Calving paralysis

[Anonymous]

I now have a positive outlook for my heifer being a productive cow. She is a nice looking animal who is preetty much back to normal. I guess selling her isn't the answer, but I have hard time justifying feeding a cow with no calf. Thanks for everyone's helpful hints and positive outlook except for Black Know It All.

 

[Anonymous]

Always a tough decision. If this is a cow that has been productive in the past, breeds back on time, doesn't give you any headaches she is pretty much what I call a good cow. Knowing that it will take 2 calves to pay for three years of feed, i.e. no profit and that a heifer to replace her would take just as long to pay for herself, I would keep her. If she's been a pain in the butt, late breeder, etc. Then I would have her grow wheels. Takes a lot of serious thought, but one slip from a young cow isn't always a reason to cull. If she was an old cow, that would be something else.

dun

> I now have a positive outlook for
> my heifer being a productive cow.
> She is a nice looking animal who
> is preetty much back to normal. I
> guess selling her isn't the
> answer, but I have hard time
> justifying feeding a cow with no
> calf. Thanks for everyone's
> helpful hints and positive outlook
> except for Black Know It All.

 

[Anonymous]

And you always have to remember there is half of something else's genetics going through to the calf too. I personally hate when somebody blames a low birth weight EPD on a bull who is bred to a cow with an high EPD. The genetic make-up won't always let that calf be small. Jake

[email protected]

 

[Anonymous]

> I think if you check with the
> association they will tell you
> about the variation based on
> accuracy.

What varies based on accuracy is how far that animals EPD is expected to change in the future.

I have been over this with the association many times. I don't think an accuracy should be high unless the predictability of what that animal will contribute to each calf is high. The association raises accuracies based strictly on the volume of data turned in on an animal. Predictability has nothing to do with it, and it should.

I think you can select a sire based on EPDs, but then you better check out phenotype and also talk to those who have his calves on the ground and see how the resulting calves compared to what they were expecting to get.

[email protected]

 

[Anonymous]

Dun, I like the story of the man dragging his cow home to have her standing at the parlor the next morning. My dad told me about a man that had a Greyhound dog with no legs. His owner would take him to the sports park on Sundays for a drag!

Could you tell me what breed or cross is a Red Lincoln Bull? > Thank you!

>Rachel

 

[Anonymous]

Lincoln Red is a breed that I think came originally from England. The bull we used was from Australia.

dun

> Dun, I like the story of the man
> dragging his cow home to have her
> standing at the parlor the next
> morning. My dad told me about a
> man that had a Greyhound dog with
> no legs. His owner would take him
> to the sports park on Sundays for
> a drag!

> Could you tell me what breed or
> cross is a Red Lincoln Bull? >
> Thank you!

 

[Anonymous]

Jim

So is your cow still with us or did you lose her.

Lorne



[email protected]

 

[Anonymous]

UPDATE:It's been 1 week today since "88-03" lost her calf. I continue to lift her twice a day with hip clamps for half hour durations. During that half hour I give her a rub and flex her legs.This plus keeping fresh feed and water up to her is a challenge. Yesterday I thought I was going to lose her, I think she may have suffered a touch of bloat as I fed her a little green grass. Today she is a different cow, after lifting her with the cow clamps she momentarily took her body weight and stood up, only to fall and let the jib take the weight. Hopefully this is a sign and persistance and grit will pay off. Will update again in a few days.

Jim



[email protected]

 

[Anonymous]

I'm typing this slow for you, this is how the accuracy is accomplished.

[email protected]

 

[Anonymous]

> What varies based on accuracy is
> how far that animals EPD is
> expected to change in the future.

> I have been over this with the
> association many times. I don't
> think an accuracy should be high
> unless the predictability of what
> that animal will contribute to
> each calf is high. The association
> raises accuracies based strictly
> on the volume of data turned in on
> an animal. Predictability has
> nothing to do with it, and it
> should.

> I think you can select a sire
> based on EPDs, but then you better
> check out phenotype and also talk
> to those who have his calves on
> the ground and see how the
> resulting calves compared to what
> they were expecting to get. Heres a lady that is very objective. I bet you run a very successful operation where you can balance all the pros and cons (underlined) of EPDs.



[email protected]

 

[Anonymous]

>the thing that helped me understand EPDs is that they are an average of a bunch of single points--- very much like a pattern of shotgun pellets on a paper target. When dealing with hundreds of births of combinations of thousands of possible DNA combinations you can always find an example of a "curve bender" How many generations of line breeding went into the Line one herds to clean up these genetic surprizes?

 

[Anonymous]

Where can i find information on ankina cattle i have to write a paper on them and cant find any information. Thanks

> EPD discussions alwasy remind me
> of years ago when we used a
> Lincoln Red bull on a lot of
> clients cows and heifers. One
> client bred a couple of dozen cows
> to the bull and all the calves
> were in the 65-70 lb range. Except
> one cow that dropped a 100+ pound
> calf. The next year we used an
> Angus bull on the same cows and
> all the cows, including the
> monsters mom had calves that ran
> around 75-85 lbs. The next year we
> used the Lincoln Red bull again,
> every cow had a nice small calf,
> except the one. Her calf was even
> bigger that year then the earlier
> one. For some reason that cow and
> bull combination just didn't work,
> or maybe worked too well. The nick
> is always the question. Some
> matings just don't work no matter
> how accurate your data. In
> subsequent years we used different
> bulls and this one cows calves
> alwasy fell within the range of
> all the others. Most of these cows
> were what at that time called
> Ankina, Angus X Chianina.

> dun

 

[Anonymous]

> Update:The cow is managing to be
> hand fed and watered. I have tried
> lifting her with a cow sling on my
> jib, just can't get her high
> enough off the groung.Have managed
> to move her to a nearby sheltered
> cattle camp. Her overall strength
> has increased as she is now
> resisting me rolling her over, she
> is also able to sit up. There
> still seems to be no power in her
> back leg/legs although she has
> tried several times to get up
> especially when she hears my 4*4
> approaching. (n.b. she calved last
> year to the same bull. I select my
> bulls on low birth weight high 400
> day growth wieght).

Its great that she has sufficient strength. may be you should get an inti inflammatory drug from your vet. Sounds like she probably will get up. You might get a surprise when you go to tend to her at sometime she may already be up.Its happened on more than one occasion to me. I never use Breedplan or in the USA EPDs. They are the biggest con going in the beef industry. The only performance indicators I use is maybe birthweight (not the + or - minus rubbish no one understands that.)I actually do research into the actual birth weights by asking anyone that has used the bloodline. It hasn't failed yet. Commonsense you don't use a gigantic bull over heifers or small females. Calving paralysis is often just a quirk of nature.



[email protected]

Frankly Collin I'll have to agree with you. EPD's are for the people that are either preditory or prey. It is just another marketing strategy similiar to the show ring. The only difference at the shows you can see them on the wash rack. Calving has more to do with how the cows and the proxpective bull are made. I bred all my heifers this year to a bull that I calved that weighed 92# and not one problem. Yes the heifers were two years old.

 

[dun]

If they aren't understood they are HPFM, if they're understood, they're a valuable managment tool. As I've said before, looking at a bull or a cow won't tell you about the stuff you can't see, e.g. pelvic size, milking ability, etc.

dun