A Cow Tale

[randiliana]

This girl has had a rough life, but what can I say, she is a survivor. She was born on chilly March morning in 2001. I saw her within moments of being born, and since her mama (a 2 year old heifer) had the sense to have her in a bit of a hollow and was doing a good job of mothering her baby I just left them alone. 2 hours later when we came back to check on the new mama and baby, we realized that there was a problem, baby had never gotten up. Mama had done her job, but the calf hadn't done her part.

We immediately got her into the truck, and then into a hotbox, along with a shot of Selenium and a dose of colostrum. I have seen calves at the point this one was at, and it has never been good. She was ice cold, and reflexively bawling. But, this one had that little extra fight in her. In the end she came out of it, although we had to do some babying for a few days afterwards. She lost her ears, almost to the point that you cannot tag her, and then ended up with a bad case of pinkeye. But she fought it all off.

We kept her, not because of all we had gone through with her, but because she had badly frozen ears, and we would have taken a MAJOR dock at the sale barn. But that is not the end of her story. She only has 2 front and 1/2 of a rear teat, the other 1 1/2 rear teats having fallen victim to frostbite, a sick calf, and a very cold week after she calved as a 2 year old. But, still she manages to raise a calf every year. And a reasonably good one.

 

[ALX.]

But, still she manages to raise a calf every year. And a reasonably good one.

Well she may not be the ultimate production model but she carries her weight, and it is awful nice, when we can do it, to give some consideration back to the critters we raise.

It's good for the soul to have a couple "special" ones around.

 

[Nowland Farms]

randiliana,

Please don't take this the wrong way. I am only asking to help me understand.

If you are in Canada, and the winters are cold until way into the springtime, why don't you have your cows setup to calve in a specific calving season in the summer or early fall?

IMO, If I lived as far north as you do, I would have to consider a defined calving season when the conditions are better so the little ones have a better chance.

 

[randiliana]

randiliana,

Please don't take this the wrong way. I am only asking to help me understand.

If you are in Canada, and the winters are cold until way into the springtime, why don't you have your cows setup to calve in a specific calving season in the summer or early fall?

IMO, If I lived as far north as you do, I would have to consider a defined calving season when the conditions are better so the little ones have a better chance.

No offense taken.

By and large, most cattle producers up here calve March, April and May. That way they are done calving at about the same time as the cows go out to pasture.

For us this is a necessity, as our main pasture is 2 hours from home. We have to have them calved out before they go up there, as we cannot be there to check on them every day let alone more than once a day. The next reason that we calve in March and April is that we sell our calves in October or November. To have our calves weighing 600 lbs by then we can't calve any later.

Beyond the pasture issue, late spring/summer calving doesn't work because then we would either have to take a hit on the calves at the barn because they are light, or we would have to winter the calves. We don't have the facilities for that, and with the way our payments are, even if we could set it up, the banks wouldn't wait an extra year for their payments.

Fall calving doesn't work because of the amount of feed and bedding you need to get a nursing cow through a winter here. Sure, you may get a bit more for the calf at sale time, but you also had to put a lot more into it.

So for us it is March calving. Generally March isn't too bad, but we can get some pretty cold snaps. And that is what we have the barn for, and calf shelters. We also bed heavily. We do not often lose any calves to the cold, but most years some will lose their ears. We check the cows every 4 hours (more if something is calving). Depending on the weather, she may be left where she is, be brought up to the corral, or be put into the barn.

Snowy, and wet weather are often worse than the cold for losing calves, and I have seen numerous years where the guys calving in May have more problems than we do, as we can get some pretty cold, wet(snow) weather then. And they are not set up to handle that.

 

[randiliana]

randiliana,

Please don't take this the wrong way. I am only asking to help me understand.

If you are in Canada, and the winters are cold until way into the springtime, why don't you have your cows setup to calve in a specific calving season in the summer or early fall?

IMO, If I lived as far north as you do, I would have to consider a defined calving season when the conditions are better so the little ones have a better chance.

No offense taken.

By and large, most cattle producers up here calve March, April and May. That way they are done calving at about the same time as the cows go out to pasture.

For us this is a necessity, as our main pasture is 2 hours from home. We have to have them calved out before they go up there, as we cannot be there to check on them every day let alone more than once a day. The next reason that we calve in March and April is that we sell our calves in October or November. To have our calves weighing 600 lbs by then we can't calve any later.

Beyond the pasture issue, late spring/summer calving doesn't work because then we would either have to take a hit on the calves at the barn because they are light, or we would have to winter the calves. We don't have the facilities for that, and with the way our payments are, even if we could set it up, the banks wouldn't wait an extra year for their payments.

Fall calving doesn't work because of the amount of feed and bedding you need to get a nursing cow through a winter here. Sure, you may get a bit more for the calf at sale time, but you also had to put a lot more into it.

So for us it is March calving. Generally March isn't too bad, but we can get some pretty cold snaps. And that is what we have the barn for, and calf shelters. We also bed heavily. We do not often lose any calves to the cold, but most years some will lose their ears. We check the cows every 4 hours (more if something is calving). Depending on the weather, she may be left where she is, be brought up to the corral, or be put into the barn.

Snowy, and wet weather are often worse than the cold for losing calves, and I have seen numerous years where the guys calving in May have more problems than we do, as we can get some pretty cold, wet(snow) weather then. And they are not set up to handle that.

 

[bward]

We kept a heifer that froze her ears off as a new born. Made her an ugly duckling for sure but she reared 2 sets of twins on her own and earned the name smiley as she was so good natured.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

We had one her mother was killed by dogs when she was 2 days old. Lived for two days with no milk, and was hit by a car when we tried to catch her at 4 days old. Would not even blink when you touched her eyeball after she was hit. We gave her a high dose of steroids and she was sucking on a bottle the next morning. She is getting ready to have her third calf. We named her "tuff