05/07/2026
🥹 Not all days are good days on the farm!
Sadly a week ago I walked out before sunrise to check on this girl and she was trying to push a “true breech” calf out. What does that mean? The calf was coming tail first back legs tucked forward. The tail was out, sac had already ruptured at some point so not good at all. The Vet was called but they had two emergencies ahead of us with the full moon. Time was not on our side. It was just me and her so I had to prep and pull my first calf alone with the mere knowledge of watching videos and hearing others talk about what they did in breech situations. Going in and gently extending the back legs from the hock back and finding the calves hooves hoping to not harm mom’s uterine wall as I pull them back and worrying wheres the umbilical cord so I could pull and get the calf out fast. Sadly she was stillborn. A beautiful deep red heifer, perfect size and beautiful head. We are devastated.
Mentally I have beaten myself black and blue in every emotion and telling myself if I had just walked out there sooner. I am so happy that Betty is okay, but we had waited so long after some failed AI attempts to see this girl be a first time momma with her genetics and she was finally bred. Everything was going textbook.
The what happened question that plaques you is always inevitable.
We had a tornado warning and straight line winds come through two nights prior that flattened one of our neighbors two large barns and I remember looking out the window and our cows were running and kicking around during the storm. It was pretty wicked for a few minutes. Did that cause the calf to turn the wrong way? Maybe..but a question with too many scenarios.
The Vet still came out checked her over said she was good and gave her a shot of oxytocin to help her “clean out!” She was also letting me milk her out mid pasture afterwards no halter and not in the chute so she didn’t become engorged or risk mastitis. The girl has beautiful udders so I keep telling myself there’s some positives in this bad experience and she is okay. A lot of paranoid monitoring and making sure she dropped the placenta. Probably drove our Vet crazy over our KY Derby weekend.
Saturday night I noticed her laying in the spot we let her grieve her daughter so I went and sat down quietly with tears streaming down my face and she looked at me and laid her head and those big beautiful horns in my lap. I told my mom about it when she called to check on me and I said “You know sometimes someone who is grieving just needs someone to sit with them and not say a word.” I think that very moment helped both of us. We tried finding a bottle calf to graft onto her over the weekend with no luck so that’s a bummer too.
But she is doing okay, eating and hanging with her bestie and we will try again.
