Friday-Bruce arrived at the barn to find a heifer had calved over night.  From what he could tell we suspect the calf came backwards and didn't live.  She managed to deliver it and also the placenta but backwards calves need to be delivered quickly or they drown in the amniotic fluid.  We did blood draws for preg checks so I could get them in the mail.  With a holiday coming up I didn't want to take a chance of having to wait another week for information.  Bruce and Ed combined corn and I had errands in town to do.  Jason's corn has been harvested and Bruce took the time to make of video which will end up here soon I hope.  Bruce stopped at about 4 and checked the barn.  Another heifer was having her calf.  He unloaded a few more loads of corn and an hour later she hadn't made much progress so Bruce used the obstetrical chains to pull on the calves front legs and hold pressure so every time she pushed she made progress.  Once the calf was delivered he made sure she could wash him and gave him his roto coronavirus vaccine.  We had planned on going on our big card party "date", and when I got home Jim was here.  He offered to help me milk in order to speed things up.  Bruce continued to feed.  First he shoveled up the loose feed from the morning into the wheel barrow.  He then drove the feed cart into the feed room and hit the wheel barrow and tipped it over.  He shoveled the feed up again.  He started to run the haylage into the mixer and it quit coming down.  As it turned out he needed to let the unloader down a door.  He got back to mixing and started to run the corn through the hammer mill when the corn quit coming down.  He had emptied the holding bin so he had to go up and run corn out of the harvestore so he could continue mixing.  By the time Jim and I got the cows milked Bruce had just gotten the feed in the mixer.  Usually Bruce milks all the fresh heifers but the first one that freshened is very calm so I milked her myself.  The second heifer had only been milked once so I put a kicking clamp on her and prepped her.  She didn't stand still but she wasn't mean so Jim offered to put the milker on "since he heals faster than I do"  LOL.  She was pretty well behaved and we got her milked without incident.  Then came the heifer that had her calf late in the afternoon.  She is very laid back so we figured we could milk her also.  I put the kicking clamp on and prepped her and Jim went to put the milker on.  The pulsator wouldn't work so Bruce came and re clamped the wires that go through it.  It still wouldn't run so we ended up moving the heifer to a different stall so we could milk her.  In the end, Jim and I walked in the house at 10 p.m. and Bruce walked in at 10:30.  Needless to say, our date night was long cancelled.  Hopefully it will work better next month.

Saturday-All day it was misty, dreary and dark.  As always there was a long list of things we could do but we opted for an afternoon nap.  It was awesome!  We seem to have a pneumonia bug in the barn so Bruce spent morning milking taking the temperatures of anyone  we questioned.  The good news is they seem to respond very quickly to one of the very few drugs we can use that doesn't have a milk withhold.  It is very expensive but as long as we don't have to hold milk and add all the extra time involved in special needs cows, along with 3 fresh heifers, its worth it.

Sunday-As of today Bruce has treated 4 cows for whatever sickness we are dealing with.  They spike a temp and go off feed very quickly but also respond quickly when treated.  Bruce and Ed combined corn today.  As of tonight we are down to 19 acres left to do.  Bruce is anxious to move on to the next project of the season which is chopping the corn stalks back with a flail chopper, raking them in windrows and then stacking them for winter use.  We had another calf born today.  So far they have all been bulls which is perfect since we feed steers.  Joe came and helped me milk again tonight and Bruce mixed and fed.