Recent content by pd

Does anyone have any experience using the Kawasaki 750 on their farm? I have tried one out and even though it looks flashy and goes fast , that is not what I need the bike for,I need it for tough farm work. I don't need to go fast. I found the seat really high (and flat) compared to other...

You know what? You guys were right - they just had to get used to it - they love it now! :lol: Thanks shorty -I'm sure going to take more notice of the moisture content now.

Hi - thanks for all your helpful replies. I held off feeding it out for a couple of days so that I could get the pH tested, as this is the critical parameter for nasties being able to grow or not. For safe eating baleage should be <4.5 on the pH scale. The samples I tested all came in under...

I had a beautiful crop of peas and oats made into baleage (wrapped bales of sileage) a few months ago. I have just started to feed it out to cattle - and they don't like it!!! :( It looks fine, but it tastes sharp and kinda sour. Is that normal or is there something wrong? I thought about...

I had not heard of heelfly as we don't get them here. I looked them up and they sound horrible - another problem to contend with! I feel better to know that he did not have a temperature as I was afraid I was on the verge of a pnemonia outbreak. Thanks for all your input everyone :D

Wow BullLady that is quite a range of temperature you are going through! Well I got him in and checked inside his mouth and nose - clear as far as we could see. Took his temperature which was normal (102 deg F) and listened to his lungs which sounded clear. In all respects he seemed fine...

No Brahman in him at all BullLady. He's a Simmie/Hfd - lovely looking calf too and well grown. I have spoken to the vet nurse at my local vets and she said to check if their was an obstruction in his mouth (seed head or something). So I will do that and ck his temp while I'm at it. He was...

He is 4 mos old. He doesn't look sick - he's not hanging his head low, not acting miserable, no mucus at nose. Acts normal - apart from the heavy breathing... I'm in the Southern hemisphere,so it is summer here - long hot days - but the dust may have caused problems. Then again maybe I am...

While out checking my cattle today I noticed that one of the calves was breathing loudly. I watched him for a bit and he lay down and started ruminating and the breathing went quiet (normal) again but with occasional intermittent heavy breathing. In all other visual respects he seems normal. I...

Many thanks for writing that out Texan. I will print it out and prop it up beside me as I try it out! :D - much appreciated. One more little question.......I read that when taking the blood out of the vein the needle should point away from the heart (and into flow of blood) in order to avoid...

I have seen my vet do this several times. But when I ask him to teach me he says it is not easy and refuses to show me how. But in discussion he has told me that the vein is a large one and hard to miss! But I have seen the said vet miss a few times... I know the vet doesn't want to miss...

Some Simmentals; Angus/dairy cross; and some composite breeds (composite=hfd/angus/gelbvieh/simmental). Thanks very much for the tip about the bull calves and scurs. I shall check them out for that. :)

Thanks for your replies. I hope they are scurs! The calves are only 8 weeks old (max) so all I have seen are the little buds. At what stage will I know if they are scurs or horns and how do I tell?? I understood that a homozygous polled bull would leave me with polled projeny even when put...

Hi Last year I purchased a pedigree and registered polled Hereford bull specifically because I did not want to dehorn calves. Now some of the calves are just starting to show horn buds :o !! Have you ever heard of this happening with a polled Hereford? :?: I have seen the bull's pedigree...

When palpating cows in their 3rd trimester, how accurate can a call for expected number of weeks to calving be? I asked my vet to do this and so far he has got a few right (+/- a few days), but most were way out by several weeks. Glad I did not split my herd into early and late calvers! Is...