Saturday 20 November 2010
Yesterday we all had a new experience here at the farm. We had a cow that needed an emergency caesarian! Gordon suggested I take photos to show you all how it went, but I declined, so be grateful for small mercies. I went from feeling a bit tearful when the vet said she needed it, to queasy when he started tugging and pulling the dead calf out (the noises were horrible), to fascinated when asked to ‘assist’ by getting the catgut out of the container for the vet to cut. Up until that point I’d stayed carefully out of viewing distance but when I had no choice but to stand beside the cow it wasn’t as awful as I’d anticipated.
The cow is on her feet and munching away at silage as if nothing is wrong and will probably be milked tomorrow morning. It took me eight weeks to get over mine and I wasn’t allowed to drive for months.
We could have coped!
With the photos? My daughters would never have spoken to me again if I’d have put that on here!
Well, yes: if we can handle this post
http://torchlakeviews.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/putting-meat-by/
But maybe it is the UK, that is a bit sensitive to such matters
I looked at the website and actually, it was well-handled considering the subject. We send our animals away for slaughter and butchering, but a beef steer is so much bigger than a pig. We’ve been discussing getting a few pigs (if we’re still here in a year or so), but I still don’t think I could kill it myself and I know Gordon couldn’t as he’s softer than me. I wouldn’t know what I was doing anyway.
I agree with the philosophy involved though. When asked how we could eat an animal we’ve raised ourselves and probably named, we reply that if we intend to eat meat we’d rather know the animal had a good life, was well-treated and well-fed rather than eating something about which we know nothing. In my view, the lack of questions asked about meat production by ‘the general public’ is almost condoning any treatment, good or bad. In the UK we have strict regulations and I’d like to think the majority of farmers follow them, but imported meat? Who knows?
OK, this is me stopping now before I get too polical
[...] you remember Milly, the cow that needed a caesarian in November 2010 (details are here)? She calved again on Thursday and this time everything went according to plan. She delivered a [...]