All born yesterday. Poppy’s labour lasted all night and was not without its problems but she has nine lovely live and very active piglets and they are feeding almost non stop. The piglets are still on lock down so the only image of them I have is from the monitor.
But here is Lady Astor with her baby. Born yesterday at lunchtime. I saw her looking uncomfortable – moved all the other cows out of the field she was in, she lay down as I walked away and within about 30 minutes we had a little bull calf.
It was a beautiful comparitively warm day so they hung out in the field, baby got up soon after birth and was drinking shortly after that, while I dealt with the milking set up. I had everything ready just not all put together.
Then I walked the baby all the way to the barn with Mama close behind.
It all went quite well considering my deep sleep deprivation. Adrenalin goes a long way.
Later I milked Lady – her udder is so big and swollen and engorged, it was no fun for her. But it was getting impossible for the calf to latch on and very painful for the cow.
Here is that rather gruesome sci fi image of Poppy and her crowd of babies.
I milked again this morning at five am in a massive dark thunder and lightening storm. The weather was very, very loud and the rain was coming down in sheets.
To alert the sows to my arrival (the sows and their babies, and Lady and her calf are in the barn where the milking room is), I put the soft milking music on, the phone tucked into my pocket, so they could hear me coming and going and moving about. With the milking music and the rain and the pump chugging away and Lady mooing to her calf: the sows joined in with their feeding chorus, grunting for their piglets to come out for a drink, and the piglets began to squeal and it became very noisy in the barn at one point.
It is 7.58 now. I am cleaned up and back up to the house. The workers are outside doing chores. I am having my second coffee. The ground is waterlogged. We had way too much rain last night and more coming this evening. It is going to be a soggy day. I am thinking of loading everyone up into the truck and off we go to get feed and supplies. Best use of a rainy day.
Merciful heavens yesterday was crazy. It all happened at once but we have all forty feet on the ground. And soon we will have milk!
Have a lovely day.
celi
Weather says more rain.
The Kitchen's Garden 
56 responses to “NINE PIGLETS AND A BULL CALF”
Great news 🙂
So Manu has done his duty again! He’s such a ladies’ boar. Who’s Lady A’s baby daddy, again?
Glad for the update, glad all is well!
Wow – that WAS a crazy – and wonderful – day!! ; o )
Lots of babies around considering Molly and hers are still in earshot of the newest ones. A busy barn and a busy you. At least you can breathe easily that they are all safe and probably healthy. Hopefully sleep comes soon for you.
What lovely News! And what a busy and heavy day you had! But what a beautiful outcome. So many new lives – what a richness is that. Love the baby bull very much. He’s a beautiful one…
Beauty all around. Bless your poor sleepy soul, I hope you get a solid night or twenty, very soon!
Much love.
K
Congrats on the new arrivals!!! I figured when there was no post yesterday that there were probably babies arriving. They picked a nice day for it. Handsome little bull calf, I’m sure Lady A is pleased to be done with pregnancy and delivery. Poppy too, hope the problems were small ones. Lots of new feet meeting the ground indeed.
Good work everyone… I can only imagine what your night was like. But all is well now. And that’s what counts. Have a great day ♡
Your pictures show the obvious benefit of your close relationship with your animals. Not all Mom’s would allow you to come so close to their new offspring, much less touch it and calmly lead it away, even if she was following closely. When I was young some of our cows would be let out for the day and unexpectedly, not come home at milking time. We then would need to go out into the woods with a tractor with a tractor box to find the new Mom and her baby. Once there my Dad’s job would be to distract the Mom while I stole the baby and seated us both in the tractor box. As we drove away with the new born, the Mom would come running after………with murder in her eyes.
Mazel tov! All those beautiful babies. Good on their mans and on you. Hope you were able to get a power nap somewhere along the way today.
Mamas, not mans!
J > Well I was wondering whether it should have been ‘men’ – there would be a logic to that, albeit somewhat dislocated from the context!
Looks like he decided he was tired and had a lay down. Glad he got into the barn in time to ride out the storm. Good job C. I hope her udder stays healthy this time. Baby drinking after stand, excellent! It’s amazing that animals know what to do. Nature is full of wonders. Fried chicken for dinner to go and a beer, then a good sleep.
One cute young bull from a momma who wasn’t even pregnant😉
Sugar!! A second Aussie-bred ‘blimey’ from me: how 24 hours can change things!! Hope the little boy is welcome and the money-in-time but no milk or further babies scenario to come suits! Spring truly has sprung – never mind the lightning . . . .