Chapter 20 - Calves go to market

31-10-07

Our five calves went off to market yesterday to be sold today. We haven’t done this for years as we usually sell them privately. Many years ago, Roy and I took a bunch of calves to Helston market. The night before, the family each wrote down how much they thought each animal would bring. No prizes for the one who was nearest! At that time a ten month old bull calf brought £409 and was top of the market, we never achieved that sort of price again. At that time we used to buy a few week-old calves from a neighbour and rear them with a bucket of powdered milk mixed up with warm water; a job I really liked, so did the children!! “Oh please can I have that one, she’s cute, I’ll look after her and pay for her food and can I have that other one as well? They make a lovely pair!!” … “All right as long as you will feed them after school and weekends.” That lasted for about a week although occasionally we would hear “How are my calves?” When the calves were eventually sold, the children were there, waiting for their money, our precious income reduced!!

This year our son Philip came to load up the calves, not forgetting their passports, and took them up to Truro Market where they stayed overnight in the pens. We kept back one calf because he lost his mother in the summer and is not doing as well as the rest, it would bring down the price of the others if they were sold in a group. The market was like a “Calf Hilton”; bedding, hay, water and the animals very well looked after, which means no panic while loading early in the morning. Roy went up to the market and drove them around in the ring as they were being sold. There is no excitement any more in anticipating what they might bring but we were satisfied … it could have been worse, but it could have been so much better!!

Only seven cows and one yearling steer left now. One of those cows will have to go soon because she didn’t have a calf and we really can’t afford silage to feed a cow from which we will get no return.

The following spring we have five calves, so that means another cow will have to go. The cows all calved quite easily except for the last one which gave us a big problem as well as a big vet’s bill!! A super Australian vet had to perform an episiotomy which we have never before had to have done. He saved the bull calf and it turned out to be a “smacker” and the cow recovered very quickly. The first calf we had here over twenty years ago was born dead and we were hoping that the last one wasn’t going to go that way too!!

We have beef cows, mainly Herefords, who are bred to produce animals for meat. Bull calves are preferable as they are bigger and therefore make more money, but heifers are acceptable!! However a dairy farmer has the opposite problem as they breed dairy cows, Guernseys, Friesians etc to produce milk and have no use for the bull calves, only for heifers which will be replacements when the old cows leave the herd. This means that after a bull calf has struggled to be born and takes those first steps on his wobbly legs, he’s shot.
This summer, 2007, we decided not to have a bull again and to change our farming policy, what to we are not quite sure! We cannot keep the cows as pets but we can’t see them go, not just yet. It has now becoming expensive hobby … farming!!!

An up date on this is that we have decided to put our cows in calf by AI (artificial insemination.) carried out by Pat the AI man. The calves will be arriving much later next year but the farm would seem very empty without calves. So much for the change in our farming policy! It just shows that farming is the life we are so used to and the thought of retiring is as far away as ever!!!

Monica Olds