November 04, 2004
One of the last calves of the season is born
Yesterday afternoon I could see that a cow had calved down in the pasture. Usually we wait a couple of hours before going to get the calf to let the calf dry off before we have to handle it. I kept working on a little project I had started until I thought I should head down to get the cow and calf in order to have the cow at the barn in time to be milked at the end of the milking string.
I asked Noah if he wanted to give me a hand and we headed down with the 4-wheeler to get Mom and her baby. Ring Ding, the mom, and her calf we doing fine and the calf was nice and dry. We call the cow Ring Ding because she has a ring in her nose that stops her nasty habit of sucking on other cows. The cow's actual name is Jasmine. The calf, a heifer, was very frisky so I had to walk behind the 4-wheeler holding the calf in the basket while Noah drove the 4-wheeler slowly up the lane to the barn with Ring Ding in hot pursuit. Noah did a great job driving all the way to the barn door leading into the maternity room. I picked up the calf out of the basket and Ring Ding followed me and her baby into a pen in the maternity room.
We love having the cows calve outside during the grazing season. It's a clean, natural environment for the calf to be born into, and the cow has better footing and more room to get up and down during and after the birth process. With the onset of colder weather and the end of the grazing season, the last of the calves that will be born from this calving season will be delivered inside in one of the large pens.
--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont
Posted by Blogger Chris at November 4, 2004 04:06 PM
what happens to the male babies? Do they become veal?
It is with some dismay that I close my planet-save email account and am redirected to this website about a dairy farm.
As dairy farms go, this organic family farm is obviously one of the better ones in terms of its use of cows. But all dairy farms involve unnecessary suffering. Calves are meant to live with their mothers. Cows suffer during and after rings are put through their noses. Cow's milk is intended for their calves. We are the only species on the planet to dring milk after weaning and the only species to drink the milk of another species! Dairy products are therefore a luxury that comes at the expense of cows who lead unnatural and abbreviated lives.
What will be the fate of this new born heifer? (Most male calves from dairy farms are rasied in the cruel conditions that produce veal. I hope this is not true of this farm.)
Environmentally, eating the average quantities of dairy products, veal and beef is unsustainable. This is a fact. Cycling water, grain and other plant matter through cows to use their milk and flesh is very inefficient. Perhaps 4 to 6 more people can be supported on the same land base by eating the equivalent number of calories from plants versus from animal products. (sorry I don't have the reference for that statistic) There needn't be the degree of starvation (which is an admittedly complex issue) in this world if only our society reduced its consumption of dairy foods and animal flesh.
I hope that planet-save chooses to support advertisers that are more sustainable than animals farms, including organic ones.
Hi, I remember when I was kid, we had the cows in the summer pasture during the day a 1/4 mile away and 30+ acres to graze. There were times one of the cows would hide her calf. My father had to hunt high and low and most of the time he'd find the calf, sometime by waiting to see the calf come out of hiding to nurse. There was once that the calf was never found even searching for several days. It was a mystery often talked about. Helen
Jonathan Gates reports from Howmars Farm in Franklin, Vermont.