If you went grocery shopping this weekend, you might've noticed you paid less for a gallon of milk. That's good for your family budget, but as our Deb Feyerick found out – it's hurting a lot of mom and pop dairy farmers out there.
Behind the scenes: A baby is born
Our assignment was to shoot a story on the economic plight of the dairy farmer, but we got so much more than we bargained for. We were lucky enough to take part in the birth of a calf, while not rare for a farm with over 400 cows, it was a thrill for us nonetheless. We were taking a tour of the farm with owner Alan Bourbeau when we heard a loud groan come from the woods across the street. After we gave him looks of confusion, he explained to us that one of his heifers was in labor. So, we all jumped into the back of his truck and drove across the street to trek through cow patties to find the cow.
After navigating ankle deep "mud," we found a cow in labor laying on her side nestled between some trees. Alan was concerned with the area she was laying in because if she gave birth in that spot there was a high risk of the mother stepping on the calf after the birth. He approached the heifer with caution and was able to coax her into moving locations. Once Alan had her in a place he felt she and her calf would be safe, he backed off and she laid down. At this point the heifer had been in labor for a few hours and she had only been able to push out the front hooves of the calf. She was exhausted but Alan wanted to give her a few more minutes to see if she could birth the calf on her own. She gave it her all but she was out of energy. Alan's solution... pull the calf out himself.
Alan ran across the street and grabbed some birthing utensils which happened to be 4 foot long chains with handles at the end of them. He flanked the heifer and delicately wrapped the chains around the hooves of the pre-born calf trying not to hurt her or startle it's mother. Once they were secured, Alan started to pull with all his body weight and the mother let out a hair-raising moan but the calf would not budge. He then summoned our reporter Deb Feyerick to come help him. She cautiously approached the rear of the cow and Alan handed her one of the handles. Both of them pulled leaning into it but their efforts were futile so they recruited me.
At this point, everyone wanted to get that calf out, no one more than the mother cow herself. I grabbed one of the handles along with Deb and we pulled with every bit of strength we had as Alan helped the mother cow work out the calf. After about a minute of pulling we felt some movement and out popped the head! We were thrilled but we had about ¾ of the calf still to go. We continued to pull and pull and pull. After several minutes of giving it everything we had, the tension finally released, sending us onto our backs and the newborn calf into the world.
Although none of us lost a watch in the process, we named her Norma in an ode to City Slickers.