Calving
Early this morning, calf no. 3 was born on Glengorm. He was discovered by Tom and Asha whilst they were feeding and unfortunately he came into the world on a very wet and windy day.
Our calving period at Glengorm, runs through February to the end of May. The bulls go out early June and the gestation period for Highland cattle is 283 days. They are often born into bad weather.
The rain, wind and hail persisted and Tom made the decision to go and take the cow and calf into the shed. The calf’s mother is a heifer and this was her first calf. The calf was maybe 12 hours old and hadn’t appeared to have suckled yet. Highlanders are very resilient and don’t mind bad weather, but when we reached them both, the calf looked really cold!!
We walked them back to the boat shed by the pier, which wasn’t an easy task, the field was very wet and boggy and the calves weak legs were struggling. The heifer won’t enjoy being stuck in the shed tonight, but we will sleep easier. Hopefully tomorrow the calf will have fed and they will be let loose again
