Blind cow

[Ky hills]

I wish I could say I have always been as open in the marketing of cattle as you state in your post above.
My natural inclination is to talk too much and tell all I know, even when it hurts financially. But I have to fight a propensity to exaggerate. I do not think I have ever purposely misled.
Sometimes I have taken stock to be sold, informed those in charge of my worries of some problem, and sat silently in the audience while they are sold with no disclaimer. I felt bad and worried the damage to my reputation was a worse loss than the few extra dollars I gained.
I think you are being too hard on yourself. Marketing cattle at auction is a rough sport at best and we all learn from our mistakes.
I think your plan out of the situation is the right one and a good deal awaits in the future if you do not get too down on yourself.

From what your saying, by telling an issue and then it not being announced at time of sale, you did your part. To me that comes out about even because there's also times when things that would help you don't get announced too.
Generally, they that work the ring or an eagle eyed buyer will point something out and have a calf split from a group or point out a flaw.
If we have an animal with a question we say sell it by the pound. If something is wild or aggressive which is rare for us, we always warn the workers before it comes off the trailer to watch it and it gets old by the pound.
I think most folks have an understanding as do I that there is a lot of leeway when selling and that you can end up with things not perfect and it doesn't ruin a reputation. Something major and deliberate is different.

 

[gcreekrch]

Thanks y'all. When I saw those cows and calves come in the ring, I knew they looked thin but their tails were clean I thought they may just have been on slim pickings food wise. Just have a few seconds to decide and I thought I could worm and work then and feed them and have calves to sell back in a few months.
I've bought a few thin cows before with no health issues. So I really wasn't even thinking about that. Had it been 500 pound calves I would have been more keenly looking for signs of sickness.
Some trader got me good. He's probably laughing all the way to the bank. That's on him. We are like most other people we try and when something like this happens it hurts financially. We will recover and move on.
We've both been pretty angry over the blind cow being nested in the group.
We feel bad for her and are going to try to make the best of the situation for now.
Eventually when her calf is sold we will sell her and sell her the right way which is by the pound. The buyers will know she is blind and we will have lost money on that deal for sure.
I like to be brutally honest in my dealings as I want to be known as somebody that does the right thing. I care about others as well as my reputation. I've lost a lot of money that way, but I'd rather have a clear conscience. and be able to sleep at night.
It really angers me when people have no morals or scruples and literally try to deceive others. Unfortunately there are plenty of those folks around and it gives all of us in the cattle business a bad name when their practices come to light.
I maintain that the vast majority of cattle people try to do things right and it's a shame that a few bad actors are always around.

You would be best with the old girl to make a date with the local locker plant for late July and have a hamburger sale. The other might go the same way. End product you may just recoup most of your initial cost.

 

[farmerjan]

I agree with the making a date and getting yourself hamburger and a few other cuts that would do well in moist heat cooking... making her go through the ring blind and taking a bath on her money wise are both not a very good ending to a bad situation. With the price of good hamburger in the store... you could do alot better than her at the sale barn.

 

[Little Joe]

@Ky hills I agree with @gcreekrch and @farmerjan, I'd have her processed myself for all burger. I've done several cows that way if they were in good shape. I advertise it and usually divide it between about 6 people, it works out to about $6/lb retail. We've ate quite a bit of it and my customers love it as well, it's on the leaner side but ours have always had enough fat to make a patty stick together with no problem. You'd probably get most of your money back that way and still have the calf to sell later. I didn't grain the ones I done but with her blind she might do better put up an on grain. Ours have always been good grass fat cattle, never had a complaint and usually same people purchase again.

 

[Travlr]

Just an addition to what @Little Joe suggested... If the cow isn't fat enough most processors I've used will save excess kidney fat from young animals to be added to meat from older cows if it needs some more fat in it. Just ask...

 

[Ky hills]

Well i don't know for sure, either the blind cow has learned where every thing is and is more confident in walking, or she has her vision back.
She has gone from walking into everything and walking with her nose stuck out to feel her way around, to holding her head normal and walking right in in the barn on her own often before the other cow.
Is it possible for temporary blindness to clear up with a month or so?

 

[farmerjan]

If she was badly deprived of certain minerals, it is possible that the mineral mix you have, has fed her system's need... and improved her sight. On top of that, being in a familiar place she has learned where things are. The couple of blind calves we had were so good that you did not know that they had a problem if no one told you. They would jump and play even in their field... and come right to the feed bunk when they heard your voice....
Glad she is doing so much better...

 

[gcreekrch]

Vitamin A and or Selenium extreme deficiency can lead to blindness. Especially if cattle in very poor condition as these were.

 

[farmerjan]

I am a BIG proponent of Vit A & D for eye health. I wasn't aware of selenium being of concern for eyesight, but our problem here is with white muscle disease on occasion and that is E and Selenium... and selenium is also part of the thyroid not functioning properly and hair loss....

 

[gcreekrch]

I am a BIG proponent of Vit A & D for eye health. I wasn't aware of selenium being of concern for eyesight, but our problem here is with white muscle disease on occasion and that is E and Selenium... and selenium is also part of the thyroid not functioning properly and hair loss....

You ever see a calf born with blind, white eyes? Selenium usually the case.

 

[wbvs58]

Did you feed her carrots?
They can seem blind with lead poisoning.

Ken

 

[Ky hills]

Did you feed her carrots?
They can seem blind with lead poisoning.

Ken

Whatever was going on it had affected her before we got her. No carrots, just the same mixed feed ration and mineral I've used for years. Recently gave them a protein block, which I don't typically use those.
We did give MultiMin 90 and generic Draxxin. At one point about 10 days in she looked like she had hurt her eye, I didn't know at the time she was blind just thought she was so sick she was acting strange so gave her LA 300 for the eye injury thinking she may have been starting pinkeye. My thinking was they were probably deficient in about everything.

 

[Ky hills]

Update on the cow deal. I had been holding off saying anything about it until it was finalized, because I wasn't sure exactly how it was going to work out.
We were reimbursed from the stockyards for the first 2 that died shortly after purchase. When we discovered that one of the remaining 2 cows was blind we told the stockyards about that, they told us to bring them back and they would take care of it. We had to wait until the withdrawal period for antibiotics and wormer was up. We were almost fully reimbursed for those as well.
Very thankful that they worked with us and helped us on that.
We would have liked to have known who the cattle were originally sold by, but it appeared to us they were covering for somebody on that.

 

[Hpacres440p]

Update on the cow deal. I had been holding off saying anything about it until it was finalized, because I wasn't sure exactly how it was going to work out.
We were reimbursed from the stockyards for the first 2 that died shortly after purchase. When we discovered that one of the remaining 2 cows was blind we told the stockyards about that, they told us to bring them back and they would take care of it. We had to wait until the withdrawal period for antibiotics and wormer was up. We were almost fully reimbursed for those as well.
Very thankful that they worked with us and helped us on that.
We would have liked to have known who the cattle were originally sold by, but it appeared to us they were covering for somebody on that.

Was the blind one recovered still or did she relapse in a new environment again?

 

[Ky hills]

Was the blind one recovered still or did she relapse in a new environment again?

Not sure what you're asking.
It took me a while, nearly 2 weeks to discover she was blind. Once I figured that out m, it answered a lot of strange behavior from the cow, that I noticed even back when we loaded them up from the stockyards the night we bought them.
I never did really know if she regained her sight or just got extremely good at memorizing her territory here in the lot I had them in.

 

[Hpacres440p]

Not sure what you're asking.
It took me a while, nearly 2 weeks to discover she was blind. Once I figured that out m, it answered a lot of strange behavior from the cow, that I noticed even back when we loaded them up from the stockyards the night we bought them.
I never did really know if she regained her sight or just got extremely good at memorizing her territory here in the lot I had them in.

That's what I wondered-if she acted blind again once she got into unfamiliar areas at the stockyards.

 

[kenny thomas]

Sounds like whatever stockyard you bought them from has tried to do the right thing for you. Makes me feel better about it.
Im still betting that they were trade cattle.