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Ditches in Pasture
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<blockquote data-quote="RanchManager" data-source="post: 605690" data-attributes="member: 8827"><p>It is unlikely that all three cast themselves in one night, but possible. Since they are small animals, if they died in a normal lying position, you have some disease at work and they liked the feel/temperature of the ditch for some reason and thus died there. If you found them with their legs up toward the edge of the ditch and it looks like they struggled some, then they probably cast temsleves and they suffocated under their own weight.</p><p></p><p>Tapered sides or not it takes very little ditch to get a bovine cast. If a cow so much as lays down with her legs pointed uphill, she will have trouble getting up and I've found them where they didn't, from just a hillside. Any sort of ditch that puts her legs higher than her belly and her center of gravity towards her spine and her rumen puts pressure on her lungs and she suffocates quickly (15 minutes). It doesn't take much of a hole or ditch to accomlish this. You would be amazed. Half of the time our cows are on flood irrigated pasture that is criss-crossed with ditches. We loose one or two a year that layed down too close to the edge of one and slid ever so slightly down, backwards. It doesn't take much and you usually find them dead or about to die. It sounds crazy if you havn't seen it. It happens so fast and easy it will make you paranoid about any depression. Cows will naturally avoid getting in positions where their feet can get above their body level.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RanchManager, post: 605690, member: 8827"] It is unlikely that all three cast themselves in one night, but possible. Since they are small animals, if they died in a normal lying position, you have some disease at work and they liked the feel/temperature of the ditch for some reason and thus died there. If you found them with their legs up toward the edge of the ditch and it looks like they struggled some, then they probably cast temsleves and they suffocated under their own weight. Tapered sides or not it takes very little ditch to get a bovine cast. If a cow so much as lays down with her legs pointed uphill, she will have trouble getting up and I've found them where they didn't, from just a hillside. Any sort of ditch that puts her legs higher than her belly and her center of gravity towards her spine and her rumen puts pressure on her lungs and she suffocates quickly (15 minutes). It doesn't take much of a hole or ditch to accomlish this. You would be amazed. Half of the time our cows are on flood irrigated pasture that is criss-crossed with ditches. We loose one or two a year that layed down too close to the edge of one and slid ever so slightly down, backwards. It doesn't take much and you usually find them dead or about to die. It sounds crazy if you havn't seen it. It happens so fast and easy it will make you paranoid about any depression. Cows will naturally avoid getting in positions where their feet can get above their body level. [/QUOTE]
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