NEW CALF 6 MONTHS AGO - It was not easy!

[00:00:00]Oh, that was absolutely draining.

[00:00:03]I mean, we're 14 hours in now.

[00:00:14]Hey folks, welcome back to the farm.

[00:00:16]It's a sunny July evening, dry and hot.

[00:00:22]But, we're going to get back to February. I realize we haven't done any many videos lately.

[00:00:26]Uh apologies about that, but we're going to get back to calving in February. And then uh end of the video, I'll show you what the calf's like now, not quite so small. Now, remember Edna is the grumpy one of the two. Uh so, it might be quite challenging in here once she has the calf if we need to get to it for any reason.

[00:00:44]So, we need to be on guard, but she is uh definitely getting close. You can see by the size of her bag.

[00:00:53]It's There's not much room in there for not much more milk. And she is just everything looks like it's dropped.

[00:01:00]Also, bit kind of gluey at the back. And another telltale is her ligaments here, which kind of come down from the tailbone, are well, they've kind of gone completely. Which in the cows and the goats, that's always a a telltale sign.

[00:01:17]So, it shouldn't be long. We'll have to keep an eye on her. I haven't got a camera down here, so I don't know if I'm going to catch the moment. Might see if I can rig something up.

[00:01:26]But, she's in.

[00:01:28]And that's what counts. I mean, 24 hours, what a mess already. Just going to try and bed up this bit.

[00:01:34]And hopefully she'll pick that corner to to calve in. But, that's the update.

[00:01:42]Now, the not exciting thing for us is this is going to be a pedigree Gloucester calf. So, she will be well, she hopefully will get a heifer, but we don't know. Um but, lovely chocolate brown.

[00:01:55]And we'll uh be our first pedigree glossies.

[00:01:59]Remember last time both cows had Hereford crosses, which were lovely calves, but this is our chance for a first rare breed cow on the farm to be born with us.

[00:02:17]Good girl.

[00:02:20]You've done this before.

[00:02:22]Hey.

[00:02:25]You know what you're doing.

[00:02:45]All right, it's midnight now.

[00:02:47]Come down for a final check and one of those awkward ones. We've got the camera in here and it's an awkward because you just don't want to go to sleep and miss something. And Good girl. Good girl.

[00:03:46]It is freezing cold out here now. And um and 4:30 in the morning.

[00:03:52]I'm desperate to go to bed, but I'd really like to see this calf stand up before I go.

[00:03:58]I don't expect it to suddenly start feeding.

[00:04:01]You know, miraculously. It's going to take a while for it to work out how to get down there.

[00:04:07]Oh, come on.

[00:04:12]I could also do with turning these lights off so the [ __ ] will stop thinking it's morning.

[00:04:18]So, Ednah's being quite protective and shaking her head a lot. She's kind of like a don't come any closer. Which is fine. Definitely, I don't need to get in there.

[00:04:29]She's constantly looking round at me.

[00:04:32]If I needed to get in there, it wouldn't be safe and I mean, I can get her close enough with food and put a halter on her or something like that if I had to. And we might have to do that in the morning.

[00:04:45]If this was hissip, I'd probably go in and try and get a calf jacket on. Now it's been like to try.

[00:04:52]I just can't be going in there now. So, fingers crossed it's going to stay on that dry straw. It's going to get up.

[00:04:58]It's going to start moving.

[00:04:59]Maybe feed.

[00:05:01]Uh and then in the morning we can have a better look at that once I've had a sleep and coffee. Cuz frankly going in there now is stupid idea cuz especially I'm out here in the middle of the night, everyone's asleep.

[00:05:13]All right. It is morning and we've got our calf all fluffy. Ed's been doing the morning checks.

[00:05:19]I said it's morning. Mid-morning. I went to sleep for a few hours. Um But we know that this little one hasn't fed yet. So, we need to have a go on that. And uh It's not so easy then, huh?

[00:05:31]So, I'm going to try and bait her in with a bit of feed.

[00:05:35]Pop a halter on her. Go and tie to this hay rack.

[00:05:38]At least I know I can walk around, check the calf over, see if we've got ourselves a boy or a girl.

[00:05:45]And potentially Well, no. I'm am sure I am going to try, but last time I remember the teeth had actually sealed and there's the you need quite a good initial suck on the teeth to to get them flowing.

[00:05:58]And um that hadn't happened last time.

[00:06:01]Obviously, sometimes I hiss at she was actually dripping milk, so you knew it was Ah, calves.

[00:06:10]Ah, nearly on.

[00:06:16]Knows where to go.

[00:06:57]She can eat after and then we can see if we can get this one feeding. From last time I remember if I As long as I've got the calf in between me and her, she'll never kick me.

[00:07:10]Touch wood.

[00:07:16]Give you lots, actually.

[00:07:26]Hey, steady.

[00:07:33]You're not kicking, remember?

[00:07:43]We've got ourselves a heifer.

[00:07:46]Clever girl. Right, we've got this up here.

[00:07:56]All right, let's go. Watch that tail and the foot. She'll blind you with the tail and kick you in the face.

[00:08:01]Steady. Calf suck.

[00:08:04]Just get that teeth moving.

[00:08:09]Now you made it heat or mucky with your foot.

[00:08:13]In or wet or 5 6 hours. She really needs some colostrum soon. [snorts] Oh, nearly had it then. It's got a good suck reflex on my fingers, but trying to transition that to the cow. The other cow was so easy.

[00:08:34]It wants to do it.

[00:08:40]Well, I'm going to muck out a bit while you sort your life out, cow. It's a shame if I had a clip on halter, one that could stay on her and I could hook onto that, it'd be ideal now because getting the halter on is I mean, it was easy that time, it might not be the next time.

[00:08:54]Yeah, I can't really leave that one on tied on her.

[00:08:59]>> But, I don't know if you can do it with colostrum.

[00:09:08]>> Good girl. All right, this is attempt four, five.

[00:09:13]Last year we had to put a rope around her back foot.

[00:09:16]What that means is it makes her unsteady, she can't kick.

[00:09:20]Which means I can just get the milk flowing safely.

[00:09:23]And then we'll try and get the calf on.

[00:09:25]So, we won't get the calf involved yet.

[00:09:28]But, I think we need to relieve some pressure there. She's going to blow.

[00:09:39]Come on. Move it.

[00:09:44]Come on, now you now you're not kicking me.

[00:09:47]>> Ooh, you nearly It's like poke her foot, I don't know.

[00:09:52]Go [clears throat] there.

[00:09:53]Yes, there we go. You've got it, Dad.

[00:09:57]Can we get her a little bit more than that?

[00:10:00]Can we brush her?

[00:10:01]Put it up high, Dad.

[00:10:06]She can still kick you.

[00:10:11]>> It's a shame we haven't got a crushing door, isn't it?

[00:10:14]Then.

[00:10:15]Then.

[00:10:19]>> Come on, Dad.

[00:10:21]But she's got her foot on the thing now.

[00:10:22]If I pull a little bit, she's going to kick you, Dean.

[00:10:25]>> It's good she can't kick forward, though, can't she, now?

[00:10:28]Or can't she?

[00:10:28]>> Cuz the boys are in the good spot.

[00:10:30]>> I'm going to I'm going to have to get the milk going cuz there's no point in trying to get the calf on if there's no milk coming.

[00:10:35]>> Yeah, but it's like I'm used to leaning back, so that's different.

[00:10:40]I've got her leg up now.

[00:10:41]>> Nice.

[00:10:45]>> I'm trying to get the back side.

[00:10:48]>> Good.

[00:10:49]>> She can't get to the back.

[00:10:50]>> Exactly 12 hours since she was born.

[00:10:54]But we've got the first milk mustache.

[00:10:58]The tail's a wagging.

[00:11:00]Eden's holding it.

[00:11:02]Holding the leg cuz I'm close, and she has kicked the calf a couple of times by accident.

[00:11:10]But that is good. That is what we need.

[00:11:13]Now, how on earth she's going to get down to the back teeth?

[00:11:18]I don't know, but she definitely needs to work her way around.

[00:11:29]I think we can probably try to take Let's let her feed. Let's not interrupt her.

[00:11:34]Then we'll take that off and we'll just give them some space now.

[00:11:40]Suddenly the calf just comes to life as soon as it had one little taste and then it was butting everything, sucking my hand to find its way there.

[00:11:54]See his little tail going.

[00:11:57]That's what we wanted to see.

[00:12:00]Get all that colostrum in you.

[00:12:05]Little tummy fill up.

[00:12:08]All right, we're a couple of hours in now and we've just had it feeding for a couple of minutes.

[00:12:13]Can't tell how much milk came out, but that is the one teat that is flowing.

[00:12:17]Now she's confused.

[00:12:20]Oh, that was absolutely draining.

[00:12:23]I mean, we're 14 hours in now and um finally one can go.

[00:12:32]Ah, it took a long, long time to get everyone settled. Well, the calving to start with, but that all went fine, fortunately.

[00:12:40]But uh getting that calf feeding. So, the only thing now is just deciding whether I need to get chuck that calf jacket on her, which I would prefer to do so.

[00:12:49]Just seemed a baggy. Um I'll have another go later cuz it's not that warm in here. It's sheltered at least.

[00:12:58]But it's had a good feed, so all being well, we can leave these two to it and um we can go and get a rest.

[00:13:13]>> [music] [music] >> Come on.

[00:13:25]>> [music] [music] >> I haven't really done anything spectacular today, but >> [music] [music] >> What? James.

[00:13:49]>> [music] [music] >> We're back. We're back in the sun.

[00:14:02]Hello, my girl.

[00:14:04]This is Hyssop. She's played an important auntie role and hopefully is now in calf. I didn't film much of it, but we got Hyssop AIs uh and I'm hoping that she's in calf now. The local AI guy um actually managed to get hold of some rare from the Rare Breed Society, some Gloucester straws. So, he bought two. He's got one on backup. I should have got her tested. Um I think she must be, but you know, we we paid to get her synchronized as well, so I gave her all the injections leading up to it.

[00:14:39]Anyway, here is the duo. This is what you've been waiting for. So, here's Edna struggling with the flies.

[00:14:47]And here she is. This is Poppy.

[00:14:50]She's a chunky little thing now.

[00:14:52]Let's follow her over to the trough.

[00:14:55]It's hot and thirsty out here.

[00:14:58]Um but you can see that she's starting to take on that sort of dark mahogany color like mom. So, the nice chocolate brown is gone.

[00:15:06]Uh she's she's been okay. She's quite calm now.

[00:15:11]Um but she's certainly not as chilled as as our older girls cuz who have been, you know, in a dairy most of their life.

[00:15:19]So, Hyssop here is our auntie cow. She is now kind of taken on auntie role and actually looks after this one just as much. Uh obviously doesn't feed her.

[00:15:29]Um Edna has been fine. I I made it look like she's a right grump.

[00:15:34]And she kind of is out of the two, but that's cuz we got a teddy bear here to compare her to. But as far as cows go, she's still pretty chill.

[00:15:41]Um but this is her last calf. We've made that decision. Unfortunately, her bag is just so low now. She's I think she's 13. Her bag's so low now.

[00:15:51]Every time it's going to be a real struggle. So she's had two calves with her. So both times it's just been a stressful headache of, you know, the first 3 days.

[00:16:02]And um yeah, she's just getting on a bit and we need calm, chilled out cows that we can hopefully milk. Uh and Edna is not that cow. Anyway, so she might be heading into retirement at some point soon.

[00:16:15]But this is Poppy, the new cow.

[00:16:19]Now Poppy needs to be halter trained.

[00:16:20]She needs to learn to be even more chill than she is. And um one day, you know, 2 years from now, hopefully she'll be becoming our house cow uh alongside Hyssop.

[00:16:32]That's what she's looking like. We've left her horn. She's going to be uh registered with the society. So she's another name on the register of preserving the breed, which is great.

[00:16:43]And fingers crossed, when Hyssop has her calf, if there is a calf in here, um you know, fingers crossed we get another heifer, which would be awesome.

[00:16:53]If you're new to the channel or you haven't watched any of the cow videos, our cows are called Gloucester cattle.

[00:16:58]They are a rare breed, a really rare breed. I think they're maybe in the top two or three rare breeds um in the country.

[00:17:07]Um oh and of cows in general, there are I think there's more giant pandas in the world than Gloucester cows.

[00:17:14]Um but they are a beautiful cow and they're really good dual-purpose cows, and that's great for us because when they have got their calf with them, and they're friendly like Hyssop, we can milk and leave the calf at foot and milk for the family. Um and they are like the ultimate house cow, really. Now, some people would go straight for a Jersey, but the downside of a Jersey is they've got too much milk. So, you'd end up having to have two or maybe even three calves on the Jersey and milk it once or even twice a day.

[00:17:42]Um whereas, you know, a Gloucester like Hyssop, we can just milk a few liters off, and there's plenty left for a calf or even two.

[00:17:51]So, anyway, that's Hyssop, and she's a absolute teddy bear in her summer clothes. So, she's got this really nice sort of I always think it's a bit like a racehorse, really shiny.

[00:18:02]Better than a horse. Aren't you?

[00:18:04]Can't ride you, although Rupert's had a little sit on.

[00:18:08]But there you go, that is the story of the cows this year. Uh if you've any questions on the cows or you want any particular videos, then let me know. Well, I obviously can't show you any milking or anything like that at the moment. Um Edna is in milk. At some point, we need to wean Poppy off, um and then we'll make a decision at the end of the year what we do with Edna, but she's not going to have a calf again with us. It's just whether we sell her or whether she is, you know, used in other ways on the farm.

[00:18:38]But what I think started out as thunderstorms and freezing cold February, uh this is what we're like now, barren lands. Anyway, although the videos aren't there, there's a lot going on still on the farm on a daily basis.

[00:18:50]We've had three litters of piglets. Uh two of those litters are still here.

[00:18:55]We've got pigs over in the secret meadow. I've shot a couple of videos, so I will get those out. But if you've got some ideas for videos or you want to know more about any particular thing, let me know cuz it might give me the kick up the backside to go make a video.

[00:19:07]Um yeah, there's there's plenty going on.

[00:19:09]So, let me know, and uh I'll see what I can do. I'll take a camera out one evening next week, and uh have a little walk around. We've still got plenty going on with the poultry.

[00:19:18]Just turned the incubators off for the first time in about 4 months. Uh so, we're going to pause on hatching.

[00:19:25]Ducks are still laying. A few of our purebred pens are still laying.

[00:19:28]Um but, it's just easing off a little bit. So, uh I just need to take a pause from that. I've got about 300 chicks still growing.

[00:19:35]And a few others have just hatched, but it's all good. Hope you enjoyed that.

[00:19:40]Nice to have another calf on the farm, although she's not that calf-y anymore.

[00:19:44]Um and the cows have just been great this year. They've been pretty low maintenance.

[00:19:48]Almost nothing to worry about with them.

[00:19:51]Um they're not really as delicate as the sheep. Uh obviously, TB, thankfully, touch wood, has always been fine. Like, they get their 6-monthly tests.

[00:20:01]Um and I don't know. It's it it's just the amount of grazing and feed they get through in the winter, but I would be tempted to add one more uh soon as a replacement to Edna.

[00:20:13]So, we'll we'll make a decision on that.

[00:20:15]But, we kind of want to get the house built finished, and then might free up a little bit of time in the morning that we could start milking again. Anyway, time for evening chores. Hope you enjoyed that. Take care. See you next time.