Baby Calves!
It’s been far too long since I shared an update from the farm, so I’m going to try posting a quick snapshot each week—whether it’s a glimpse of what we’ve been up to or an introduction to one of our animals.
Some of you might remember Blossom, our gentle Guernsey dairy cow. She came to us after she stopped producing enough milk to earn her keep in a commercial dairy herd. We were more than happy to give her a softer life—she’s an absolute sweetheart.
A few years ago, she had her first calf that she actually got to raise herself. Once she figured out what to do, she turned out to be a wonderful mum. At the time, we were also bottle-feeding two rescued calves. One day, we came out to find all three calves lined up at different teats, like they were at a milk bar! After that, we stopped milking her for ourselves—feeding three calves is a full-time job!
Getting her back in calf proved to be a long process. Several rounds of artificial insemination (AI) didn’t take, so we eventually took her back to the dairy she came from to run with their bull. A couple of months later, they were confident she was pregnant, and she came home.
In the last few weeks, she’s been so big and uncomfortable, we knew the time had to be near. This past weekend, she went into labour. Usually things move quickly once the water breaks, but this time it dragged on. Missy reached in to check and found the calf was stuck. We both felt in, grabbed the hooves, and worked together with each contraction—pulling down rather than straight out, which helps align with the cow’s body. Sadly, the calf was stillborn.
Watching Blossom call to her baby and lick it clean was absolutely heartbreaking. Her udder was huge, so we knew we’d need to milk her to relieve the pressure. We left her with the calf for a few hours. When we came back, to our shock, there was another one—also stillborn. She’d been carrying twins.
They had shared a placenta, which likely caused complications. In cases like this, the hormones from the male can affect the female, often leaving her sterile. It also explained why the birth was so difficult—both calves had tried to come at once and got stuck.
Early the next morning, Missy drove down to the dairy to see if they had any young calves we could graft onto Blossom. They had plenty and were struggling to care for them all, so they gave us two.
When we got them home, we put Blossom in the milking crush. Within minutes, the calves were feeding—and best of all, she accepted them! It’s been a few days now, and she’s being an incredible mum to both of her adopted babies.
