OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Noticed that heifer is feeling real bad today. Brought her home to the barn. 104.18°F rectal temp.
Belgian blue cattle
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Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
What did you treat her for?
MurraysMutts
Well-known member
Gosh she's got a ghetto booty!!
MurraysMutts
Well-known member
I see a snotty nose in the pic with her butt back up into the corner.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Treating her ear, antibiotics and NSAIDS.
Yesterday rectal was 103,1°F. No voice shown yet, but she is abit brighter. Yesterday also gave her a shot of vitamin C.
Yes, she had abit of discharge. Her breathing got better with the temperature drop. However, I'm treating her for the respiratory infection as well, just in case as we had a very bad weather recently and she spent most of her time lying down.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Can continue this thread finaly. After all the misfortune finally got an alive calf and a heifer as well.
289 days gestation, which is pretty high for a blue and especially heifer. Dam is mature 7/8 lim. Cow was pretty lazy with the whole calving process. It's been around 1,5 years since her last calving, so that might have played the role in making things harder. Calf got stuck on hips and her dam standing all the time wasn't helping. However, got an alive and bright calf and dam is well.
Will weigh her tomorrow. Very thin bones, but lots of flesh on them.
289 days gestation, which is pretty high for a blue and especially heifer. Dam is mature 7/8 lim. Cow was pretty lazy with the whole calving process. It's been around 1,5 years since her last calving, so that might have played the role in making things harder. Calf got stuck on hips and her dam standing all the time wasn't helping. However, got an alive and bright calf and dam is well.
Will weigh her tomorrow. Very thin bones, but lots of flesh on them.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Nursed by herself and is moving around well.
125,7lbs this morning.
The sire:
The dam:
125,7lbs this morning.
The sire:
The dam:
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
No wonder she got hung up at the hips - look at them!! She is powerful.
LOL - big difference in how dam looks now and when the cattle were out on pasture. Some of my cows are about the same - the boss cows that hog the warm sloppy area around the feeders.
LOL - big difference in how dam looks now and when the cattle were out on pasture. Some of my cows are about the same - the boss cows that hog the warm sloppy area around the feeders.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Ours tend to loose their condition abit close to calving as the calf is consuming more. This one actually had her leg injured in December and was limping for a while. However, it is aa bad sign whe they loose too much of condition. It usually means a big calf or some health issues.
Wouldn't want any more flesh on her to be fair...
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Doesn't look that big next to her dam...
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
Yes dam has big hips - but I was referring to the calf's big hips. Really deep and thick.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
I understood that
Answered to the second part about that cow has changed. Or maybe you meant not her condition
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Yeah, she is a serious calf. Lots of flesh and very wide at the back. Really thought that it's going to be another loss. Have a theory that cow's sire was heterozygous for one of the myostatin forms and this daughter got it, and now mixed with blue it produced abit of a monster calf. It shouldn't have been such big calf in the first place, especially when 75% blue by the same sire was smaller and came out much easier. So that's the first and the last blue calf for the cow. She is just not suitable for blue bulls if we want to be safer. That's just showed that knowing your cows myostatin status is very important when you start mixing double muscled breeds.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Enjoying the sun and dry weather. She is going to be a tank, that's for sure.
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
You ARE drying out. We - not so much! Actually have a couple inches of SNOW!!! on the ground right now and still snow flurries. Well, at least it LOOKS pretty! MUD underneath.
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
It's quite an unsually early spring here.
Travlr
Well-known member
I'm curious about something. I just saw this posted on another thread, "My mineral is a 30ppm selenium, but that is a problem in Piedmontese. That they require higher selenium.", and wonder if you are concerned with special mixes of minerals where you are? Over here it's become a big deal and a lot of people spend time and money to craft just the right minerals for their cattle, expecting better results. What are you doing with minerals?
OP
OP
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Nothing too fancy. Precalving minerals buckets and salt blocks with selenium. If we saw that there was an issue appearing, which could be linked to lack of somekind mineral, blood sample would be taken to see what's going on. Currently everything seems okay. We give some calves a shot of selenium though.
Here you go @lithuanian farmer. This was posted on the "Myostatin Tender Meat Cattle" site on Facebook.
Odd the comments made about double muscled cattle that have never tried the meat. If they try it, then they will know why people raise these cattle. Pieds and Blues....... Try it and then slam it if you don't like it. I tried double muscle meat and that is why I swapped from Angus to Pieds.
The post below is about the Blues.
Imagine having to eat beef that is so easily cut that it is described like cutting butter. Even if you don't have good teeth, you can chew this kind of beef.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6847761718640875
Fun Fact Friday
Here is a article that one of the breeders from Indiana experienced butchering a full blood steer.
The week before Christmas 2023 we took our very first Fullblood Steer to Market. We have heard numerous reports on how "tender" and "moist" the meat is. Well, we are not disappointed. We did end up selling half of the beef to a family friend and we kept half for ourselves. He ended up dressing out at 80% which also impressed us. The butcher was absolutely stunned once he took the hide off on how there was not as much external fat as other breeds he has done. His opinion on the Blues vs other or commercial breeds would be that cutting into the meat to create the cuts is "like butter". He also could not believe that when you compare the meat you get on the blues vs. conventional steers you get "20-25% more meat". The one thing he could not stop talking about was the ribs he was astounded how the ribs had 4-5" of pure blue meat on whereas the other breeds he cut has maybe up to 1" of meat. "I can't wait to see more come through for me to process for you all" The family that bought the half said "this is by far the best meat they have ever had and with that they would have bought the whole animal.
2023 Scan Data from the American Blue National Show
REA(13.31) REA/CWT(1.38) %IMF(0.83) FAT(0.05) 962 LBS 14 MONTH OLD
Odd the comments made about double muscled cattle that have never tried the meat. If they try it, then they will know why people raise these cattle. Pieds and Blues....... Try it and then slam it if you don't like it. I tried double muscle meat and that is why I swapped from Angus to Pieds.
The post below is about the Blues.
Imagine having to eat beef that is so easily cut that it is described like cutting butter. Even if you don't have good teeth, you can chew this kind of beef.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6847761718640875
American Blue Cattle Association
·Fun Fact Friday
Here is a article that one of the breeders from Indiana experienced butchering a full blood steer.
The week before Christmas 2023 we took our very first Fullblood Steer to Market. We have heard numerous reports on how "tender" and "moist" the meat is. Well, we are not disappointed. We did end up selling half of the beef to a family friend and we kept half for ourselves. He ended up dressing out at 80% which also impressed us. The butcher was absolutely stunned once he took the hide off on how there was not as much external fat as other breeds he has done. His opinion on the Blues vs other or commercial breeds would be that cutting into the meat to create the cuts is "like butter". He also could not believe that when you compare the meat you get on the blues vs. conventional steers you get "20-25% more meat". The one thing he could not stop talking about was the ribs he was astounded how the ribs had 4-5" of pure blue meat on whereas the other breeds he cut has maybe up to 1" of meat. "I can't wait to see more come through for me to process for you all" The family that bought the half said "this is by far the best meat they have ever had and with that they would have bought the whole animal.
2023 Scan Data from the American Blue National Show
REA(13.31) REA/CWT(1.38) %IMF(0.83) FAT(0.05) 962 LBS 14 MONTH OLD
Travlr
Well-known member
I was breeding with Belgian Blue in the early 80's. I had one that was out of a Brahmousin heifer that really caught the double muscle, and it dressed out at 752 with a live weight of 1050. There were others I sold that would probably have dressed out higher. The Blues are amazing animals. If you have cows with smooth muscle but carry the double muscle gene you can get some damn fine calves with little worry about calving problems.
