| Cows from local farm star at state fair |
|
By Joel Stottrup Cow no. 3506 from Haubenschild Farms in rural Princeton was a star at the Minnesota State Fair last Saturday morning. The star bovine performed inside a cattle-fence ring of about 25 feet diameter, and on a floor covered with livestock bedding. The ring was inside the CHS Miracle Birth Center on the cattle barn corner of the state fairgrounds. Positioned around the ring were fairgoers poised to witness the birth of a calf from no. 3506, a regal, full-bodied Holstein dairy cow. It was 9:30 a.m. last Saturday at the Miracle Birthing Center when the crowd filled this most popular free attraction at the state fair, according to FFA region 7 president Caitlin Kasper, was full. Many stood several rows thick outside the cow ring, while others sat on bleachers for the view of the cow. Inside the ring with no. 3506 were one or two video camera operators to show closeups of the action on monitor screens overhead. The drama begins The cow walked about the space inside the ring, every once in awhile glancing beyond the fence, as if looking at a particular spectator. You might have gotten the feeling the cow was thinking, “Can’t anyone have a little privacy?” But the crowd acted very sympathetically toward the cow, with many rooting for her during the birthing and when she tried to get her newborn calf to stand for the first time. It was at about 9:35 a.m. when the announcer declared that the cow had “broken its water,” indicating delivery of a calf was not far off. The announcer commented that the cow could begin having her calf in either the next two minutes or within hours. The announcer began filling in time by asking farm-related questions like – How many baby pigs are in an average litter? Answer – 10-12. Sue Egan, from Minneapolis, who was among the spectators on the bleachers, didn’t seem to need any farm questions to keep her attention. Her gaze was riveted on the cow in the ring. Egan had watched two calves being born there last year. The year before that, she said, she watched a calf being born the wrong way, which was breach, or back end first. At first the veterinarians thought the breach calf might not live, but they got it going out of the birth canal, using a specialized chain to assist, Egan said. The calf wasn’t breathing at first, but then all of a sudden they got it breathing, Egan continued. The assistants in the ring got the newborn calf that had struggled to be born, and the mother cow close to each other so the mother could nudge it to get up, Egan said. Egan remembers how the crowd had let out a collective “Ooooh” when the calf finally began breathing, and clapped when it got to its feet. “I’m a city person and I don’t see this too often,” Egan declared. “Country people see this all the time.” Egan, this past Saturday morning, predicted at about 9:40 that the cow in the ring was ready to give birth “pretty soon.” Egan noted that the cow was having contractions. “I hope the head comes out first,” Egan said. “I hate to see it when they put the chain around it and pull it. Poor cow.” Haubenschild cow no. 3506 was now backing up so its back end was getting closer to the fence in front of the bleachers where Egan sat. “As long as it doesn’t come up here,” Egan said, seeming a little concerned how close the back end was to the fence. The announcer then declared the cow was “dilating, and said the cow would be lying down eventually and would be pushing harder to give birth. It seemed that about a minute later, the cow laid down, as if on cue. It was now about 9:50 a.m. The next announcement was that the delivery could take anywhere from 15-60 minutes. It wasn’t but a few minutes later, that a balloon emerged from the cow’s birth canal and broke, releasing some fluid. Not long after, the first hoof of the calf emerged. Soon a second hoof came out, and the drama built as there was a seesaw motion of the hooves from the contractions. At about 10 a.m. a tip of the calf’s nose appeared and then disappeared back inside. Cow no. 3506 continued pushing and more of the calf nose emerged and then the frontal part of the calf’s face appeared. A big push made the rest of the head come out. After that, the delivery went fast and within minutes the whole calf came out and onto the animal bedding at close to 10 a.m. By then, two veterinarians and two veterinary students were already in the ring, assisting in any way needed. Someone in the ring announced shortly after 10 that the calf was a female. One veterinarian had a bucket of what looked like an antiseptic solution. During the birth of the calf, one woman on the bleachers said, “You just want to push for her . . . scratch her ears,” referring to the cow. FFA member Mike Braithwaite, who was assisting at the Miracle Birth Center, said that morning, that a lot of people feel sorry for the cows in labor. “We’re just trying to get people to have a good understanding of what’s happening,” said Braithwaite, who said he has seen a dozen or so calves being born. While there was drama in the calf being born that morning, there was more to come as everyone was watching to see how long it would take for the cow to get the calf to stand. As soon as the calf was born, the cow got up and began licking the calf for about 15 minutes or so. When the calf was pretty much licked all over, the cow began nudging the calf from the back. The calf began trying to get up with the nudgings, lifting its back end up first. “Get her up. Get her up,” Egan called out to the cow. By about 10:30 a.m. the calf was completely up. The announcer noted how an ingredient in the cow’s milk just after having a calf is called colostrum. It’s full of antibodies and will be fed to the calf later and then fed to the calf twice a day for some time, the announcer stated. The audience learned that the cow, just like other cows in typical dairy operations, will be returned to the milking barn. The calf will be raised away from the cow, and for the first one to two months will be fed milk twice daily. The announcer explained that beef cows are different in that they don’t give as much milk and so the calf and cow there don’t have to be separated. Dairy cows are genetically bred to give lots of milk, the announcer said. Isabel Hooper, 9, in the audience with her father Lynn Hooper, said she was surprised how soon a newborn calf could stand up. While the calf was still trying to get up, the announcer noted that a mother sheep had broken its water and so it was expected to give birth soon inside the Miracle Birth Center. “I like to watch all this,” said Egan, saying she would be watching the sheep give birth. Egan noted that two years ago three lambs were born to a sheep in which one of the lambs was a runt that later died. About the Miracle Birth Center The center, located near the livestock barns on the state fairgrounds, is in its seventh year. Haubenschild Farms, which is owned and operated by Dennis and Marcia Haubenschild and their two sons Bryan and Tom Haubenschild, has been lending Holstein dairy cows to the center since its beginning. Bryan Haubenschild, the herdsman at the dairy operation, brings a batch of about four to six cows down to the state fair at a time. Later he will bring another new batch of cows ready to calve, and brings the ones that have calved and their calves back home. Miracle Birth Center is a collaboration of the FFA, the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine and the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association. Senior veterinary students have internships at the center, handling much of the animal care during the fair. The center also has other veterinary students, veterinary professors and FFA members working there. All of the staff members except for a couple, are volunteers, said veterinarian, Dr. Mary Olson at the center. Dr. Olson called the lending of cows by the Haubenschilds a “huge donation” and praised their farm operation as progressive. Cows, pigs and sheep give birth at the Miracle Birth Center. There is also a display there of baby turkeys, rabbits and ducks, and hatching chicks from eggs. Eric Sawatzke, a worker at the center, and who will be an ag teacher starting in January at Marshall High School, said that in his six years of being at the Miracle Birth Center, the delivery of a calf by cow no. 3506 that Saturday morning, was the best he has seen there. It was the second calf born to the three-year-old cow. Sawatzke also credited the Haubenschild family for lending their livestock there. There is probably some stress to the cows but a lot of the cows are returning cows who have done the delivery there before, he said. The cows do “get a little more nerved up” being around so many people, but the cows “do pretty good,” Bryan Haubenschild said last week. Also, the cows brought there are sometimes induced to go into labor and sometimes those cows don’t have their placenta clear out of their bodies as well, Haubenschild added. But it is a big attraction, Haubenschild said, adding that some day Haubenschild Farms can hand off the commitment of providing dairy cows to the Miracle Birth Center to another farm. Haubenschild, who lives with his family (wife Jill and children Dane, 5, Owen, 3, and Bryce, 1,) across a field from the Haubenschild dairy barns, said he will likely someday see his children exhibit dairy animals at the fair through 4-H. Haubenschild Farms has 820 cows being milked now, with 170 other cows in dry dock, meaning they are not being milked for a period of time prior to having calves. The Haubenschild dairy operation has made a name in the region for having a facility that turns its cow manure into a methane gas. A setup there captures the methane to power an engine to turn an electrical generator. A fire destroyed the methane digester last winter and the Haubenschilds recently got it built back up. But veterinarian Dr. Olson, at the Miracle Birth Center, also said the Haubenschilds do the farming basics well by taking good care of their cows. Marcia Haubenschild commented last week that their cows are on the “quiet” side in contrast to some herds that she described as “wound up.” Dennis Haubenschild, commenting about the Miracle Birth Center, called it “great” because the “average person doesn’t see that anymore. It was once commonplace you would go to grandpa’s place [to see a farm animal born].” Comments (0)
 Write comment
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
