What a cow! Grandma gets the huff

THE mother-daughter relationship is a tricky one, even for cows.

And as everyone knows, while it is common and convenient for grandmothers to babysit the new generation, it is not always welcome.

This was particularly evident in the case of Stephanie and her daughter Olivia, who was pregnant with her first calf. Relations were initially good, and Stephanie was on hand to offer advice and comfort to her daughter when the calf was due to be born.

As Rosamund tells it: ‘Olivia calved without difficulty and was immediately besotted by her beautiful creamcoloured bull calf, whom we named Orlando. She licked him dry, suckled him and quite simply doted on him. Stephanie came along a couple of hours later to be introduced and for the next few days grazed nearby hoping to be a useful and integral part of the threesome.

‘Sadly, Olivia did not want Stephanie’s services. She did not wish to stir from Orlando’s side. She even refused her mother’s offer of grooming. She ignored her shamefully. On the fourth day, Stephanie’s patience broke. Hurt and amazed, she turned tail, jumped the nearest fence and went off into another field. To the best of my knowledge, they never spoke to each other again.’

Conversely, Dolly II wanted nothing more than her mother, Dolly, after her own calf was stillborn. ‘Having hidden herself away in a far-off field, she then disappeared. After much searching, we found her lying at the feet of her clever old mother being licked all over. We had not seen the two Dollys talking to each other for ages, and just how young Dolly knew where on the farm her mother would be we had no idea.’