And then there were two

I thought yesterday Lualeni was looking very uncomfortable, but because of the appalling weather she held on, well today she could hold on no more!

A little before 7.30 this morning she produced a lovely white boy from Gianmarco's Masterpiece.  It was cold and raining and he clearly wasn't very impressed with the world he'd arrived into.

I was hoping that he would get up and feed in the field before I took him into the shed with mum out of the elements.  Unfortunately he was having none of it, he soon kushed but standing was out of the question, let alone feeding.

Thankfully Friday is a none work day for Dave, so Carol and Dave popped over to lend a hand to get them in.  Lualeni was very good and walked back keeping a very close eye on me carrying her precious new arrival.  The rest of the girls weren't happy that I was taking them away.

Once they were home and dry with him still showing no interest in standing or feeding and fast approaching four hours old I decided it was time to offer a helping hand.

He managed to stand with some assistance but couldn't work out the milk bar and with Lualeni's teats growing by the minute and the size of a cows udder I decided to milk her and try the bottle.

Lualeni is a very placid girl and stood perfectly whilst Dave held her and fed her hay and I milked some colostrum for her baby.  He took a while to work out how to suck but he took some and this gave him the energy to stand and gain his balance.  By this afternoon he was feeding from mum.

He has obviously been tucked up at a strange angle whilst inside as he has a rather stiff neck, poor thing.  Space was probably limited as he is a big boy weighing over 8kg.

Lualeni has a huge bag of milk with enormous teats so I have just milked a little milk from her as her baby seems to be struggling slightly to latch on to her front teats they are so big.  The milk is now in the freezer in case of an emergency later in the birthing season.