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As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in the jeep, parked beside a cattle crush at the end of a quiet, grassy lane. I’m waiting for the farmer to bring my next patient to be examined.
I drove on to a farm one day last week and pulled up in front of the nearest shed. When I got out, it was eerily quiet. There wasn’t an animal, or a person to be seen.
While in transit to a cow having difficulty calving, I was idly listening to the radio, and the Elton John song The Circle of Life came on.
It’s not every day a middle school class invention is declared street legal by the Governor but that’s exactly what happened at the Executive Mansion on Wednesday.
Vet Eamon O'Connell: 'Calves are by far the most vulnerable animals when turned out at this time of year' Also, don’t be afraid to keep the cows indoors for a night if conditions are particularly bad. There seems to be a fear of bringing cows back in, as if it is a failure of some kind in the eyes of neighbours or rival farmers. You don’t have to tell anyone — if the neighbours don’t know and you didn’t post it on social media, did it even happen? Suckler cows don’t have it as good as dairy cows, in that, once they are turned out to grass, that’s it.