3 teats

[brimmer X]

I may have dropped the ball on this one. I have an F-1 braunvieh x charolais heifer, that will calf any day. She is about 27 months old and a great looking yellow female. While looking her over yesterday, I noticed she only had one teat on the left side. No nub or scar, just one well shaped teat. The right side 2 perfect teats. Will this be a problem? Anybody else have this experience before?

The dam of this heifer is a fantastic, moderate framed Charolais. Raises a fine calf every year and breds back in 30 to 45 days after calving. I hope the heifer will have no problems raising a calf. If she does a good job, I'd like to keep her. I guess one should consider most of her off spring terminal calves. She is bred to my 7/8 angus heifer bull.

 

[ga.prime]

I had a cow like that once, a Shorthorn. It wasn't a problem at all. I have a picture of her somewhere with one of her calves, I'll see if I can find and post it.

 

[branguscowgirl]

I had a heifer get infection when she was younger and had lost use of one quarter. Raised many calves just fine on three.
I do not know about the genetic factor of your heifer being born with just three though. Don't know why it would be any different from the cows born with six...........But not sure on that one.

 

[shortybreeder]

I had a heifer get infection when she was younger and had lost use of one quarter. Raised many calves just fine on three.
I do not know about the genetic factor of your heifer being born with just three though. Don't know why it would be any different from the cows born with six...........But not sure on that one.

I've got a mature cow working on 1, and a heifer due in 3 days with 6... We shall see who weans the bigger calf :lol: Mature cow is 1/2 hol

 

[ga.prime]

I couldn't find a pic showing her udder but she only had three teats. I bought her as a heifer from a registered breeder. I don't know if the breeder knew she only had three teats or not. She might not have been registerable but she was anyway. I didn't notice until her second or third calf that she only had three teats. She always weaned a 600=700 lb calf so I'd say having only three had no ill effects.

 

[brimmer X]

Thanks Ga. I would say she did do a good job raising her calves. Hope mine will do well also. I don't keep many calves from first time mothers. But, would like to see a healthy calf.

 

[Limomike]

3 teats shouldnt be a problem at all. I had a old beefmaster mama, that only had 3 working teats for her last 4 years, and she raised some fine calves during that time.

 

[shortybreeder]

In the dairy we had a cow running off 3 teats for a couple years, still managed to average 70lbs/day over the course of only having 3 teats. Once she got down to 2 we let her go though.

 

[dun]

3 on a cow is a whole different deal then 3 on a heifer. Whether 3 is enough depends on her milking ability in general, that's down to genetics

 

[brimmer X]

Thanks to all for the insight. The bull side is braunvieh with good milk numbers and the dam always raises a good calf. I rarely keep any first calves from heifers, and usually sell them a little early.

Hope to see a calf soon. She has a water bag showing now. If this one turns out like the rest of my heifer bull calves, it should be no more than 55lbs. So far, he has done just what was expected of him.

 

[cowgirl8]

We had one with just one quarter working. Luckily it was the first one the last 2 calves went to. They struggled at first but did well. Sold her last fall.....I've had many 3 cylinders and they do fine. And since the teat is gone, you dont have to worry that a new calf will focus on it. I'd give her a chance.

 

[hillsdown]

Time will tell , the other quarters may pick up the slack for the missing one . You can always supplement the calf with a good dairy ration calf starter if it starts to fall behind. Good luck ! :tiphat:

 

[Nesikep]

I have never hada cow with only 3 teats, but have had a few with only 3 working ones... the one that comes to mind was a miserable cow that couldn't raise a calf if she had 10 teats. I have several that have 1/2 teats, and it doesn't cause any problems.. Another I have has 6 working teats (the calf gets good at math)

Give her a chance, I don't think there'll be a problem, though I probably would hesitate keeping offspring from her... and if I did I'd certainly make a teat count first

 

[dun]

We had a cow with the usual 4 working ones, but with one extra blind teat on the rear of her bag. Never was an issue through 7 calves, her eight would stand arround by the hour sucking on the blind one. He apparantly used the others too but he never did grow like her other calves did. The next calf never touched it and grew to weaning just like her earlier ones had. I suppose there is a chance a calf could get confused and forsake the others. That stupid one seemed to do that

 

[brimmer X]

Thanks for the comments, but things did not go as planned. We will not get a chance to see how she will perform this time around. The calve had to be pulled and was dead. I had separated my hereford bull and my black bull. The black bull is strickly a calving ease animal. The hereford not so much. Apparently the 2 groups were joined a little to early. The black bull had bred her a couple of times, but the hereford made his count. The result was a big bull calf. My guess is 85+ lbs.

Have to decide now to give her another shot or send her down the road. I have had no problems with the hereford on cows, and really like the calves. Will use him more this year, but no heifer exposure.

Caustic was right about the bull, when I asked about him a few years ago. He has pretty good numbers, but he preferred a little lighter calving for heifers. Just goes to show you, there are people here that offer good advice, but you have to put it to use.

 

[insurman]

brimmer..so sorry to hear that, it is never easy to lose one.

 

[LauraleesFarm]

This cow has three teats. He weighed 710. She is about 950 pounds.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Lauralee, how old was that calf??? :shock:

 

[LauraleesFarm]

He was 7 months in that picture, went to the sale barn about a week after that.

 

[insurman]

He was 7 months in that picture, went to the sale barn about a week after that.

100 lbs a month is always nice...that was a nice payday.