Angus cow way fat

[aplusmnt]

I took an Registered Angus cow to the Vet today, just knowing she had to be bloated (gun shy after heifer dying other day). This cow is just getting fatter and fatter! She is 4 years old, and about 6 months pregnant.

Vet said she is not bloating, just a fat cow. I have not fed her any feed, no hay yet this winter, she is just on fescue pasture. Always heard it is bad for them to be fat. What can I do if she just keeps getting fat on pasture only?

Should I be very worried come calving time? She barely fit in the vets squeeze shoot. Every cull because a girl is to easy of a keeper?

 

[dun]

I took an Registered Angus cow to the Vet today, just knowing she had to be bloated (gun shy after heifer dying other day). This cow is just getting fatter and fatter! She is 4 years old, and about 6 months pregnant.

Vet said she is not bloating, just a fat cow. I have not fed her any feed, no hay yet this winter, she is just on fescue pasture. Always heard it is bad for them to be fat. What can I do if she just keeps getting fat on pasture only?

Should I be very worried come calving time? She barely fit in the vets squeeze shoot. Every cull because a girl is to easy of a keeper?

We select for the opposite reasons. We've selected for cows that get fat over the winter on poor fescue pasture, they get fat but if they milk well and raise a good calf we keep them. We did have 2 cows that got fat, sired by the same but unknown bull, and they got fat but each year their calves got smaller and smaller. They both milked well but just didn;t put the genetic pop in their calves. Their dams get fat and alwasy raise calves that are in the top 5% of the years calves. Sisters from known bulls out of the same cows get fat but also raise great calves.
Fat, within reason, isn;t a bad thing in the winter. We've never had calving problems with any of them. The vet alwasy jokes about our BCS 12 cows but he likes them well enough that he bought an orphan heifer and is going to use her as a recip in his ET program.

dun

 

[Susie David]

IMO some cows just have a larger capacity than others..have a Herf that is wider than she is tall, in her third trimester but has a nice feel to her not excessively fat, a small gal but is widening nicely in the hooks and pins so I don't worry so much now...she'll definately calve in the barn.
DMc

 

[dun]

IMO some cows just have a larger capacity than others..have a Herf that is wider than she is tall, in her third trimester but has a nice feel to her not excessively fat, a small gal but is widening nicely in the hooks and pins so I don't worry so much now...she'll definately calve in the barn.
DMc

I guess I should have made sure that the subject was really fat and not gut/rib. Ours are wide in the body, but they also lay on some fat over their backs and hips. I like to see a cow with snow on her back that doesn;t melt. That's just well insulated

dun

 

[Susie David]

Amen to that....We got the snow to test that method.

 

[Bret]

I'll try to stay on task here. I have not been at it long enough to cull for feed issues.

I am trying to run my small herd like a business. That means I want my cows in the 5 area all of the time for these reasons--
I want them to have just the right amount of inputs to maintaine BCS through my winters while keeping a grip on the hay and feed(mostly hay) salt and minerals. I also don't want them so fat that they cost too much time and money getting bred back again on time.

Overweight cows may have a higher potential for calving problems and a higher potential for delayed cycling.

Having said all this, I like full looking fat cows and calves.

Don't worry...be happy.

Bret