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I have a heifer that is due to calve tomorrow. How long do you wait before giving her a shot? I am pretty sure the calf will be large anyway and don't want to wait too long so he/she does not get any bigger. I am looking for answers. No smart mouths please.
 
I would give her up to two weeks more before thinking about giving her a shot. It's normal to go up to two weeks early or late. I would also let your vet check her before you induce labor. You wouldn't want to create an uneeded mess. Good luck!
 
Thanks! Should she go over that far, how much would I give her? How much more will the calf grow as that is my main concern?
 
I've heard numbers of anywhere from .2 to .6 pounds per day. If you're really concerned have the vt either sleeve her or ultrasound. Hopefully he/she can give you an idea of the calf size. We had a big heafer calve yesterday bred to a moderate calving ease bull. The calf was 6 days early and doesn't weigh 50 lbs. We have another heafier that is a week past due now bred to an high calving ease bull. When the calf is ready and the cow is ready, she'll have it. Unless the bulls calves are usually realy big and the heifer is on the small side I'ld let nature take it's course and just keep the vets number handy just in case.

dun


heifer":25ua4omx said:
Thanks! Should she go over that far, how much would I give her? How much more will the calf grow as that is my main concern?
 
.2 to .6 sounds like the average from conception to birth.
The calf puts on a good portion of it's weight in the last month. I was reading somewhere a couple of days ago that in that last week before birth, the calf can gain as much as 2 lbs a day. Don't ask me where, I don't remember -- too much going on right now (Mom is in the later stages of terminal cancer)

AnnB


dun":2uafpqsb said:
I've heard numbers of anywhere from .2 to .6 pounds per day. If you're really concerned have the vt either sleeve her or ultrasound. Hopefully he/she can give you an idea of the calf size. We had a big heafer calve yesterday bred to a moderate calving ease bull. The calf was 6 days early and doesn't weigh 50 lbs. We have another heafier that is a week past due now bred to an high calving ease bull. When the calf is ready and the cow is ready, she'll have it. Unless the bulls calves are usually realy big and the heifer is on the small side I'ld let nature take it's course and just keep the vets number handy just in case.

dun


heifer":2uafpqsb said:
Thanks! Should she go over that far, how much would I give her? How much more will the calf grow as that is my main concern?
 
I've induced one cow, a Jersey, approximately 1 week before her due date -- with vet's approval. Our reason was because her udder was shot and hung so low that she would step on it when dry. It was obvious that if she bagged up before going into labor, there was going to be trouble.
Since she was AI bred and settled on the first service, we knew her due date. She was given a 10 cc shot of Lutalyse on day 273 and the calf was on the ground 40 hours later.
Calf was given (frozen) colostrum from our oldest cow and did just fine. Cow was given a week to get over calving then went to the salebarn where I had bought her -- I had paid 23 cents a pound for her a year before, she sold for 35 cents a pound. She was well worth the trouble, not only did I get a nice bull calf out of her and sold her for more than what I paid, I had also milked her for 5 months (what an ordeal! had to run a strap around her to lift the bag up so that I could get the milker under her!).

One of the local dairies routinely induces their cows so that calves are born when they want them to be born. They induce as early as 250 days and seldom have problems -- biggest problem (I was told) is retained placenta, followed by inaccurate breeding dates resulting in calves that are born too early (no hair).

AnnB


heifer":ra9fcrxk said:
I have a heifer that is due to calve tomorrow. How long do you wait before giving her a shot? I am pretty sure the calf will be large anyway and don't want to wait too long so he/she does not get any bigger. I am looking for answers. No smart mouths please.
 
I'm not too crazy about the idea of inducing heifers. Cows maybe, because they have already had calves but a heifer is dilating for the first time and needs to get as big as she can before she goes into labor.
 
Was the calf out of Chateau? Glad to hear things went so well. Was it a bull or heifer?

dun":195sw601 said:
I've heard numbers of anywhere from .2 to .6 pounds per day. If you're really concerned have the vt either sleeve her or ultrasound. Hopefully he/she can give you an idea of the calf size. We had a big heafer calve yesterday bred to a moderate calving ease bull. The calf was 6 days early and doesn't weigh 50 lbs. We have another heafier that is a week past due now bred to an high calving ease bull. When the calf is ready and the cow is ready, she'll have it. Unless the bulls calves are usually realy big and the heifer is on the small side I'ld let nature take it's course and just keep the vets number handy just in case.

dun


heifer":195sw601 said:
Thanks! Should she go over that far, how much would I give her? How much more will the calf grow as that is my main concern?
 
Yes it is by Cayeau. It's a little heifer and realy ding well. We had a bull calf by him out of a F1 Red Angus X Polled Hereford cow that was 1 day early that weighed around 75 lbs. We had registered Red Angus cow that had a 75 lb bull calf by him also.

dun

Tod Dague":1bc53qub said:
Was the calf out of Chateau? Glad to hear things went so well. Was it a bull or heifer?

dun":1bc53qub said:
I've heard numbers of anywhere from .2 to .6 pounds per day. If you're really concerned have the vt either sleeve her or ultrasound. Hopefully he/she can give you an idea of the calf size. We had a big heafer calve yesterday bred to a moderate calving ease bull. The calf was 6 days early and doesn't weigh 50 lbs. We have another heafier that is a week past due now bred to an high calving ease bull. When the calf is ready and the cow is ready, she'll have it. Unless the bulls calves are usually realy big and the heifer is on the small side I'ld let nature take it's course and just keep the vets number handy just in case.

dun


heifer":1bc53qub said:
Thanks! Should she go over that far, how much would I give her? How much more will the calf grow as that is my main concern?
 
I discussed the issue of calf growth after the expected due date and inducing labor with the vet this afternon. He figures the growth past due date to be round 1 1/2 lbs a day but feels that inducing labor opens anothe whole can of worms that is better avoided.
We had to jack a calf today from a heifer that was 7 days over due, calf was a monster 120 lb bull.
We've used that bull for a number of years and never had a calf over 70 lbs, this year we had a 90 lb heifer a week early and this monster a week late. A third heifer bred to him had a 65 lb bull calf with no problems.
When we purchased these two heifers we looked back 2 generations on there BW and calving ease. The numbers were just about ideal. We should have looked back a couple more generations. Each of them had a bull with BW of over +7 lbs, the breed average is +.7. Oh well, a lesson learned

dun


heifer":1rxa07xb said:
Thanks! Should she go over that far, how much would I give her? How much more will the calf grow as that is my main concern?
 
dun":s26nln3r said:
I discussed the issue of calf growth after the expected due date and inducing labor with the vet this afternon. He figures the growth past due date to be round 1 1/2 lbs a day but feels that inducing labor opens anothe whole can of worms that is better avoided.
We had to jack a calf today from a heifer that was 7 days over due, calf was a monster 120 lb bull.
We've used that bull for a number of years and never had a calf over 70 lbs, this year we had a 90 lb heifer a week early and this monster a week late. A third heifer bred to him had a 65 lb bull calf with no problems.
When we purchased these two heifers we looked back 2 generations on there BW and calving ease. The numbers were just about ideal. We should have looked back a couple more generations. Each of them had a bull with BW of over +7 lbs, the breed average is +.7. Oh well, a lesson learned


dun


heifer":s26nln3r said:
Thanks! Should she go over that far, how much would I give her? How much more will the calf grow as that is my main concern?
 
so that's why we can't trust 100% in the EPD's data

dun":vu7vyjjw said:
I discussed the issue of calf growth after the expected due date and inducing labor with the vet this afternon. He figures the growth past due date to be round 1 1/2 lbs a day but feels that inducing labor opens anothe whole can of worms that is better avoided.
We had to jack a calf today from a heifer that was 7 days over due, calf was a monster 120 lb bull.
We've used that bull for a number of years and never had a calf over 70 lbs, this year we had a 90 lb heifer a week early and this monster a week late. A third heifer bred to him had a 65 lb bull calf with no problems.
When we purchased these two heifers we looked back 2 generations on there BW and calving ease. The numbers were just about ideal. We should have looked back a couple more generations. Each of them had a bull with BW of over +7 lbs, the breed average is +.7. Oh well, a lesson learned

dun


heifer":vu7vyjjw said:
Thanks! Should she go over that far, how much would I give her? How much more will the calf grow as that is my main concern?
 
That's why the maximum accuracy will alwasy only be .99. Too many bulls are used so sparingly that they never get the accuracy that would be more desirable. Plus I didn't check as thoroughly as I usually did. I fell for a lovely face, and the rest of her too.
And heifers from unknown (not bred by me) genetics are even more of a crap shoot. But the heifer got up and claimed the calf, I was pretty amazed for a 900 lb 2 year old.

dun

A. delaGarza":1dozucjc said:
so that's why we can't trust 100% in the EPD's data
 

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