Mary Jane and Mary Ann MacDonald of Balemartine
Photograph of Mary Jane and Mary Ann MacDonald of Balemartine feeding a calf.
Courtesy of Mrs Maggie Campbell
Home on holiday from service in Pollockshields, Glasgow in July 1929, sisters Mary Jane and Mary Ann MacDonald of Balemartine are pictured in their Sunday best feeding the family’s three month old calf.
Calves were separated from their mothers immediately after birth to ensure a supply of milk for the house. When old enough, they would be tethered in the summer pasture at Hynish, three miles distant from the croft house, and fed milk from a pail supplemented with meal.
Calves were fed in this manner for up to eight months and sold three or four months later, providing the family’s main source of income.
Black and white photograph of sisters Mary Jane and Mary Ann MacDonald of Balemartine.
Sisters Mary Jane and Mary Ann MacDonald of Balemartine feeding a calf in Hynish in July 1929.