Aubrac calves ... almost done ...

[WalnutCrest]

Fullblood Aubrac heifer calf ... 2/5/14 ... 75lbs [bought mama as a bred cow ... not my first choice of calving dates]
Fullblood Aubrac heifer calf ... 4/23/14 ... 72lbs
Fullblood Aubrac bull calf ... 4/23/14 ... 81lbs
97% Aubrac bull calf ... 5/12/14 ... 71lbs
Fullblood Aubrac bull calf ... 5/15/14 ... 73lbs

...with one 94% calf coming in 2-3 weeks (ish)...spread out calving due to a variety of self-inflicted wounds from last summer... :bang:

 

[Nesikep]

Broken penis? Lameness? :hide:

That is a bit spread out, though you got two in one day there! I go for mid march calving start.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Broken penis? Lameness? :hide:

That is a bit spread out, though you got two in one day there!

Hardly. I was the one that inflicted the wounds on myself.

I leased some pasture that ended up being far lower-quality than I expected ... and ... the perimeter fence was far worse than it first looked. As a result, I was shuttling cattle and jerry-rigging fencing all summer. Quite frustrating. Not leasing that place this year.

I go for mid march calving start.

Depending on when some embryos go in here in the next couple of weeks, it looks like our 2015 calving season will start around March 10. We've already sold one confirmed bull calf pregnancy (i.e., the buyer is getting the pregnant recip once confirmed with bull calf). Pretty excited about this upcoming flush... :)

 

[branguscowgirl]

Would love to see some pictures please! :D

 

[Nesikep]

Yes, pictures!

It always seems that my cows that have the shortest gestation time are always in heat on the first day, which moves my start date forward, so then I have to wait a while until the normal cows start calving, and it makes the 'first cycle' calves come for an entire month, then this year in the second cycle, I had a cow gestate 302 days... *yawn*

Always nice when you have a calf sold before it's born!

 

[WalnutCrest]

Pictures will have to wait until this afternoon or some time this weekend... Separately, I'll be posting some pictures (and maybe a video if I can figure that out) of our 2/5/14 heifer who lost her right rear hoof to frostbite who has been down at a specialty vet in Hot Springs, AR since mid-March -- all that stuff will be over in the 'health' forum under the existing thread about "valuable calves with a lost hoof". That heifer is looking REALLY great (the upcoming flush will be that heifer's sire to the heifer's dam's half-sister) -- the vet is quite pleased with her development despite her hardship. Her dad is a real meat wagon and her mom was sired by one of the top maternal bulls in all of France.

And, yes, it is quite nice to sell a calf while it's still inside mama! We're queuing up 8 recips for this upcoming flush and will be looking to sell all in utero bull calves once sex-confirmed. If we don't get 8+ viable embyros from this coming flush, we'll be putting eggs in from the prior flush (same cow for both flushes, the first bull we flushed to was Maximus, who's picture has been posted here by me a couple of times before).

******************

A 302 day gestation? I think *yawn* is a dramatic understatement! My wife was getting antsy about these last two calves born as they were both a week-ish later than expected ... I can't imagine drumming my fingers for three weeks more! Was that calf a giant?

 

[Nesikep]

Actually the calf wasn't that big... Our cows tend to go 288-290 days, but up til then I had never seen over 295. Her line always holds on to them a bit longer. It was a bull calf too.
There's a point where you just stop checking on them, that's when they'll do it! I have 3 very late cows, june, july, august? One is a heifer, and she's going to have to do it on her own, or let me know she's doing it if she wants any help

 

[WalnutCrest]

WCCC Begonia (the 2/5 heifer) -- born in a blizzard; found in a foot of snow with -30 windchill

WCCC Begonia -- enjoying getting warmed up by the fire a couple of hours later

WCCC Begonia -- 10 days old with mama supervising a burn pile

WCCC Begonia -- 2mo and 10 days old here ... we couldn't save her right rear hoof, so she's in Hot Springs, AR at a specialty vet (Step Ahead Farm) their expertise is with horse injuries (particularly race horses with hoof injuries). As a result of her extreme frostbite, we're not sure she'll ever be pasture-sound enough to carry her own pregnancy. We're doing all of this because her mother was sired by an elite cow-maker from France (Ushuaia) and her dad is the #1 'meat wagon' French bull in the breed (Andalou). Anyhow, we're hoping to get a flush or two out of her late this year or early next ...

WCCC Begonia -- This is her stub 54 days after treatment (the pink is granulation tissue with good blood flow, and the white/light-pink is epithelial tissue growth -- a very good sign).

WCCC Boudreau (the 4/23 bull calf) -- 3 days old following my son around

... for some reason, my phone isn't allowing me to get any of my other pictures to transfer ... I'll try again later ...

 

[Nesikep]

Certainly no begonias around when she was born! She looks really nice, and so does the cow! I'm always amazed at what they can recover from, and the speed at which they can do it.

Hopefully she's in the clear now!

 

[WalnutCrest]

The currently unnamed bull calf born on 5/15 ... this picture was taken at less than one hour old ... still a little wet. You can see mama's sack hanging out of her backside...

 

[branguscowgirl]

Great story about Begonia! Happy she is doing so well!

 

[WalnutCrest]

The bull calf above has been named (by one of our beef buyers) Buckminster (after Buckminster Fuller).

Here he is two later:

And again at 8 days old:

Also, here is a picture of three calves. This is pretty typical of how Aubrac calves transition to fleshy animals from the skinny and stringy calves that emerge from mama --- the muscling really starts to show at about 3wks. The ones on the left and in the middle are 28 days old, and the one on the right is 8 days old. The one on the left and the middle are, for all intents and purposes nearly full siblings; the one on the right is different bloodlines.

We lost a cow (not sure why; she was 11yrs old) and she left behind a beautiful heifer who was 5 days old at the time. We bottle fed her for a little more than two weeks, and then grafted her onto another cow (it took the sum total of 90 seconds of them being in a trailer together for mama to let the baby nurse). Here's a picture of our orphaned heifer on her 'new' mama -- she's exactly 1mo old in this photo (five days on her mother, 2+ weeks of high quality milk replacer, and one week on her adopted mother):

 

[branguscowgirl]

Thanks for sharing all the pictures! Love seeing the different breeds, I am definitely not familiar with your Aubracs. :D

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Very nice photos. Thanks for sharing.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Our newest addition (and final 2014 calf) ... a lovely 62lb heifer. We think we're going to name her Birdie.

Mama (Sophie) was standing off by herself when we left for my sons baseball game ... and when we returned home 2.5hrs later, the calf was up and nursing and mama was back to grazing away. GOOD MAMA!

We're quite curious if this heifer is polled or not. Mama is horned and the bull is heavy scurred ... BUT ... every other time he's been bred to a horned cow, he's delivered a polled calf ... and ... none of them have been over 70lbs. Barring something unanticipated, we're going to be selling our bull in August / September for anyone looking for a new bull with grass genetics.

 

[Rosielou]

Love your pictures and stock! Thank you for posting, I love to see breeds I am not very familiar with.

 

[MO_cows]

Nice looking cattle. The calves remind me of our Tarentaise. Some similar shading/markings on the adults, too. Wonder if they are related somewhere way back?