Swimming today: 1.25km
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In hindsight it's strange that, being surrounded by dairy fields, we hadn't seen a calf being born before. I'm not very knowledgeable about dairy farming, Dominique once told me that his dairy cows have one calf a year - "normalement", whatever that means in this context.
So on Sunday afternoon Barbara spotted a very new born calf in the corner of a field at the bottom of our land. The mother and another cow were in attendance but it was what happened next that was most interesting for the two spectators sitting on the house terrace.
Dominique's son Bertrand was handling milking duties and he arrived on the quad bike to bring in the cows. He drove away the two adults quite aggressively, they were reluctant to leave at first but soon obediently trotted away with the rest of the herd. Bertrand returned a few minutes later and collected the calf in their ubiquitous white farmer's van and took it back to the elevage.
I think the theory is that the cows can't be allowed to form any relationship with their calves, in reality they seem to have short memories anyway - we once found a calf wandering around in a field an hour after the milking herd had gone in, the attraction of food must have proved a bigger draw for the mother.
Of course the reality is that only female calves are of any value, and only some of them as about 20% of the herd are replaced each year. Of course, this being frugal Brittany there are some innovative ways of using up all the various surplus products of farming, other than as an experience don't recommend you try fricassee or andouille and somehow we've never been attracted to buying a ticket for the school PTA's April event where tête de veau is served .....
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