Foggy, damp, cool and dreary followed by the sun coming out. When we started milking it was 80 degrees with 84% humidity. Just a bit sticky. Joe came and helped milk this morning with Bruce and I got to take care of other things that needed doing. I did have a very strange event feeding the calf that was born last night. She was standing in her hutch and I helped her go out front so I could stand up while I fed her. I straddled her neck, facing the same direction as she was so she would stand still and eat. She had half of her bottle done when Bruce looked out of the milk house and I heard him say "what the heck!!" What he saw was the clot in her umbilical cord dropped out and she instantly left a big puddle of blood and was bleeding. Almost instantly she was too weak to stand. I pinched the cord off and he got an elastrator band, the ones we use for banding bull calves. The first one he put on he got on a little too far out and the cord filled up ( ballooned) above it so he put another one on. That one stayed in place and stopped it. Bruce called the vet and was told he did exactly what they would have done and that calves generally regenerate blood pretty quickly. Tonight she was laying flat out and sleeping really hard as I would expect. I gave her electrolytes first and then milk later, both with the stomach tube so she didn't have to do any more work than necessary. She definitely was not impressed with my quick feed idea but we got what she needed into her. She seems tired but otherwise OK. We will see how she does tomorrow. She is calf 908 and that is the first time I have had that happen.
With the rainy weather, Bruce and I both scheduled appointments in town today so no extra farming happened. Tonight while we milked we could see plenty of lightning in storms that went east of us. Supposedly there will be better weather by the weekend. Joe is coming tomorrow so we need to get a summer list going. It will be nice to have the extra help.
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