Helping hand

Phew! I'm so glad today is over. It has been hectic. We milked the cows, fed the calves, saved a cow that had milk fever, fed out to one mob of cows, went to the second mob where a cow was having trouble calving. We drafted it out and took it up to the cowshed where Farmerboy calved it (yes he is a multi-talented fella) - unfortunately the calf was dead. We put the cow in a paddock with all the other calved cows. By this time it was lunch time. After a quick lunch it was up to the shed again where we noticed that the cow we calved in the morning, had had another calf (yes, she had twins, but unfortunately the second one too was dead). We then brought in some cows and calves that were born a couple of days ago, then spent the next hour cleaning the towable calf feeder and changing the drinking teats on it. We went home for afternoon tea, came back out again to give the calves their afternoon drink of milk, went around the calving mob, and had to draft out another cow that had calved this afternoon and put the cow and calf in another paddock overnight. And that was my day!

We are so lucky to have two very helpful sons, who each do their fair share helping on the farm. This photo shows son T, who was carrying one of our calves born on Thursday. It was being put in the trailer behind the quad bike, mum would follow, and then they would be separated - the cow into a paddock with the other milking cows, and the calf in the shed.

It was a brilliantly sunny afternoon, with a high of 20.6 degrees. Weather like this makes the busy day seem all that much better.