After coming back form the morning milk, Unni sees me in the kitchen and tells me there’s some good news and bad news. I ask for the bad first and she tells me that a whole bucket of milk was spilt on the floor at the door and so she had to take out all the stuff from the work room and clean it out. Heng ah. I thought the cow had given birth overnight or something.
Anyway the good news was that the big white gave birth to baby rabbits overnight!
So yippie! Unni can give some rabbits away coz some people have been asking for rabbits and she’s been reluctant to give away the 6 she already has. So now there’s new stock. Which leaves me really puzzled as to who the father is. It can’t be the ‘stop, that’s your mother!’ rabbit coz it was caught just 2 weeks ago and the gestation period for rabbits is about a month. And from my records, the big white wasn’t out a month ago. So the identity of the father is a big mystery. Once again, our scandalous rabbits are living up to their reputation…
During dinner, Unni tells me that it is very likely that the pregnant cow would be delivering its calf this evening or through the night, 3 days earlier than expected. Coz she was showing all the signs of going into labour. The constant wagging of the tail, the spreading of her legs. And Unni says the area around her tail is pretty soft already, so in cow terms, she’s ready to pop the calf out.
I was supposed to go back to Svolvaer with Frode after dinner. But no way was I going to miss this man. So I decide to stay the night and go help out in the cow house in the evening.
When I was washing the cows, everytime I passed by the mother-to-be I kept staring and staring. She was fidgeting a lot and her tail kept coming up, like how they always stick their tails up before they poop or pee. It was as though she was gonna pop the little thing right out. Inge sticks his hand into her and feels around and says that he can already feel the feet of the calf. The calf was already in position and it was just a matter of time before it came out. The legs of the calf come out first, followed by the head. So you can imagine, the calf kinda like swims out of the mother.
Around 7pm, Inge tells me to come see. I my camera from the milk room and rushed to the cow. And there was the beginning of its labour. Hanging from the back was a huge balloon like water sack. It was just bouncing around like a giant water balloon. Then it finally broke and made a gooy mess on the floor. Inge then took a rope and loosely tied the mother’s legs together so that she wouldn’t slip.
By then, the hoof of the calf was already showing. On and off, it retracted and appeared again. Amazing thing was that while all this was happening, our calm mother cow was happily chomping on the grass which was in front of her. Inge then shoves his arm up the mother again to make sure the calf is in the right position.
A while later, more of the calf’s leg comes out and the mother then sits down to continue the rest of the delivery. Coz the stall is pretty small, her neighbour was kinda in the way, so Inge and I had to bring the neighbouring cow out and put her in another empty stall, so the mother cow can have all the space she needs.
More of the calf comes out. Its head was making its way out and I could see the tip of its nose and its tongue dangling by the side.
Inge then takes a rope, ties it to the legs of the calf and drags that baby out.
He then starts fiddling with the calf making sure there’s nothing in its mouth or nostrils so it can breathe properly.
I guess the mother cow must have been exhausted, coz she just sat there staring at the little thing. A couple of ‘moos’ are exchanged between mother and child. Inge then carries the calf to a little stall which he had already lined with grass.
It was then time to milk the mother cow. The first milk the most important and has to be given to the calf. Unlike regular milk, the first milk is very much thicker and more yellow. Unni tells me that that milk is very healthy and apparently it had worked wonders when she gave some of the milk away to someone whose mother had cancer. And after she drank it, she actually got better. I guess the mother must have been pretty glad to have all that milk pumped out, coz for the past couple of days, her udder had been slowly swelling up and looks as though it could just explode any moment.
Inge then puts the milk into a bottle and brings it to the young calf. Considering that this is a highly unnatural situation, for a calf to be fed from a bottle by a human, it took quite a while for it to suckle on the bottle.
Shortly after, our little one took its first step and stood up!! But with its legs still shaking of course. It must have taken a lot of effort I guess, coz shortly after, it sat down again and decided to continue sitting for a while.
Both mother and child are healthy and well.
Oh yah and by the way, if you were wondering… it’s a girl!!
(area where the milking cows are. Cow on the right, only one looking at camera. that's 0495!!)
(select desired berries to kill)
(run the teeth of the berry picker through the base of the berry plant)
(gently pull upwards)
(result: berries in berry picker, )
(and a naked berry plant)
trying again...
finally!
