The Native Iowan

Gotta luv being a farmer. A farmer in Queensland.

The land of extremes. Australia is.

We’ve had a long running “good weather” system of late. Of course the past year or more of great weather has come on the back of a drought of a millennium, on the back of huge floods and a cyclone called Yasi, on the bank of a big drought…

Welcome to Queensland, Mate.

Farming has its monument. Some good, some bad.

I ended my day, on Tuesday, out in the paddocks, watching a cow preparing to give birth. She is a good cow, has been around, never had problems. The sun is setting. The cow does not appear to be in distress. I go home.

First thing in the morn, its not a pretty picture… dead calf, hanging out, hanging from the mother. She’s on the ground, by the stream, up against a bank. Floods have been regular lately so the river-bed is very clean. The cow in not in peril, we should be ok… kinda.

First step it to pull the dead calf and dispose of it. Easy enough.

Second is to try to make the mother stand up. A cow dies if it lies down. She is stressed, so wont stand, I try to move her. She loses her footings, does a 360 roll, tries to stand, ends up lying in the stream bed.

Not great, not terrible. I dont want to push n prod n hassle her more. She’s not in distress, yet. It’s a warm day, being in the water is not terrible, I’ll come back.

So she was still down when I came back later. Used the tractor and forks and the buggy, with Angelo’s help. We got her up. Not all that easy to achieve. But the day ended with her on her feet, grazing. All good, kinda.

She was still up the next morning so we must have done something right. Still watching but I’d say we are past the danger point.

Makes me feel successful.

And the beat goes on, more later