The Accidental Agrarian

Meet Maple, Claddagh Farm’s latest addition. Maple is a newly born Guernsey, dairy bull calf. His mother, Hazel, has been with us since just after we moved to the farm in late March. Of course, we had been hoping for a nice heifer calf, to help us keep our decisions simple….you see, we would have kept a heifer, for sure. But I’ll get to that in a minute………

By all accounts Hazel was overdue when she had Maple. In fact, I was beginning to panic a bit, because her udder was horribly distended. I began to worry, so a few days before she actually had her calf, I began to milk Hazel to relieve some of the pressure on her udder. This was not an option I took lightly, as the first milk which a cow produces is the all important colostrum–an essential food which a calf needs to have within hours of being born, in order to gain immunity to diseases and share it’s mother’s antibodies. Nevertheless, I began to milk Hazel, and freeze her colostrum for later use. It was also my hope that the process of milking might stimulate Hazel to go into labor. It worked.

A few days after I began milking, Hazel had her calf out on pasture mid-morning. The girl’s found Maple on a regular check of what Hazel was up to and reported back to me, duly excited…. By the time I arrived, Hazel had cleaned up her boy and he was already on his feet trying to nurse–unsuccessfully. He was coated in flies, so I carried him down to the barn to get out of the scorching sun. Hazel seem to be so relieved to be unburdened, she began to graze heartily and had to be coaxed down to the barn with grain and a lead rope.

Despite milkings and frequent udder massages, Hazel’s udder was still swollen. I decided to call in a vet. Unfortunately none were prepared to come to the farm. However, on speaking to one retired large-animal vet, he happened to mention making up some dandelion tea to give Hazel as a diuretic to help relieve her Edema. Sounded good to me. The girl’s and I picked bunches of dandelion greens and steeped them in hot water until we had a rich tea. I meanwhile milked Hazel out and fed her calf some colostrum from a bottle.

Normally one must drench a cow–that is, force liquid into her with a bottle and tube–to make sure she gets the medicine she needs. I, however, decided to allow Hazel to choose the amount of dandelion tea she wanted and put it in a bucket instead. We also began feeding her comfrey & dandelion greens as well–both are diuretics, and comfrey greens have the added benefit of being high in calcium, which should help stave off Milk Fever.

Now, several days later, Hazel’s udder is largely back to normal. Maple will continue to drink from his mother for a few more days. And Hazel is starting to conform, once again, to the routine of twice daily milkings….Her edema, the calf nursing and her post-partum condition aren’t creating ideal milk flow, but were still getting a few gallons per day–most of which is going to the pigs right now until the colostrum is cleared away, and any blood from the trauma of the edema dissipates.

And what of Maple’s future? Maple was unfortunate to be born a dariy bull-calf. There isn’t much use for dairy bulls, and what’s more is they can be dangerous and unruly. If Maple was born on most farms, around the world, he would already be dead. It’s too costly and time-consuming for commercial dairies to raise bull-calves. They are put down immediately. Some farms sell their calves off to large veal concerns, where they spend thier lives chained to a shelter and are fed a mixture of artificial milk replacer and antibiotic. Not so, Maple.

Maple will still be made into veal, here on the farm. The reality is, in addition to being born a bull calf, he is also a diary bull–they just don’t gain like beef cattle. He would need to be raised to 2 years old before having enough meat on him to justify the cost of raising him and processing. That would mean I would need to carry him over two winters. Winter feed is expensive. I would never break-even on the deal–even if we were keeping his meat for ourselves.

No, I feel, the best option this year for a calf, like Maple, is to raise him with love & care and enjoy humanely raised, organically produced veal ourselves. He can be raised on his mother’s milk, and when he’s old enough, have all the skimmed milk he wants. He can graze outside in the sun during the summer–and be free to roam the barn in the fall. His meat won’t be the pale, milky white of what many consider the best veal–little do they stop to consider the horrid condition such calves are raised in. Maple’s meat will be full of flavor, texture and have a Ros?� hue to it–hence the British term Ros?� Veal. I am fine with that. I know I will give Maple the best, albeit short, life he can possibly have. He won’t need any unnecesary medications or growth promoters. He will be raise naturally on Organic principles and spend his life and death here on the farm where he was born. He will also be honored during many dinners eaten here on the farm. To many, this may sound horrid, cruel or unkind. I don’t know how anyone can possibly see it as that. I offer Maple the same love and respect I do all my livestock–both in life and death. He will be butchered with as little waste as possible.

Am I cold? Am I unfeeling? No. I am a realist who, in these uncertain times, is prepared to do what is best for my livestock, my family, and the cause of good dining.

Technorati Tags: veal, dairy, cows, calf, Hazel, Maple, farming, agriculture, food, cooking, meat

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This entry was posted by Podchef on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 10:29 am and is filed under Commentary, Dairy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.