cattle shed fur early

[dimka1980]

Hey folks,

I am new to the forum and have a question for you. I am in south Siberia, lots of snow, plenty cold, but starting to warm up a bit. First winter for me with hereford heifers, calving planned for late may-june. So my question is this, recently, after the weather warmed up I noticed the pink spots (skin) on my animals, and saw them rubbing against trees and stuff. I assumed that they started to shed the winter fur, but was not sure if they usually do that that early while temps are still freezing and about 1,5 month of winter ahead, or should I be worried?

Thanks in advance for the imput.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I'm not familiar at all with Siberia.

But it sounds like possible lice issues and making them itch(rubbing fur off)

Just a guess. Got any pictures?

 

[dimka1980]

I'm not familiar at all with Siberia.

But it sounds like possible lice issues and making them itch(rubbing fur off)

Just a guess. Got any pictures?

Thanks for replying. I do incline to think about lice. My condition for them are these: no barns, no building whatsoever, cattle been outside and we try to move them as often as we can, sometimes they stay for a week on one spot. Snow is very deep, some places up to their shoulders, but the appetite is great and they are waiting for the new move. Until January 1 they were grazing from under snow and since then we started to bale grazing for them. Here are a few pics of cattle, and I will attach tomorrow some pics of lost hair if can get close to the ones that have it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eYx17YPbr9j3MfHp1OBE5XxDm_Lm3fT5/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GoNegk2sYC6VziB8g2qMua5iYQlDsjVX/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cXvmqLR44SUtPEhtngav_LrZGQWEowYy/view?usp=sharing

 

[kenny thomas]

Well they sure look good.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Hey folks,

I am new to the forum and have a question for you. I am in south Siberia, lots of snow, plenty cold, but starting to warm up a bit. First winter for me with hereford heifers, calving planned for late may-june. So my question is this, recently, after the weather warmed up I noticed the pink spots (skin) on my animals, and saw them rubbing against trees and stuff. I assumed that they started to shed the winter fur, but was not sure if they usually do that that early while temps are still freezing and about 1,5 month of winter ahead, or should I be worried?

Thanks in advance for the imput.

Welcome to CT. Beautiful cows! I would 2nd the notion of lice. They are staying close together and the lice can jump from cow to cow.

 

[Dsth]

Welcome to the CT family. I would agree with MurraysMutts that the first thing that comes to mind would be lice problem. certainly doesn't look like they would be shedding winter coat yet in that weather and would not be loosing body condition from lice unless the problem is really bad which it does not look that bad from the pics.

 

[Silver]

I have noticed that the brushes on the scratchers / oilers I have out are collecting a lot of hair lately too. Just started in the last week or so.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Hey folks,

I am new to the forum and have a question for you. I am in south Siberia, lots of snow, plenty cold, but starting to warm up a bit. First winter for me with hereford heifers, calving planned for late may-june. So my question is this, recently, after the weather warmed up I noticed the pink spots (skin) on my animals, and saw them rubbing against trees and stuff. I assumed that they started to shed the winter fur, but was not sure if they usually do that that early while temps are still freezing and about 1,5 month of winter ahead, or should I be worried?

Thanks in advance for the imput.

Welcome to Cattle Today!

 

[Silver]

Yes, welcome to the board.
Out of curiosity, what is your degree of latitude where you are?

 

[Silver]

cleaned the hair out of this brush this morning

 

[76 Bar]

dimka1980...very nice looking Hereford heifers. Know zilch about Siberia save for the fact that environmentally & and politically it's a brutal place for man & beast. I commend your grasp of the English language! Please tell us more about how you acquired your Herefords!

 

[sstterry]

Nice looking cattle. Welcome to the Board.

 

[dimka1980]

Hi guys, thanks for welcoming me. I am located in Altai region which is south part of Siberia. Recently I started the youtube channel, and will add more videos to it as we go: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-aJP4_mxrZtvjPajFtXOTQ

Will look closely today and next few days and see if I can spot the infestation areas on some of them. This is the first cattle and first winter for me and I just want to make sure I do not make major mistake. Thanks a lot for your input and I will definitely be in touch often here. Lots of great information.

 

[dimka1980]

dimka1980...very nice looking Hereford heifers. Know zilch about Siberia save for the fact that environmentally & and politically it's a brutal place for man & beast. I commend your grasp of the English language! Please tell us more about how you acquired your Herefords!

Hi, it is not that bad really especially politically as you put it. Granted winter was a bit harsh for us, temps were -30C for few weeks, and lots of snow...but then again, I will take snow now and lots of grass in the summer any day I bought the heifers last year from a local breeder and plan to implement AI program this year, and maybe even do some embryo transfer too...my way of doing things on the farm is to keep cost and labor down as much as I can, and use what I have available on the farm, so this is a bit different from what people locally do, so my girls do not gain much in winter but the utilized hay from as far as 2 years ago and feel ok, and once we have snow open hill sides with dry grass that's where they will go to graze...that's the plan

 

[dimka1980]

Hey folks,

here are couple of pics...I looked and it seems that 2-3 cows are that bad, others no spots, but they do lick themselves hard but seem ok, eating and all.

on this heifer I came really close but could not detect any lice or other insects moving crawling or eggs

the farm is about 650m above sea level

 

[dimka1980]

Here are the pictures

 

[sstterry]

I agree with everyone else, I think it is some sort of parasite.

 

[Silver]

My curious nature really want to know where in Siberia @dimka1980 is. Not that I know anything about Siberia except it's quite a bit bigger in Canada, but I'd like to know more.

 

[dimka1980]

My curious nature really want to know where in Siberia @dimka1980 is. Not that I know anything about Siberia except it's quite a bit bigger in Canada, but I'd like to know more.

Sure, I am in Altai region, not far from Mongolia border...if you look at the map, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia borders, right there is Altai region

 

[Silver]

Sure, I am in Altai region, not far from Mongolia border...if you look at the map, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia borders, right there is Altai region

Thank you. Off to Google Earth I go!