Calving, 2018

[Nesikep]

Sucks to lose a heifer.. glad you got the calf grafted with what seems to be minimal fuss... I lost a good cow 3 weeks ago, her orphan has 3 mommas.. The heifer that lost her calf early in the year I milked by hand for a long time.. she is very very slowly warming up to the calf, then there are two other cows that just get tired of chasing him off.. He gets a bottle every day or two if he looks really hungry.. I have 3 left to go... So far I have 13 bull calves and 7 heifers.. really lopsided this year.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Just got lucky to convince the cow that she has twins. No trouble at all. When we walked them all to the shed ( that was ~30min after calving), she already watched both calves and called them.
21 bulls and 17 heifers at the moment. Had most of the heifers born in summer/fall. Will have ten more calvings until June.

 

[Nesikep]

One of my easiest adoptions was a cow that lost her calf (legs the wrong way for too long) but never got to sniff it.. a few days later I had a cow with twins on a cold night, only wanted one of them.. I took the other into the shop for the night, and when I brought it to the cow that lost hers, it was love at first sight "Finally you brought me my baby!"

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Most of the calves are red, some black this year, so want abit more colour.
A bull calf was born this morning out of 3rd calver. Her first calf was a black heifer(replacement), the second- yellow bull calf, which she lost due to difficult calving, but after a week she took an orphan calf and raised him well, and this year this light grey bull calf. Wonder what colour she'll bring next year.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Only a couple left to calve, finally. The bulls are winning by their number. Had two calves born two days ago- heifer and bull. Our taggers are broken at the moment, so will have some work when the new ones will arrive...

Heifer.

Bull.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Slowly going to an "end". One girl, 1st calver, is on 297th day. Doesn't want to show her calf. Another, 12yo bbxdairy cow, is on 287th day. It's been extremely hot for the last month, but they still carry calves for quite long time.
But at least one has calved yesterday. 2nd calver, 286days gestation, has a tiny bull calf. Cow is Limox out of AngusxSalersx cow. His mom is black with abit of white on her udder, her dam is fully black, granddam was too. The grandgranddam was mostly black with some white on her udder.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Update on calves. They are getting a bit bigger. Don't really like how our bull's calves look, so plan about selling him after this year and buying another. Sold his first bulls on Monday. Lower kill-outs than we'd like. They have pretty big bones, but lack some meat.

Heifer on the left is from the cow, which had quite extreme muscled calves from the previous Limo bull.

This one might turn into a pretty good heifer.

May 2nd born heifer, which I like the most at the moment.

One of the best bull calves.

"Purebred" heifer. Kinda like her too.
Girls still waiting to pop:

12yo bbxdairy.

Daughter of the previous bull. Due with her 2nd calf.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

The 12yo finally calved. 293days gestation. She'll be culled this year, so glad to see that she has a heifer. Have only two daughters from her- 7 and 9 years old top breeders in the herd. 6 years ago she had another heifer, which we tried to leave as replacement, was the nicest heifer from the group and the biggest one, but she couldn't get incalf for over 6 months since letting with the bull.
Hopefully this new heifer will grow well and we'll be able to leave her as a replacement.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Is she being culled because of the udder?

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Is she being culled because of the udder?

No. Her udder is fully functional and calves never had problems. We cull her, because she's one from the eldest and we want to reduce half dairy cows number by replacing them with young heifers. The number of cows is almost reached, so have to do some hard decisions now. Plus it looks that she had harder time keeping her condition this winter, even if they had a better feed.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

The youngest heifer is only 12 days old, but she's the best looking heifer already. Looks like the mom is doing a very good job this year.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

One more heifer born yesterday. Out of 10years old 3/4Char cow. 293days gestation. Will use Charolais on her this year.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

A couple heifers, which we plan about keeping as replacements.

6 months old, out of Angusx cow. Dam is a very milky cow, so this girl should make a nice cow too.

5 months old, out of Angusx cow.

Almost two months old heifer with her dam.

From our top cow. Have hopes that she'll make a fine cow.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

I always forget to take a photo with an orphan calf. Here's he with his current mom and brother. He's on the right.

 

[Nesikep]

I always forget to take a photo with an orphan calf. Here's he with his current mom and brother. He's on the right.

I'll have to try and get one of mine.. His sister is nursing him most of the time, he's doing really well!

 

[Nesikep]

Here's an old picture of the sister with her calf and orphan brother getting a meal.. He does steal a little from other cows but he gets most of his milk from her..

Then I have the cow that had twins, and apparently two wasn't enough for her, she had to let a 3rd calf in there (the middle one is the thief)

 

[lithuanian farmer]

They look great! It's nice to have cows, which can take an extra calf.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Managed to take a photo of one of the heifers near weaning. She was born on 26th of December. Plan about keeping her. Her dam looks to have a good milk supply.

Have started giving abit of meal for the calves this year. Just to make it easier for heir dams to raise them. And we'll sell all weanling bull calves and, hopefully, most weaned heifers this year, so a couple extra pounds on the calf are very welcome.

It can get abit crowed sometimes.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

You never know what you can get from a dairy cross cow... But I don't complain. A small 87.5% Limo heifer born today out of 2nd calver. Cow isn't very friendly with us. This year gave her a tail scratch for the first time. She liked it... But she's very tame cow after calving. Gave her a bucket with meal to restore her energy and for some minerals, and I was able to tag, give a vitamin shot, etc for the calf without any worries. And she's the only heifer from 6, which has calved last year in August-September and bred back soon after. Other will be calving next year only. All went in heat only this spring.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Another heifer born early this morning.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/Xveuy4OvJK4[/youtube]

6 days old heifer.

1.5 month old heifer.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/HeB7lo7wX8E[/youtube]