A small tragedy 20th Mar 2009

A small tragedy

Was it the beast of Dartmoor that killed my calf?

We did not get home last Sunday until after dark. Straightaway I went to check on the heifers that are close to calving.  Immediately I found Lal standing with the others, her afterbirth trailing - where was her calf? One heifer was missing, Super Annie.  She was very posessive and may have stolen Lal's calf.  Sure enough in the next field there she was with a bonny bull calf with no indication that she had herself calved ; so  I concluded, and proceeded to carry the baby to the barn where it would be reunited with its rightful mother . Lal however would have none of it, and knocked it away.  So it must be Super Annie's after all - and so it proved.  A search soon revealed another calf, a small heifer lying dead ; and Lal knowing this must have left it.

Meanwhile across the field, away from the others, Square Faced Annie lay down and produced a calf of her own, safely.  None of these were expected just yet and three of them had calved in the space of a few hours - very odd.  The dead calf would be removed tomorrow.

When I went to do so in daylight,  I discovered to my consternation a second calf lying under a gorse bush, completely eviscerated and eaten.  Was it alive the previous evening? Its mother not knowing about twins, leaving it.  I felt awful ; and wondered.  Was it a fox or a badger?  It was a lot of damage and others I spoke to thought neither would have done that.  And why did three heifers calve together?  Had they been traumatised?  Erica, who had seen them earlier, found them lying quietly - very strange.

Later I heard that Sue next door had been troubled by something worrying her ewes and their lambs ; a dog or one of the pumas we know there are about? Time may tell.