Julie Helen: Watching the different generations welcome 100 calves on our farm

It's a busy time at the family farm says Julie Helen in her weekly column
Julie Helen: Watching the different generations welcome 100 calves on our farm

Julie Helen talks about the arrival of 100 calves at her family's farm. Picture: Stock

SPRING has sprung in Woodside with nearly 100 baby calves in a shiny new calf shed. This year, the place that houses the new livestock has a sparkling significance.

Mum is always really involved in rearing the new arrivals on the farm. When they land on the ground when they are first born, they need meticulous care to give them the very best start in life. They need a clean environment and to be fed high quality colostrum, or their first drink of thick golden milk from their mother which is rich in vitamins and minerals, as fast as possible to build up their immunity.

For many years, mum fed calves in the very early morning and in the late evening all throughout the spring and she went to her job as a teacher in between. I always marvelled at how she managed it all. The new shed means an easier way of working this year for the whole team, with space and a good layout and equipment that is all in excellent working order. Mum’s thrilled with it and things are going well.

I write about the calves as if I’m confident about what’s going on, but it’s not my forté! I just try to support from the house, see the diligence in everyone around me, and see it melting beautifully into the next generation. Ricky, who is four, knows a lot more than I do about the calves because he helps granny in the evenings. He is picking up all the important skills from her and I’m told that he will be in demand as a member of the team in a few short years. 

He already loves being part of the action. Farming is in his blood and he loves nothing better than to be told there are jobs he must do!

I listen to all the stories and the plans as we sit around the table. This year, mum spends most of the day in the shed because she retired from teaching when she was going through cancer treatment. When she was in the throes of her fight against the disease, she had two aims, to meet and know her second grandson Peter, who was born in November, 2023, and to be fighting fit to feed calves in the new calf shed this Spring.

She accomplished both and I genuinely feel relief every single day when I see her in her full farming rig-out, she is where she belongs, and more importantly, where she wants to be.

At the same time, I am learning of the enduring impact of cancer on my mother. The exhaustion she feels in the evenings is intense and I can feel the frustration she has at her ‘light touch’ balance not being what it was before. 

Her consultant has assured her that she is dealing with the side effects of the very strong doses of chemotherapy she was given and they will lessen, but it might take a year.

In surgery, she lost some muscle at the back of her arm and so she can hurt it when she least expects it. I can tell she wants to scream sometimes. She just wants to be her old self. That self had to fight hard to get to where she is now, but there’s no going back.

She needs to recover and it might take longer than she would like it to.

I’ve learned that cancer is not something we can put in a box and forget about. The impact lingers, the fear lingers but so too does my pride in my mother who just ploughs on as best she can.

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