Classic Herd’s Christmas Calf is internet sensation

Wednesday 30 December 2015

A video of Classic Herd’s Christmas calf has been viewed over 14,000 times since it was uploaded to Facebook on Christmas Day.

The calf, which was born at 10.52 pm on Christmas Day, has been named Noella after members of the public came up with suggestions.

You can see the video here.

Farmer Julia Quenault said: “We calf all year round but it’s not often that we get one on Christmas Day. It’s probably not the first we’ve ever had, but it’s the first for the Facebook generation.

“I’m amazed at the reaction and can’t believe how many people all around the world are seeing the video. We had a lady who came into the shop yesterday who wanted to let her friend in Canada know how the calf was doing.”

The calf will be hand-reared and will stay with other young cows for up to two years until it has its own calf and then joins the Quenault’s 50-strong dairy herd.

Kate Williams, Classic Herd’s vet, called in to check on the mother cow, Hannah, on Christmas Day, before going to bed.

She said: “The calf wasn’t due until Boxing Day but I just popped in to check on her before going to bed and she was already in labour. Jersey cows generally give birth very easily because the calves are quite small, and this was no exception.

“The mother would have been fine if I hadn’t been there but I was able to help things along so the whole labour only took an hour and a half. I made a video of the mother licking the calf and uploaded it because it’s not something people see very often. It’s quite lovely, and even more special because it was Christmas.”

Based in St Peter’s, Classic Herd is the only independent dairy in Jersey. Until last January, the farm, which is owned by Julia and Darren Quenault, was also the island’s only organic dairy. After over eight years running Classic Herd as an organic farm, the couple reluctantly gave up the organic certification due to the expense of organic cattle feed.

Mrs Quenault said: “We are still running the farm on organic lines, avoiding unnecessary antibiotics, fertilizers and pesticides. The only thing we’re not using is the organic cattle feed because it has just become prohibitively expensive, and that means we no longer carry the organic certification.”