Dairy Farm Adventures: First-time mothers

by Lee-Rae Jordan-Oliver
    In the spring of 2008, Matthew and I bought twenty pregnant Lineback heifers. Their sleek black bodies with the white racing stripe running down their backs made them look like beauty queens compared to the first ten cows we bought a year earlier.
    Heifers are young, first-time mothers who don’t have a clue. Shortly after their arrival, they started dropping calves at a rapid rate. Within two weeks, ten of them had given birth. Calves were coming out of rears and milk was flowing out our ears. We were in the process of becoming certified organic dairy farmers. Until we were officially organic, we could not sell our milk. Therefore, we gave it to a local farmer who had pigs to feed. Matthew bought a milk pasteurizer, but we were so busy taking care of cows and calves and trying to figure out what to do each day, we never used it. Matthew kept a gallon of raw milk in the fridge for himself, but I preferred Houlton Farms Dairy skim milk.
    Unlike most veteran mother cows, some of our heifers needed birthing assistance. On one particular night, Matthew and I attempted to help a cow that was having trouble giving birth. The calf’s two front feet and snout had been sticking out the cow’s birth canal for a long time, not making any progress. So Matthew took one foot and I took the other and we pulled for all we were worth each time she had a contraction. For twenty minutes we tugged till sweat dripped down our noses. Every time we yanked, the heifer bellowed at the top of her lungs. I thought we were going to kill her. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” raced through my head.
    Thankfully, Matthew decided it was time to bring in the troops. Near midnight, Matthew called a nearby cow farmer and his wife to help us. A few minutes later, Tim and Sharon marched into our barn with chains and special hand grips. Tim secured the chains on the calf’s front feet and ordered Matthew to lie down beside him in the straw. Not knowing what else to do, I knelt beside the heifer’s head and stroked her face trying to sooth her. At the next contraction, the two men pulled while Sharon placed her hands into the cow’s birth canal and stretched the skin up and over the calf’s head. In less than a minute, the huge bull calf slid out safe and sound. Tim and Sharon assured us the cow and calf would be fine. Until we had cows of our own, I was oblivious to the fact farmers delivered calves on a daily basis so I could drink a glass of cold milk with my chocolate chip cookie.
    Sharon became my heroine. I imagine she would rather do other things besides deliver calves at midnight. However, she did not hesitate to get slimy and smelly so she could help her husband help us. Tim and Sharon were a husband and wife team who worked extremely well together. They knew each other’s moves before they made them.
    When you’re running a family farm, the husband and wife have to be in sync. Diving into dairy farming headfirst made it challenging for me to be synchronized with Matthew, but I was determined to swim hard and fast to keep up with him. We learned a lot from Tim and Sharon that night, and we didn’t kill the cow.
    Editor’s Note: Lee-Rae Jordan-Oliver and her husband Matt are former educators who own a dairy farm in Hodgdon. Her column, discussing life on a farm in 2011, will appear on an ongoing basis in The Houlton Pioneer Times.