Bull too big?

[rick1500]

My neighboors Beefmaster bull has decided to service our Jersey milk cow.

She stood and handled him at least once today, but later on she went to her knees when he tried to mount her. Did her legs just get weak from him being on her earlier.

How do I know if he is too big for her. I'm brand new to cattle. My neighbor asked if we could keep him while he's fixing his fence. He has no cows right now.

Is this knee buckling a normal happening or do I need to get him out right now before he hurts her.

Thanks.

 

[dun]

Maybe he was so good it just made her weak in the knees.
Seriously, his weight and activity may have been just o much for her to hold up. Since she won;t be back in heat for around 17-21 days, if she didn't settle you have that long before he'll be mounting again. If she took, she won;t come back in anyway.
If you want to abort the calf if she settled. Wait a couple of weeks and give her a shot of lutalyze

dun

 

[Anonymous]

That's a good one (may be some real truth in that :lol: )

Goodness Gracious :shock: how long do they stay in heat.

The bull actually came around 2 weeks ago, I had to make a judgement call and say he would be alright, but today was the first time we got to see him mount her. Apparently she's been going for the whole 2 weeks, we could see signs of mud on her back.

We had actually been making a decision on how to get her pregnant when he showed up. We want the calf.

The calf in the picture (if it comes over, I seem to be having trouble getting it to show up)was an orphan that was given to us sometime before we had the calf she came with processed.

After we took her calf off she decided not to nurse the new one.

 

[rick1500]

I'm still a little confused on getting a picture posted.

Is it not possible to do if the site that holds the pic has to have a password?

I read the pic posting instructions and thought maybe there was a way to do it.

 

[Frankie]

Does this help?

From the FAQ tab above:

"Can I post Images?
Images can indeed be shown in your posts. However, there is no facility at present for uploading images directly to this board. Therefore you must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server, e.g. http://www.some-unknown-place.net/my-picture.gif. You cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible server) nor to images stored behind authentication mechanisms such as Hotmail or Yahoo mailboxes, password-protected sites, etc. To display the image use either the BBCode

 

[Anonymous]

Jerseys aren't the biggest cows by any means, but the local Select Sires dealer among other people has said that for some reason, jersey cows can control how big their calf is and rarely has trouble. There are some jersey dairy farms that don't pull calves(unless backwards, no feet forward, etc). Some dairy farmers are breeding a holstein/jersey cow back to a holstien with no problems. I would have confidence that your cow could handle the calf from a Beefmaster bull without any mishaps.

 

[rick1500]

Very interesting about the Jersey. I like what your'e saying because of our future plans.

All this is purely in the embryo (aint even born yet) stage coupled with no knowledge of what I am speaking of (oh well, ),

What I have planned (when the farm I have visioned finally gets here) is using Beefmaster bulls with Jersey cows.

I have grown very fond of both of these breeds and they fit what I have planned.

I have this feeling that the Beefmaster breed is going to be the next Angus of the beef industry.

Although, my plans are not for monetary reasons. More just for pleasure.

 

[Ann Bledsoe]

A MATURE Jersey cow shouldn't have any problems delivering the calf. Jerseys have a large pelvis for their body size and can deliver a calf quite a bit larger than what you would expect.
One of my Jerseys ( 47-1/2", 900 lbs) was AI'd to a Shorthorn last year and produced a 90 lb bull calf which she delivered with no problems. Up to that point she'd never calved anything larger than 60 lb pure Jerseys. (My choice was Shorthorn or Holstein)

Personally, I've never left a Jersey to raise a calf -- mine produce way too much milk. I have one cow that gives 8 gallons a day -- when she's fresh I bottlefeed 6 calves and still have plenty of milk to make cheese (and feel like I'm drowning in milk).
I have another cow that is currently feeding an Angus calf (calf is brought to her to nurse). She's been fresh for 11 months now and even on the tailend of her lactation she's producing enough milk that I can milk out a quart for the table and the calf is still getting enough to grow like a little weed.
I bought the cow 7 months after she freshened and this is the 3rd calf that I've fed off of her.

Ann B

 

[A. delaGarza]

In the years I have been breeding Jersey cows I've service them with different breeds as Charolais, Limousin, Normande, Simmental, Brahman, Gir and Romagnola, without any calving problems, even the 1/2 blood Jersey females that had been service by a Simmental bull have never had any calving problems

My neighboors Beefmaster bull has decided to service our Jersey milk cow.

She stood and handled him at least once today, but later on she went to her knees when he tried to mount her. Did her legs just get weak from him being on her earlier.

How do I know if he is too big for her. I'm brand new to cattle. My neighbor asked if we could keep him while he's fixing his fence. He has no cows right now.

Is this knee buckling a normal happening or do I need to get him out right now before he hurts her.

Thanks.

 

[rick1500]

Wonderful information, thanks very much.

I'm really excited to be able to keep learning from everybody.

 

[BLACKPOWER]

I really want to see this cow.

 

[Ann Bledsoe]

Which cow?

This is the gal that gives 8 gallons a day

And this is the gal who's now raising a 3rd calf for me

Ann B

 

[Anonymous]

Very interesting about the Jersey. I like what your'e saying because of our future plans.

All this is purely in the embryo (aint even born yet) stage coupled with no knowledge of what I am speaking of (oh well, ),

What I have planned (when the farm I have visioned finally gets here) is using Beefmaster bulls with Jersey cows.

I have grown very fond of both of these breeds and they fit what I have planned.

I have this feeling that the Beefmaster breed is going to be the next Angus of the beef industry.

Although, my plans are not for monetary reasons. More just for pleasure.

"Beefmaster is going to be the next ANGUS of the beef industry"
If you believe that I would hope that your plans are not for monetary reasons. Keep dreaming.

 

[rick1500]

Dear Guest,

You should have read my post a little more carefully,

"coupled with no knowledge of what I am speaking of "

 

[Anonymous]

Which cow?

This is the gal that gives 8 gallons a day

And this is the gal who's now raising a 3rd calf for me

Ann B

"When Better Cattle Are Raised, The Sandhills of Nebraska Will Raise Them."
Looks like you were right BP. :lol:

 

[BLACKPOWER]

Which cow?

This is the gal that gives 8 gallons a day

And this is the gal who's now raising a 3rd calf for me

Ann B

"When Better Cattle Are Raised, The Sandhills of Nebraska Will Raise Them."
Looks like you were right BP. :lol:

She's probably from Eastern Nebraska, they don't really factor into the equation of profitable cattle operations. We send the calves there to feed because they have the corn. Most of the rest can be classifed as "Steer Jocks" who haul they're $2000 steer calf around from show to show, this makes me sick, these are the slickest idiots you'll ever meet.

 

[Anonymous]

I have heard from the local a.i man that jersey cows rarely have calving trouble. What about milk fever, though? I remember our little jersey coming down with milk fever more then once, I've never experienced it with any other cow. On the other hand she made nice tender enough tasty beef when we eventually butchered her, who would think an old cow would be good eating.

 

[dun]

I've read and heard from dairyman around here that jerseys have a higher incidence of milkfever.
There was a pretty good article on it in one of the dairy pubs and methods to decrease it. Since I don;t have Jerseys I didn't really care other then finding it interesting reading.

dun

I have heard from the local a.i man that jersey cows rarely have calving trouble. What about milk fever, though? I remember our little jersey coming down with milk fever more then once, I've never experienced it with any other cow. On the other hand she made nice tender enough tasty beef when we eventually butchered her, who would think an old cow would be good eating.

 

[Ann Bledsoe]

Jerseys are known for their tenderness and marbling -- even when old. Problem is they don't have very much of that good meat!

Jerseys are generally "easy calvers" due to that large pelvis, a mature cow can deliver a pretty big calf with no assistance, the only time I've ever known of a pure Jersey to need help was due to the calf having a leg hung, and I've seen some pretty darn big calves come out of them (not my own cows, but the Jersey dairy up the road).
I did buy a Holstein/Jersey cross heifer that a real hard time. She was the size of most Jerseys at calving and was 20 months old, but it turned out that she been bred by a fence-jumping Holstein instead of the Jersey she was penned with, her 3/4 Holstein heifer calf weighed 110 lbs at birth.

Milk fever is much more prevalent in dairy cattle than in beef cattle.
The reading I've done on it and the discussions that I've had with my vet, lead me to believe that milk fever is mainly caused by improper metabolization of calcium. Too much calcium in the cow's diet leading up to calving seems to bring it on. Reducing the cow's calcium intake before calving induces her to properly leach calcium from her bones to meet her calcium needs at freshening, and will reduce the incidence of the problem.

My Jerseys are much more prone to ketosis than milk fever. My oldest cow used to go into ketosis after every calving until I gave her a cup of molasses daily in her feed for that last week or so before she calved, and continued the molasses for a couple of weeks after freshening.
Just that added bit of molasses before and after freshening eliminated the problem.

Ann B

I have heard from the local a.i man that jersey cows rarely have calving trouble. What about milk fever, though? I remember our little jersey coming down with milk fever more then once, I've never experienced it with any other cow. On the other hand she made nice tender enough tasty beef when we eventually butchered her, who would think an old cow would be good eating.