Calving issues

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kickinbull

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Friend had cow that calved and showed signs of not cleaning. Took to vet found another dead calf inside her. It's always something ain't it?
 
This calving season has been bad for lots of people. Besides my own experience I'm reading about it on the cow pages on Facebook.
 
slick4591":3ntfttl4 said:
This calving season has been bad for lots of people. Besides my own experience I'm reading about it on the cow pages on Facebook.

Yes. Fire Sweep had a Firestorm of issues. Lots of people had premature and large calves. I was fortunate but did have a 30 day premature which happens to be Gimli and he is doing fine. It has been bad for most. I know a guy who lost half his calves to respiratory infection.
 
This year has been different that's for sure... I don't think we have had more than one or two calves under 95 pounds. And that's the smaller ones lol. Even the heifer bull had some decent sized calves... Maybe our extreme Minnesota winter? We had all the same breedings last year and the calves were 90ish pounds?
 
Have a new Sim Angus heifer bull this year. Most calves are running 79 to 83#. Seems to be a fine size for delivery, but some are slow to find a teat. May be watching too close... Don't have that option when pasture calving.

Tubed one last night. How much time to you give them before stepping in?
 
Thankfully, had a fairly good calving season, with only three calves lost(one was a twin). Last year was a horrible year, when we lost 1/4 of all calves, plus two cows.
Our neighbour has a fairly bad season with c-section and huge calves.
Also a huge problem here is a shortage of feed. We tried to make as much feed as possible, so feeling comfy now, however many people are struggling.

We watch every newborn calf closely. The quicker they start nursing the better. However, if we see that the calf is slow to find a teat and can't manage it in ~12hours, come to help if possible. Some just needs abit of help, if mom is calm. If mom isn't one which would let us near her udder, then just feed colostrum and watch. Had a couple calves not nursing for three days, so had to bottle feed them.
 
We are also seeing a lot of blackheaded buzzards. We went to a reg. Angus sale Saturday and going there we witnessed herd of cattle with newborns and buzzards were on the ground.
 

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