09/04/2026
Brian & I experienced a little miracle today 🙏
We delivered twins (Holstein x Beef crosses) and it presented a great teaching opportunity here for our followers! 👇
🐄 Mom was in labor for a while but hadn’t made any progress, so we brought her in for Brian to evaluate.
👯 When he reached in, he started evaluating whether the calf was in the correct position for birth, which in this case, yes, but surprise! He felt too many feet and heads, meaning two calves were trying to come out at the same time!
🟡 Also while evaluating, a thick, yellow goo came out. This is meconium, a calf’s very first p**p. The problem? Normally, this passes after the calf is born. When we see this discharged early, it means the baby, or in this case babies, are under distress… meaning we have to work fast!
💪 Brian and I worked quickly together, positioning one calf to come out first. Once she was born, I started working to get her to breathe as there was so much fluid in her lungs. By the time she was breathing, Brian had the 2nd baby out and I started to work on her lungs to open up.
🙏 By intervening and acting quickly, Momma and her two babies made it!
🥛 We immediately milked mom as she was licking & cleaning off her babies to make sure her colostrum, or first milk, was good, and also that she had enough for both babies. Then we fed that milk to her babies and gave mom calcium to help her recovery.
🐮 Now for the video (posted in the comments): calves are born with a soft, rubbery tissue on their hooves called the eponychium. This protects Mom while pregnant and during delivery. Once exposed to air, it dries out and will wear away. Also, you see the one’s umbilical cord hanging at the end of the video; we spray it with iodine to try to prevent infection and to aide with it drying up and falling off on it’s own.
Let us know in the comments what you learned from this post! ✍️
