Calving questions

[Putangitangi]

I've searched every way I can think of for a figure on the daily weight gain of a calf before birth in the last few days of gestation. This prompted by having to pull a monster calf out of a 3-yr second calver, who calved 11 days later than I expected to an AI bull. I suspect the trouble was all down to how fat that baby got while it lay around not having to work to eat! Anyone have that information to hand?

 

[Son of Butch]

I don't know...It can't be more than 2 pounds a day, or can it?

 

[angus9259]

Anecdotally, I see about 1 lb per day from 10 days early to 10 days late (20 lb total swing).

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

From what I understand through reading, calves gain about 2 pounds a day in utero the last few weeks prior to birth.

 

[Supa Dexta]

1-1.5 would be typical.

 

[wbvs58]

I have an older text book, Veterinary Obstetrics by Roberts that is very good at giving accurate statistics and it states that at 240 days fetal weight is 15-25kg (33-55lbs) and at 270 days it is 20-50kg (44-110lbs) so subtracting that makes it 5-25kg (11-55lbs) in the last 30days.

Ken

 

[Putangitangi]

Thank you for all those answers.
We just pulled another one, eight days over my expected date.

Next question I couldn't find an answer to: what are your experiences/observations of gestation length differences in different sorts of seasons? We've had a horrible winter, much wetter than usual, so would have been a colder experience for the cows and while my average gestation is only about .5 day longer than usual, some have been much longer than I expected.

 

[Supa Dexta]

They'll eat more to maintain body temp when the weather is worse and if cattle have good feed available, eating more = larger calves.

 

[dun]

Cold winters is known to contribute to larger calves. The cows blood supply being routed more internally is claimed to be the cause.

 

[Air gator]

I lost a heifer and her calf and she was 2 weeks early. I was scared to death that every other cow on the place was going to have problems because they were all fed the same. I didn't have any other problems.
Starving the cow won't help with calving ease. What was the accuracy of the bull's epds for calving ease or birth weight?
All the research I have seen shows that feeding the cow increases birth weight but not calving problems.
I think you picked the wrong bull. It happens to the best of us.

I think that's why the Angus Association moved from the focus on Birth weights to calving ease epds as well as CEM Calving Ease Maternal. Some bulls have higher birth weights but not as many calving problems because of the shape of the calf.

There is a post on here under the Artificial Insemination thread about the Angus bull Absolute and his short gestation period.

 

[angus9259]

Starving the cow won't help with calving ease. What was the accuracy of the bull's epds for calving ease or birth weight?
All the research I have seen shows that feeding the cow increases birth weight but not calving problems.
I think you picked the wrong bull. It happens to the best of us.

X2

 

[Nesikep]

I found the best way to mitigate late calving cows is exercise... when they stand around and do nothing but eat, they seem to calve later and thus have bigger calves.. At least make them walk to the water as far as you can manage.

 

[Putangitangi]

Cold winters is known to contribute to larger calves. The cows blood supply being routed more internally is claimed to be the cause.

That was what I read too.

The bulls I've used have good accuracy (98% or so at the lowest) for below breed-average birth weights - and CE/CED was generally part of my consideration. The big pull the other night was a Bon View New Design 878, the heifer who calved the day before at a more reasonable gestation slipped hers out on her own.

Feed restriction here is by no means deliberate. I have had sad opportunities before to note how much trouble that will cause in late pregnancy and calving, hence dropping herd numbers to ensure feed is adequate. We have been caught out by a particularly nasty winter and spring but the long gestations have certainly added difficulty.

 

[Putangitangi]

I found the best way to mitigate late calving cows is exercise... when they stand around and do nothing but eat, they seem to calve later and thus have bigger calves.. At least make them walk to the water as far as you can manage.

Water? You have to be kidding. They're standing in the stuff this year. We farm small paddocks with good reticulation so exercise is always shutting them in hill paddocks, where they at least have to walk up to graze and down to drink regularly. I don't like them calving in those places though, too many dangers, so they come down to the flats as soon as I know they've hit about 273 days, since usually my cows start then. The cheats who wait another two weeks are problematic!

 

[Nesikep]

haha, yeah, I have the same problem, I can't make them move as much as I'd like... but my cows only start to think of calving around 283 days, many going into 290's

 

[Putangitangi]

I've been quite deliberately going for shorter gestation for years, with the odd long one in the herd. When the milking cow calved at 284 I thought good, that's the long gestation cow out of the way. Little did I know!
There have been six longer than that.

There's a 281 out there in a small area right now, just walked her in because she's been messing around all day long. She does that, I know, but I didn't want to have to start getting her in after dark. Walking her in, she's finally popping a bag out. Why couldn't she have done that before we left her nice paddock?

Why do we do this? Oh yeah, because we really love it.