During the past few weeks, we have had a couple of fun “Monday Night Movies;” the first was when one of our best sows farrowed and the second was a week ago when Adisyn’s Hereford cow calved.
This particular sow is very calm and raises excellent pigs each time. We were able to take the back door out of the hut and let the kids quietly watch as she was giving birth to her piglets. She ended up having 13 pigs and so far has saved 11 of them.
We had been watching Adisyn’s cow carefully as we were all really excited to see what her calf would be. Last Monday evening she finally went into labor. To start with everything went as it should. Both front feet were present, as was the nose, when we checked her shortly after her water bag had busted.
Scott and I told the kids they could sit on the 4-wheeler and watch her calve while we did the pig chores. By the time we finished chores it was approaching dark, we decided to go ahead and pull the calf so that it would be here safe and sound. It wasn’t a hard pull as Scott and I pulled the calf by hand fairly quickly. However, the calf was VERY slow to take its first breath. We used the techniques we typically do, clean out the calf’s nose and mouth, tickle the inside of it’s nose with a piece of grass, pick it up by its back feet and swing it…but it still wouldn’t breath. By this time, the kids knew that something was amiss and had begun praying for the calf. We repeated all the tricks multiple times and still it wouldn’t take a breath. The cow was beginning to lick it to clean it off and still nothing. Scott tried to blow in its nostril and we could hear the air going in yet nothing. We repeated all the other tricks and still nothing. Finally, after the third time of Scott blowing air into the calf’s nostril it FINALLY took that deep breath.
Thankfully God heard our prayers and answered them! Today the calf is a healthy, bouncy week old baby who is quickly becoming a big pet.
Blessings,
Jennifer
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