Poor Cow.

This is the field that has been blipped in the past for its mutton content but today, it is full of heifers. This poor young lady doesn’t look too happy - and with good reason, she aborted her calf last night and is awaiting a taxi to transport her to a convalescent home while her companions appear to be rather anxious. There she will be rested and fed lots of good food to build her up before she meets the AI man again.

We had a long chat with the herd manager and two vet students who were looking after things. It seems that the mishap is being put down to the stress of a first pregnancy. It seems that spontaneous abortions are relatively common in cattle primigravidas; Mrs TD, who used to be a midwife, will tell you that the same is true with humans. It was nice to know that they were not putting it down to neospora, a disease that is passed around between dogs and cattle through the dogs scavenging afterbirth and then leaving spores in their faeces. The blame is often put on the dogs when they are only one link in the chain, and is also a bit unfair as the disease was initially brought into Britain through inappropriate importation of livestock. I’m not going to take a strong line on this as it was the importation of bees that brought varroa into the country. However, we always pick up any mess from dogs in our care when walking in the fields.