A new season started today!

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This is the first calf out of a heifer we purchased this year. The heifer is HT Eriskay 1706 1401 1441 Reg# 19183758 she was bred to Coleman Charlo 0256 and due September 24th, so 16 days early. I have been worried that the heifers were going to start early especially with a heat index of 107. I didn't find her until after church and it was blazing hot so didn't want to stress her or the calf with weighing in the heat of the day, we will get her weighed and tagged early tomorrow morning. The rest of the first calf heifers that are due AI are due on Sept. 27th the mature cows and ET cows are due Oct. 7th so it is fixing to crank up around here.

I have tried a couple times to post a photo but for some reason I am getting an error message, I did it the same way I always have but now it can't determin the dimension of the image. Anyone know what has changed with posting photobucket photos that would cause this








Yea me I figured it out.

I love calving season!

gizmom
 
Good luck! Its like being a kid at Christmas again when those mommas start calving. My favorite time of the year! Leaves falling, temps falling and cows dropping. It's magic!
 
Thanks for the pictures. The heat is extremely unseasonal here. It is going into the mid 90s tomorrow. Should be cooling down. I too am wondering what this will do to the gestation periods.
 
Our experience with heavy bred heifers and high heat index it tends to make them pop the calf out early. We are on our second year of vitaferm heat, last year we did see and improvement with gestation length on the entire herd. That being said it wasn't as hot last year as what we have had the past few weeks. I also have to add that both heifers that have calved had Charlo calves, we have found Charlo to be a shorted gestation bull. I guess our on farm trial is still just that a trial we have 106 to go so I will have more data to go by in about 6 weeks. There are so many factors to factor in to really make a fair and honest determination. Oh the bull calf that came today is out of an ET heifer. I purchased two sexed heifer embryo's from our friend Jason Upchurch she is Giz Henrietta Pride E28 registration # 19166060 I confess phenotypically she is one of my least favorite heifers, long legged, long bodied with adequate depth of body but more leg than I like. In fact I nick name her legs lol. I wanted the cow side of this mating really bad performance and longevity are bred into this female. I have a feeling she is going to make a really fine cow.

Gizmom
 
The boss and I are in south Florida for the Florida Cattleman's Quarterly meeting, got a text from Mike yesterday that we had another calf. This one out of another purchased female she was bred to calve a couple weeks ahead of our cattle. Really nice cow https://www.angus.org/Animal/EpdPedDtl.aspx?aid=FAAAACSm%2fWhWi%2f%2bY6qhlCCRZWZyYE%2bA2niGB78F7NohaClvo&time=LAAAAFIBB8Zd%2foApdfC3Z5cQEU276Suc6YX1NmwjQhmf%2bBu1J5FjO2ETECv%2ffwHrEgge1g%3d%3d she had a heifer calf out of Coleman Bravo I haven't seen the calf but am pretty dang excited to get a heifer out of this cow. The cow is about as good as you can get both genetically and phenotypically.

Gizmom
 
gizmom said:
Jacob knew I was excited about the 1412 cow calving so he got a photo of her and her calf yesterday afternoon. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words.



Gizmom

Great cow and calf. Someone is a good photographer!
 
Have to admit sheer luck taken on his cell phone, I don't think he even realized how dang good a shot it was. You can try all day to get a photo like that when your trying, and still not get one as good. It looks like they are both posed I think the photo is for sure a keeper! First Bravo calf we have ever had but the Bravo bull is incredibly deep and so is the cow, so can you get them to deep? I guess we're fixing to find out.



This is the sire of the calf, I am pretty excited about the mating. Jacob wants to breed the cow back to either XXP or Extension to stack the EXT then hope for a bull calf to use in our herd.

Edited to add at a day old I already think the heifer would make a show calf she is sure sweet fronted.

Gizmom
 
With the length on that cow, I don't think you will be able to get "too deep".
Well, duh, aren't ALL Angus cattle "sweet fronted"? As a Simmental breeder, I'm always shooting for that front end!!!
Hard to get a dud out of such a great cow.
 
Well 9/27 is our first AI due date and as of this afternoon we have 26 calves. Two days ago we had a set of twin heifers mamma can handle both but we have a nurse cow that was due to calve any minute so we knew one calf would be put on her. Thankfully Bessie finally calved this afternoon





As you can see if not for the set of twins we would have to start milking her one little ole calf isn't going to put a dent in this feed wagon.

The heifers are out of a 2008 model cow that is a direct daughter of Graham Duchess 55 and New Day 8005 so getting a set of twin heifers out of that cow is sure a bonus. We palpate for pregnancy so we know they are bred but have no idea we're having twins until it happens. I am not a fan of twins, but admit having Bessie takes some stress off.

Edited to add we AI'd Bessie with our heifers in hopes of her calving early in case we needed her assistance. She was AI'd to a Jersey Bull called Headline News her calf is a heifer so should make a really nice nurse cow in a couple of years.

Gizmom
 
We have sure nuff been cranking them out this week. The 27th was our first due date for AI on heifers with cows AI'd to calve on 10/7 and ET calves due 10/7. As of today we have calved 52 so only 55 to go. We found one dead this morning big calf out of a cow, so it should not have been more than she could handle he was 80 pounds, found first thing this morning so really no idea other than dead calf. Mamma was still standing over it licking on it. We have also had some little bitty calves one 39 pounds which is pretty weak but still kicking. I haven't had time to actually compare weights from past years but know just from our experience that the birth weights are much lighter than usual. Only two itty bitties at 39 and 40 pounds but overall just smaller. I really think the heat is taking a toll this year, if not the heat something has sure had an impact. I know the next week will be another busy one with a big group of AI and ET calves still due.

gizmom
 

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