Humongous heifer: Baby bovine breaks the scales on Alberta ranch
'This calf was in a league of its own'
A hefty heifer born this month north of Edmonton was so heavy, she literally broke the scales.
The fluffy brown Simmental cross, born on a cattle ranch near Westlock, weighed in at a staggering 208 pounds, more than double the weight of the average newborn calf.
"When it first came out, I looked at it and I was awestruck," said Westlock veterinarian Collin Lawrence, who assisted in the delivery.
"This calf was in a league of its own."
'She's a big one'
The calf's official weight could not be confirmed on the night of her birth. An industrial-strength scale couldn't handle her weight.
"They had a scale that they had put on the tractor and when they attempted to weigh her, the scale literally broke," Lawrence said in an interview Thursday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.
"I'm not sure if it pulled a spring or what, but everyone laughed, 'Boy, she's a big one.'"
The heifer's human handlers did their darndest to deliver her without medical intervention but after plenty of pulling and pushing, it became clear the babe was just too big to come out the traditional way.
That's when Lawrence got the call.
It was like pushing a boulder. There was no budging it.-Collin Lawrence
It was close to midnight when he finally stepped into the dimly-lit barn and began preparing the cow for a C-section.
After administering anesthetic, antibiotics and painkillers, he made a small incision in the cow's abdomen and attempted to position the calf for delivery.
"We typically try to position the uterus and the calf closer to the side of the incision to have an easier extraction of the calf," said Lawrence, who works at Westlock Veterinary Centre.
"But when I went in there to manipulate the calf, it was like pushing a boulder. There was no budging it."
'Freak of nature'
Lawrence managed to pull the calf out of the womb. As soon as the animal's face emerged, jaws dropped.
"Her head was bigger than any of us who were present in the room, " Lawrence said. "It was a pretty big head on her and once we got the feet out, her feet were bigger than my fists."
Mother and babe are thriving, Lawrence said.
The calf was alert and bright-eyed within minutes, Lawrence. The cow huffed out an "obvious sigh of relief" after giving birth but seemed largely unperturbed by her ordeal, he said.
The heifer is the heaviest calf on record with the Westlock Veterinary Centre, Lawrence said.
He has no idea why the calf was so big. Neither the cow nor the bull who sired it had produced any particularly large calves in the past.
"He was the only bull in the pen with these cows so there shouldn't be any surprises, any kind of milkman situation," Lawrence said.
"Freak of nature is the closest you could come to a diagnosis on a calf that big."
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With files from Elizabeth Hames