes long so was not easy*, got her on some dirt and her water broke. I knew this calf had to come now.
The second i reached inside her I could tell the calf was backwards. The back feet were coming out first and you want the front feet and head first. It had to be pulled and when they do, you gotta be top speed quick because you have less than 2 seconds or the calf will suck in fluids and drown inside the mom.
So we pulled it and pulled quick, hung her upside down to drain any fluid she may have breathed in, got her lungs going and she was standing within 15 minutes of being born!
The mom... we will see what morning brings. I dont have much hope.
Thats farming. You can have a week of lots of death and with this heat we have had our fair share, and you can loose $7000 or more or less of animals in a day or week. Thats a random number, but it has happened before. Ive seen enough freak accidents beyond our control.
Also, I was so stoked that I got her IV needle in the first try! Steady stream of blood with one poke. Sometimes thats extremely hard to do on some cows. You can not see their veins like on a human, so its a shot in the dark.
We gave her some sugar, some other calming meds and hope shes got the gusto to want to live.
You absolutely can not make a dairy cow live, they have to have the will to do so and they give up quicker than any other animal I know.
Yet I still own them 🫠
For all of those that ask how I do it..?
1) I have the literal best people in my life
2) you just do it - for me life and death hangs in the balance in situations and sometimes you have mere seconds to spare. My heart literally stops and adrenaline runs through my veins like you wouldnt believe
3) I give it all I've got, life wont let ya go halfway
4) my parents didnt raise a quitter, they raised a doer and I am so grateful
5) wonderfully amazing customers who continue to support us so we can keep living the best *while also very hard* life and raise our children in the best place to ever have a childhood
