Dusty Britches
Well-known member
I just finished reading Bez's post on an old cow and it got me to thinking about a cow I have.
She is a big black baldie, about 5 years old. Every 11 months she calves a 75 pound heifer. She is very docile and nothing gets her excited. I mean nothing except dogs, but then calling that excited is a reach. All of her calves have the same traits. She has huge hips and her heifers do too. They grow fairly well, although she just calved last week from my super bull for the first time. (The last bull was pure junk.)
Any hoo, here's my delimna. Her front 2 teats are huge. You can't even get your hands around them. Last year it was just one quarter. This year it is 2. I'm sure the new calf will nurse the smaller of the 2 swollen ones in the next few days.
But, the vet and my spouse say sell the cow and calf at weaning. Most experienced cow hands say, as long as she has one good teat and raises a nice calf, keep her. I've decided to not keep any calf off of her, but I would like to keep her until she can't raise a calf.
Keep her or sell her?
She is a big black baldie, about 5 years old. Every 11 months she calves a 75 pound heifer. She is very docile and nothing gets her excited. I mean nothing except dogs, but then calling that excited is a reach. All of her calves have the same traits. She has huge hips and her heifers do too. They grow fairly well, although she just calved last week from my super bull for the first time. (The last bull was pure junk.)
Any hoo, here's my delimna. Her front 2 teats are huge. You can't even get your hands around them. Last year it was just one quarter. This year it is 2. I'm sure the new calf will nurse the smaller of the 2 swollen ones in the next few days.
But, the vet and my spouse say sell the cow and calf at weaning. Most experienced cow hands say, as long as she has one good teat and raises a nice calf, keep her. I've decided to not keep any calf off of her, but I would like to keep her until she can't raise a calf.
Keep her or sell her?