MOTHER Nature christened a resilient little calf at Linga Longa Farm in Wingham.
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A few weeks ago storms swept through the Manning Valley delivering much-needed heavy rain to the region. Rain gauges recorded big falls, hail peppered places and as the thunder rumbled and rain soaked Linga Longa Farm, a calf was born into a muddy water-filled ditch.
It is not usual to name cattle at Linga Longa Farm, indeed ‘No. 405’ gave birth to the calf but through the circumstance of his birth and the use of social media, the new arrival has come to be known as ‘Nemo’.
The arrival of ‘Nemo’ was anything but usual, according to Lauren Newell of Linga Longa Farm.
The stress of the storm caused Nemo’s mum to calve at an unusual time and place - on the edge of a creek. The creek is normally dry but the heavy rains transformed the waterway into a muddy, wet trench of water and that is where she dropped ‘Nemo‘. The two were separated by a vertical embankment of about one metre and according to Lauren, “it was just luck that we saw the mum.”
“They don’t tend to calve at that time of the day. It’s normally early morning or late afternoon and the calf rolled into the creek and did not have the strength to get up.”
That’s when Greg made the decision to wade into the water to save the little calf.
Watching it all and filming it all on her phone was Lauren. It was dirty work that required awkward heavy lifting and Lauren offered words of encouragement to Greg as he worked to reunite the calf with its mother who closely watched him work.
“Muscles! They weigh more when they’re wet,” she said.
Lauren and Greg shared the footage of the rescue on the Linga Longa Farm Facebook page and asked, “It’s a boy, what should we call him.”
Name suggestions offered up from the community included Storm, Neptune, Pumice, Dodger, River, Splash, Triumph, Thor God of Thunder (because he was born during the storm), Muddy and Nemo.
Lauren and Greg chose Nemo and they recently announced that when the time comes he will sport an ear tag that bears the name ‘Nemo’ instead of a number.
ainslee.dennis@fairfaxmedia.com.au
