New Calves and Milk Bar Training
I thought I would just tell you a little bit more about the calves and maybe share with you some of the numbers and then you can hear about the escapades and know which cow I'm talking about or which calf. So this morning there were an additional 15 calves. These will probably be 2-3 weeks old and some of them are staying and some of them are going to another farm. But already I've got one that is very small, I think it's number 88 and I'm calling that one Tiny because it's much smaller than the rest. Phil thinks it's probably slightly premature but very sweet.
So we managed to feed them all, we got them all on the milk bar. Some of them needed a bit of education and teaching to get them to latch on to the teat but everybody did it quite easily really. 72 was a bit late to the game so he or she came up just when all the milk had run out so Phil gave that one a bottle and all the others were fine. We got them all on, we had to sort of encourage them a little bit so you get them to suck your fingers and then you guide them into the teat and then sort of just get their mouth onto the teat and once they've grasped that they're fine. So we fed all of them first.
62 in Bay 1 looked a bit peaky today but it did feed quite well. But yeah, I don't know, it just looks very sorry for itself. It's had a bit of trouble from the beginning, I think it had a bit of an infection so it's been on different antibiotics and injections but yeah, if anything happens it's most likely going to be that one. But hopefully, fingers crossed, it will be okay. I gave it some reiki which I always do when an animal's a bit under par and I'll make sure I go and give it some more reiki and see if that will help.
39, as usual, is fine, very cuddly so I had a few moments with him. He's definitely a boy, he's a bull. And then little white bull in Bay 2 is another one of my favourites and we always have a bit of a cuddle every day as well. But there are a few more now that are just starting to come over and let you stroke them. Some of them are still shy but there's quite a number now that are just getting more tame and 21 came over yesterday and that one's definitely getting more friendly.
So yeah, quite a busy morning. We've only got two and a half feeders so we've got one feeder with six teats, one feeder with five teats and then another one with three. So we've got some calves in a bay and there's only three of them so that took care of them. So there's lots of changing over, washing milk bars and moving things from one place to another. Ideally we could do with more but yeah, we've got a system, we just need to update it now in light of the extra 15 that have arrived.
So yeah, that's today's tale from the cow shed. Everybody's fine, all fed, watered with their barley hay and hay, I think, well it's more barley straw than anything. Yeah, and they'll all be having a bit of a siesta now until their tummies start grumbling and they want some more food. So that's it for today. I'll update you again soon. Bye for now.