So far we have four bull calves born on the property - Abraham, Aaron, Abel & Alistair. Our first-born, Abraham, went down with paralysis tick at 8days old and for the next 5 days we sucessfully nursed him through a period of being unable to stand, suck or swallow effectivly. Having let us care for her baby Tracy (one of our more shy/wild heifers) would still come to look at him but not get close - that is until Loola came down and made a neusance of herself - this arroused all of Tracy's maternal feelings, she chased the dog away and ran to her baby to protect him. At this stage he was still unable to get to standing by himself but could stay standing for a bit and suckle strongly from mum once I lifted him into standing. Now that he was suckling from her again Tracy did not want me near her calf anymore but he still needed me to get him back up onto his feed to suckle from her. I went to help Abraham and Tracy chased me away. So I stood at a distance for a while and waited. Two of the herd calves that we had earlier bought from the calf sales and hand-reared came up to me for a pat. Tracy moved away from Abraham a bit so I slowly walked back to him and the two herd calves followed then stood between Abraham and Tracy so I could lift him to his feet. Tracy was watching wearily but with the other calves hindering her from seeing me touch her baby she didn't charge me this time. I then moved away and she came back and fed her thirst little calf. Abraham is, not surprisingly after being so close to death, slightly stunted in growth compared with the other calves but otherwise now doing well.

Cheeky hid to have her calf and experienced difficulties. By the time we found her in the deep ditch of a dry creak bed overhung with lantana and cats claw her calf was dead and Cheeky was torn and had claving paralysis. We rigged up a bit of a slay to bring her over the hill and back to the yards so we could nurse her back to health. She is now back on her feet and doing well.

Joyce is our next heifer due to calf.