Primary Care Farmers surprise visit

Last Wednesday saw our Primary Care Farmers get a surprise !

Richard, our lovely Harpers Feeds Nutritionist visited our Care Farmers just as they had finished feeding the calves their milk. As we went into the calf pens to have a chat and with the intention of weighing the calves, we had a bit of a surprise, and not a very good one !

One of our calves suddenly dropped to the ground, kicking at its stomach and blowing up like a balloon. A quick call to the Vets saw Matt and a student arrive in record speed time. Matt put a tube down the calf's throat to help release the gas that was stuck in its stomach. 2 injections of Buscapam were needed to ensure it didn't happen again. The danger with gassing up that quickly is the pressure it puts on the calf's lungs, restricting their breathing. If this had gone unnoticed, then the calf would have died. So, the students not only got told some valuable information from Richard, they also got to witness first hand how quickly things can change and how quickly you need to respond to them.

We did get to weigh some calves, but all of them ! The ones we did weigh are doing really well, putting on over 1kg a day.