U is for Udder

A last minute difficult lambing before guests arrive on the farm. We pull the still lamb from the ewe. Grabbing the back legs we swing it back and forth. It begins to breathe. A quick rubdown with straw and we push the big lamb to its mother. As a single it has both teats on a full udder to itself. It will do fine. We head out of the barn to greet our guests. We are gore spattered with afterbirth but satisfied we could help.

Whether two teats on a ewe or four teats on a cow an udder is nature’s delivery system giving health to newborns. A lamb or calf nursing an udder swollen with milk and life enhancing colostrum is your sign as a farmer that all is as it should be with your charges.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………Reading this weekend: The Humanure Handbook: a guide to composting human manure by Joseph Jenkins.