Tagging the calves
Yesterday was lots of fun, if not a little scary. Eric brought the cows and baby calves into the yards so we could tag the babies and treat the mums and calves homeopathically.
This is really Cathy’s post describing this fun process.
Eric brought the cows & calves in with the horse. The cattle were quite stirry because they were protecting their babies. It was great to see but made the job a bit dangerous.
Eric & I went and drafted the calves off the cows in the back yards, leaving the kids to sort eartags for the new calves.
The whole process was very scary with the mums charging us and not wanting to leave their babies. Their was a lot of jumping on fences from Eric and I hid behind the gate, opening and closing depending on what was coming through at the time. To beef farmers this will all make sense, others will think we are crazy.
After drafting, we bought all the mums down, treated them with the required remedies, which were Cantharis, Tonic, Bonding and Mastitis.
The little black calves came through next to have ear tags put in and also to be treated homeopathically. They needed Cantharis, Tonic, Grief and Travel Sickness. Because mum had already had the first two remedies and would transfer it through her milk we only used the Grief and Travel Sickness on the babies.
It was great to watch the kids working as a team. Six year old Brockie was their squirting the remedies on the calves noses (until he tired of the job), Jay and Hannah helped their dad move the calves through the yards and down the race and then were handing ear tags during that part of the process. Brockie who the week before had watched a baby being born and had expressed a wish to cuddle the little babies, got his wish. They were soft and strong and very healthy.
Just a note at the end: The remedies we used were chosen using muscle testing.