Disaster for MyFarm’s Shire Horse foaling

The MyFarm team at Wimpole Home Farm [1] in Cambridgeshire have been eagerly awaiting the foaling of Queenie, the only Shire Horse mare at Wimpole for weeks now.

As over 800 people or groups of people saw last night, Queenie went into her much anticipated labour. At 11.45pm she gave birth to a beautiful filly foal. Although she had a perceptible heartbeat when she was born she was not breathing. Emma, Wimpole’s horse manager tried hard and long to get her to breathe with the help of farmer manager Richard Morris. A vet was on the phone throughout, talking the team through the procedures. None of our efforts could save her and she peacefully slipped away a few minutes after her birth.

Richard said; “As you can imagine, we are all devastated by this awful and unexpected outcome. Although watchers of the foaling on the webcam saw the true, grim realities of animal husbandry this in no way belittles the personal sense of tragedy and loss we are all feeling. This bitter disappointment is tempered only with the fact that the filly foal did not suffer at all.”

As part of the National Trust’s MyFarm (http://www.my-farm.org.uk) [2] experiment, the birth was broadcast live over the internet. The project, which started in May, aims to reconnect people with the realities of life on a working, commercial farm.

As one MyFarm farmer commenting on the website just after the birth said; “I’m so sorry everyone. That was awful to watch, but I guess this is the reality of farm life sometimes. I felt so helpless watching the efforts to save her.”

Richard continued; “It was a huge decision for us to do a live broadcast of the birth. There was never a guarantee that the foaling would be straight forward and unfortunately, this proved to be the case. But we didn’t want to hide people from the risks involved – it’s fundamental to the purpose of this project – to reconnect people with the realities of farming to allow the possibility of lows as well as highs.”

This morning, Queenie is doing well. She has been turned out into her paddock to get some fresh air and Emma is speaking to the vet to find out the best way of stopping the milk production.

As Queenie is a fit and healthy mare, and due to it being prime horse breeding season, the team is keen that she gets back to the stallion again in approximately three weeks to see if she can become pregnant once more [3]. There is no reason to believe that Queenie won’t foal successfully in the future.

[1] Wimpole Home Farm is part of the Wimpole Estate. It is one of the National Trust’s three farms that is managed directly by the charity. The other two are at Hafod-y-Llan in Snowdonia and Llanerchaeron in mid-Wales. Wimpole Home Farm is currently going through the process of organic conversion. The decisions subscribers will make will continue to take the farm down this route, but that is the only constraint on their input.

[2] The MyFarm experiment which launched on 4 May 2011, aims to connect thousands of people with how food is produced by giving them a greater say in how a real working farm is run.

Based at the National Trust’s own working farm, Wimpole Home Farm in Cambridgeshire, Farm Manager Richard Morris sets monthly options for subscribers, who debate and vote on one major issue each month around crops, livestock and wider impacts.

For their 30 subscription fee, Farmers will get a daily behind-the-scenes insight into how the 1,200 acre organic farm operates, the right to make decisions on the farm by voting regularly and a family ticket to visit the farm for a day.

The MyFarm website includes video updates, webcams, live webchats, debates and comment and opinion from both well known farming experts and National Trust tenant farmers.

[3] Time is of the essence as Queenie will be at her most fertile during the first cycle after foaling. As she will carry the foal for 11 months, it will get too late into the season, ie towards Winter, if we wait any longer. March – July is the best time for mares to foal.