Death on the Farm

I didn’t expect to spend the evening helping birth a cow. Hell, it seemed like a pretty fast turnaround. In the morning, my wife says she’s pretty sure one of her belted galloways is ready to give birth–we didn’t even know the girl was pregnant, for Christ’s sake.

So there we were, attaching gates to the squeeze cage inside the enclosure, and sure enough here comes the uncle to help. The galloway is nervous about everything, but she lets us guide her into the squeeze cage pretty easily. Before I know it, the uncle’s arm is slathered with soapy water and in he goes. I’m getting excited because this is all happening so fast and I’ve never seen anything like this.

“I think it’s dead.”

He reaches around a little more, gets two of the legs and pulls them out. He uses blue twine to tie the legs together. My wife helps and together, they birth this little calf. Stillborn. It was heartbreaking, seeing it laying there, mouth open just a little bit, skin loose on the muscles.