Every year my calving heifers have milestones, not good ones, but it seems to run the same every year...
First calf born dead, watched her labor and got tired of waiting, was alive when we got her in the chute but never took a breath.... I'll have the 'its not my calf' heifer. We'll have the 'that's my calf not this one that just fell out my butt.' And then the pooper. The pooper lays down at night and what she thinks is just a big poop, its actually a smallish calf. What happens with the pooper is they don't get up and if the sack is still over the calf, it suffocates. I'll go out at first light and find a dead calf, usually cleaned off by someone and i'll have to look for who had it. Sometimes she's still just laying there with the dead calf behind her. But, we saw pooper when she started labor this season. And as usual, she did not get up. We got to the calf before he suffocated. But meanwhile, she gets up and walks away chewing her cud, lah la lah..UGH... Since her calf was tiny, she was spunky. Penned them up and we had a good outcome and they are out with the herd now. What I have left is the, 'quit trying to nurse me' heifer. I still have over 20 left to calve. These girls wear me out.....
First calf born dead, watched her labor and got tired of waiting, was alive when we got her in the chute but never took a breath.... I'll have the 'its not my calf' heifer. We'll have the 'that's my calf not this one that just fell out my butt.' And then the pooper. The pooper lays down at night and what she thinks is just a big poop, its actually a smallish calf. What happens with the pooper is they don't get up and if the sack is still over the calf, it suffocates. I'll go out at first light and find a dead calf, usually cleaned off by someone and i'll have to look for who had it. Sometimes she's still just laying there with the dead calf behind her. But, we saw pooper when she started labor this season. And as usual, she did not get up. We got to the calf before he suffocated. But meanwhile, she gets up and walks away chewing her cud, lah la lah..UGH... Since her calf was tiny, she was spunky. Penned them up and we had a good outcome and they are out with the herd now. What I have left is the, 'quit trying to nurse me' heifer. I still have over 20 left to calve. These girls wear me out.....