It seems that this Autumn has been the season of new arrivals here. Timothy’s birth started the ball rolling and just a couple of weeks later we had another birth here on our little farm.
Our cows, Mary and Martha, were visited earlier this year by a friendly bull called Ginger. Ginger was with us for 6 months, enough time we hoped, for our cows to become pregnant. Months passed and we had the cows checked by a vet, she said that she thought Martha was pregnant and due in May.
May came and went, June, July still no calf , August, still no calf. We assumed the vet was mistaken, as cows are pregnant for 9 months, not nearly a year! Then one day a vet came to do the regular TB tests and we asked her to check to see if Martha was pregnant. After a less than dignified procedure, somewhat reminiscent of ‘All Creature Great and Small’ she discovered two legs, confirmation that Martha was indeed in calf. We were told that potentially the calf was mummified, as it may have been in there too long, something which happens sometimes, it doesn’t harm the cow but eventually the cow is induced to bring the dead calf out. We would just have to wait and see.
The story culminated early one cool October morning when my friend came to visit. She nonchalantly asked when our calf had been born? The next half an hour was filled with a flurry of excited squeals, as child after child donned a coat and wellies over their pyjamas and charged out to field, to meet the new arrival.
