Calving Downunder East

[waihou]

Yes Backbone, they are Wallawong Under the Radar calves.
We got 1 heifer and 4 bulls, here they are at 2 months old. We synchronised 10 cows. Two cycled 24 hours before we were due to inseminate, we did them that day but they didn't hold and cycled 19 days later, one wasn't really ready but we did her anyway and one other didn't hold. So 6 pregnancies but one slipped before preg testing at 4 months. So five good calves on the ground. We may use a couple of the bulls on our herd as yearlings, possibly the silver bull 443 and one other.
The carcase traits should improve our lines as Under the Radar Eye muscle EBV is +3 to a breed average of +1.3, and we only have one cow over breed average.

The eldest, a heifer 441, born 4 days early

Plenty of width in her rump!

Bull calf 442, 2 days over due date

Bull calf 443, the silver posted earlier, 3 days over due date

Bull calf 444, 4 days over due date the lightest at 40kgs

Bull calf 445, as posted earlier, 6 days over due date, the heaviest at 49kgs

 

[Putangitangi]

Second heifer calved this morning. Looked like hard work but it was all done in the usual sort of time for a first-timer. Little purebred bull. If he's good, he could be the sire of the heifers' calves in two years ...

 

[regolith]

final calf of the year for this herd is now three days old - glad to have that part of the season over and done with. Just about three weeks into AI now.

 

[Putangitangi]

I'm now waiting on one, a three-year-old. I extended my mating period a few days for her at the end last summer because I knew she had to be coming on any minute, since she hadn't already.
Three days ago at 271 gestation she started limping on her back left, looking as if she had partial paralysis, couldn't control her leg to walk properly. It gradually came right, but she holds her tail out a bit as well every now and then, although I'm quite sure she's not yet in labour. Calf is still alive, no mucus, udder not yet full. I'm expecting her on the 10th from past performance.

Any similar experience out there?

I had 36 pregnant cows and all went perfectly to number 34, then 35 came backwards, which I fortunately saw very early and we pulled it out, so they're fine too. It's been a dream run, almost, after last year's nightmare of deaths and c-section excitement.

 

[regolith]

That was over quick - five weeks?
Great to have an easy run, one less complication to worry about.

I think most farmers would say your young cow has a pinched nerve from the calf lying wrong - now I know a vet who says that isn't actually possible, but it sure is a persistent belief among cattlemen. I haven't seen one for years, never in my own herd (which has been together since '06).

 

[Putangitangi]

I'm still waiting on that last one, really skewing my nice, tight, calving period! On the 35 calved (leaving out those three which had missed a year but I really didn't want to cull, since it wasn't necessarily their fault and I could keep them), the calving span is an average 360 days, which works well for an ever-tightening period.

Last cow should do it by the end of tomorrow, I hope. I've seen no further really obvious paralysis, although there was a bit of a weird jump yesterday when I looked at her. I hope I'll be able to watch her labour, to ensure it all goes normally, just in case.

 

[Putangitangi]

All successfully completed, 100% born live and well. 48 days from start to finish, with an average calving interval of 360.3 days for those which calved last and this year. There were no early slips, no late abortions, no dead deliveries and everyone born alive has so far stayed that way, despite last night's last calf nearly falling in a flooded stream during today. That would have been seriously disappointing!
Last cow calved without any obvious problem, so whatever the pinched nerve business was about, it didn't affect her during labour. I'm relieved and delighted.

Average calving span for the eight second-calf three-year-olds was 367.6 days (338-381). None of them didn't get back in calf, although I did extend things a little for that last one, whose interval was 377.

The weather is finally warming up and we keep getting excellent drops of nicely-timed rain. We'll be sitting pretty until the El Nino drought hits!

 

[regolith]

...aside from that wind that keeps siphoning the moisture out of the ground. Srsly, we got 20 mm two days ago and an inch last week and you'd never know it had fallen.

Strange how some years are like that and others throw everything at you - no hard calvings in my herd this year, fairly heavy calf losses but they were all weather related not calving difficulty or health problems.