The Belgian Blue is one of the fattest bovine species in the world and consequently its meat is of exceptional quality.

As a consequence, because the mother animals have an enormously large rump and their little calves are so fat as well, we have to perform a caesarean most of the times.

This is a method in which the mother animal suffers the least inconveniences and which is much safer for the calf. A natural delivery would be very painful and would, in essence, be impossible for the mother animal. We would give birth to very few living calves.

The caesarean is mostly performed on a standing animal which has previously been lightly sedated and completely shaven, washed and disinfected. After an epidural anaesthetic, a fringe on the animal´s flank is locally sedated to prevent the mother animal from feeling anything of the procedure. After we have taken the little calf out of the belly, we sew everything together again with a degradable thread so as to avoid having to remove threads afterwards.

From time to time a little calf is born with an odd deformity, like the little calf on the image here below which has three (!!) nostrils.