We had two heifer calves born from Gooseberry and Sorrel just before the beginning of May. All seemed okay at first, until we saw Gooseberry’s calf was only feeding from a small extra teat (called a supernumerary teat). Gooseberry’s main teats had become very large – far too big for her small calf to feed on and her udders were getting swollen and tight. The calf had got small amounts of milk and colostrum from the supernumerary, but not nearly enough to grow on and was becoming weak.
So, we brought in both the cow and calf, milked the cow in the cattle crush, fed the calf on the milk and colostrum with a bottle and tried to get her on to the main teats. It was hard to get the milk to come out at first, and she was very patient while we were trying, but once it was flowing well, she produced a full nine litres and continued to do so every day. We fed as much as could of this to the calf, (who we called Ginger), and within days she was much stronger, but because of being so late to feed and then having so much, she now had a huge sticky wad of colostrum poo glueing her tail to her hind quarters which took a good few hours to unstick using a pair of small scissors and a bucket of soapy water – and she still couldn’t get on to Gooseberry’s large teats.
By now Gooseberry was completely miserable. Our cows spend all year outdoors eating grass and are rarely in the barn, and poor Gooseberry hated being kept in. We decided the calf was strong enough not to need constant watching and tame enough to feed with a bottle in the field so we decided we would let them both out and bring Gooseberry back in once a day to be milked. We used the milk to bottle feed Ginger as often as we could in the field which was usually four to five times a day – plus a feed while mum was in the crush. This all started at the end of April and was the routine for the next three weeks.
In this time, we learnt a surprising amount about cow handling or, at least, about handling Gooseberry. At first, she went easily into the crush. Once in, after a few small kicks on the initial first squeeze, due to her udders being full and a bit sore, she relaxed, and was totally fine, by the end she looked visibly relieved. But, as the days went on, Gooseberry became increasingly reluctant to go into the yard and the crush and got wise to every trick we tried on her.
Every day we would call the cows in for some cow cake, and they would all happily trot into the pens, all except Gooseberry. She is usually first in the queue for food, but now she would turn and obstinately walk the other way. The only thing that worked was to lead Ginger in first and being a good protective mum she would follow.
Once in the pens, Gooseberry showed hardly any interest in a bucket and would quickly turn if she saw us coming behind her to close a gate. We tried everything; tempting her with different foods, waving sticks, shouting and stamping our feet, but she just dug her heels in harder. We quickly learnt neither bullying nor cajoling worked. We even tried milking her in the field, which she would let us do for a while, before wandering off making it impossible to collect the milk in a bucket. Much like the old saying “never wrestle with a pig” I found myself saying daily, “never pick a fight with a cow”. As, in the end, the only thing that worked was to close off all other routes and be patient.
Later, we realised the discomfort in her udders meant she did not want to be jostled either by us or the other cows. So, we found a way to keep the other cows in sight whilst making a route to the crush that was just for her and were as gentle with her as possible.
People have since told us Highland cows are more likely to have oversized “bottle teats” as well as the small supernumerary teats that can causing this confusion, others have said that leaving the calves suckling over winter causes teat enlargement, but after doing some reading up it seems that both issues can affect all breeds and large teats are much more to do with genetics and the age of the cow then prolonged suckling.
Ginger is now much bigger and stronger. She is suckling from the rear two of Gooseberry’s teats mostly unassisted. We’re still milking every day to make sure she doesn’t get mastitis in her front udders.
I got called away for a few days as my dad had a fall walking on the croft (a whole other story). During this time Alasdair has become an expert in bringing Gooseberry into the yard and milking her by hand on his own. And I have found my newly learnt patience from cow handling to be particularly useful when trying to look after an eighty-year-old father who is stubbornly (and somewhat admirably) refusing to accept the limitations of old age.
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