Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.
No Need for Words
It has been a week for new beginnings at Quill’s End Farm. A new batch of 8-week-old piglets from Spring Tide Farmstead in Sedgwick arrived first. Then came two heifers from cows Pippin and Ariel.
Most times, calvings go ever so smoothly, and sometimes, well…snafu.
Pippin made a snafu. In the wee hours of Wednesday, she birthed her heifer in the coldest spot in the barn. You’ll recall we had some weather on Wednesday. By the time I arrived in the barn for morning milking, that little calf was cold, and her attempts to stand weren’t enough. Calves really need to get up and going quickly. They also need to find that magical colostrum elixir to survive and thrive. I tucked her into a warmer spot for the duration of milking time. But by the time I finished, she could barely suck on a nipple.
Fortunately, under slightly different circumstances last year, I learned how to intubate a calf. That saved a life this week, as her first four feedings required nothing of her. Every chore time, we offered her a bottle with her mother’s warm milk. Yet on day two, even Carolyn’s hour-long effort only put four ounces into her.
Imagine our surprise the next chore time when Carolyn tried again and the calf nursed down a litre (just over a quart here in the USA) in record time. We knew then she would make it. My heart jumped the next morning when upon my arrival in the barn, she was nursing from Mama Pippin like a champ. No more intervention needed.
In stark contrast, Ariel (Pippin’s daughter) calved this morning. I knew it would happen today because she told me.
When a dairy cow is on vacation from lactation, she does not come into the milking parlor. The cows in milk know their turn and wait at the door to the parlor accordingly. Ariel has not set her aims toward that door for two months, but she did this morning. Over the half door, she looked at me longingly as if needing attention, and then found a spot in the barn to isolate herself.
During milking time, the barn floor is devoid of bedding as it has been removed with the manure. Not until after milking, while the cows are all still eating, is fresh bedding applied to the floor. Ariel waited patiently. As soon as I bedded the best calving spot (extra thickly), she made her nest and got to work. Two hours later the calf was on her feet and looking for nourishment.
Most times, things go ever so smoothly.
Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Heather is Vice President of Halcyon Grange #345 and writes a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and has generously permitted us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.