Today was one of those once ever 3 months, do over days. Days you really wish that you could do over again.
Calving went pretty good overnight but the problems started once the sun came up. I went to start the tractor so i could feed and guess what? A flat tire on the rear. I looked the tire over and couldn't see a problem so i filled it with air and thought it would hold while we fed. I could feel some air leaking in the vicinity if the valve stem but not having any spare parts for the valve stem decided it would be stupid to try to fix it. At least it was kinda holding air now, why mess it up.
We checked heifers and left to go feed the cows, who are over 5 miles away. We got over there and went to start loading hay when guess what? No, the back tire was still fine, but both front tires on the tractor were almost flat. Now over here I have no electricity or any way to run an air compressor to try to fill them but I do have a propane tank which in a pinch you can use to air tires up. The problem is the hose is at home for doing that so we have to run home to get it. Once at home we get the hose and think we had better check heifers before we leave. It's only been an hour since we last looked at them and guess what, 4 of them are calving. So we have to split up to get the feeding done and watch heifers.
I finally got propane in the tires so I could feed but it was a long drawn out process before I was done. I kept having to add propane to the one tire to keep it up.
When I got home two of the heifers had calved, and two hadn't. The one needed pulled right away so I dug in and got that task done. One of the calves that was born by itself was not doing good. I am not sure what is wrong with it but it appeared to be cold and hadn't moved much. I run it to the house to put in on the porch to warm up and decided to arm the last heifer that hadn't calved and see what the problem with her was.
I reached in and could tell immediately the calf was dead. Damn. I tried to pull it but I couldn't get the head to come up like it should. It kept flipping over and back. Since we don't have this kind of problem very often I am not very skilled at dealing with it. I worked at it for 15-20 minutes and decided it would be best to take it into the vets and have them get the calf out. The heifer was worth too much alive to mess around any longer. So now I get an hour drive into town to get this heifer fixed.
Finally got back home with the heifer and dead calf and hings are finally slowing down. I just had another heifer calve but everything is just fine with it. The one slow calf is still on the porch warming up and I don't have a lot of hope for the situation but I will keep on trying.
One dead calf, one calf in very poor shape, 3 tractor tires flat, and a whole day on the run non-stop. Definitely a do over day if I could. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
I don't want to do the same thing over and over again. Dylan Moran
