We cannot honestly say Parsley is looking terribly like she is about to give birth. She actually seems to be ‘smaller’ than she was and whilst her udder is swelling, her back end is not. As with most mammalian livestock, pregnant females become very slack and loose around their vulva the nearer they get to giving birth and yet our ‘daily’ (or more) inspections are not seeing a lot of change!
We also had another incident this morning. We decided, in our wisdom, to give Parsley a bit more grass as the Collecting Area is a little wet still and as such she is making hoof prints in places. And so we opened the gate in the sure and certain knowledge that the electric fence that was holding the rest of the cows the other side of the field would ensure Parsley could graze in the top section without the others being able to annoy her. Well firstly, it was Parsley herself that approached the fence snorting and huffing and pawing at the ground and it was only a matter of time before Sage came over to do likewise. Our concern was initially for the grass that was getting all scuffed up but when heads went down for some serious head butting and the electric fence did not apparently seem to bother them, that was when we knew we had trouble. It seemed as through the cows were ‘happy’ to take the hit from the fence in order to get to each other but not enough to leap over it but then Sage must have had a 'lightbulb' moment, because she suddenly ran round to the other side of the field shelter where we had gated hurdles (not electrified) and vaulted clean over them.
We now had a good 700kg of cow being very 'arsey' and with both being pregnant, our concern was no longer for a bit of messed up grass, but rather the health and safety of both cows and unborn calves.
Hooray for the feed bucket. Parsley (who was starting to acknowledge she was not going to come out on top) decided eating cow nuts was a much better way to spend her morning and having ‘ushered’ Sage back past the field shelter and in with the others again, Parsley meekly followed Jack back into the Cow Pad! Phew!!!
Our afternoon was then spent creating a 20 metre wide corridor between TWO sets of electric fencing so that the worst the two girls can now do is glare at each other from afar!!
We breathed a sigh of relief that we had been able to resolve things quickly and without either cow getting hurt but it did confirm what powerful – and stubborn – beasts the Dexters are and how crucial having them bucket trained is as well. It also reinforced how differently livestock can and will behave when pregnant/with young and how one must never make assumptions about their behaviour, no matter how well you think you know them!!!