Dystocia with heifer

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We're in full swing in calving. Went out to dinner Sat night, and came home to a heifer that was 7 days late, with first sign of water bag showing. She was progressing pretty well, we could see two feet coming, but she was straining way too hard for what we expected the calf should be size wise (even tho it was late). So we went out with our calving box. And sure enough, calf was coming backwards.
Put her in the back side of the chute with a halter on, than opened up the side gate so she could lay down if she wanted - which she did immediately. But, instead of laying flat, she layed on her bellie. Hubby was a little concerned because he needed to pull down (which the ground was kinda in the way). Turned out to be a real easy hand pull. Gave mom a shot of Oxytocin immediately, and put mom & calf in a pen. Calf got right up, so all ended well.
She MAY have had it by herself without our intervention, but she and calf would have been worn out. So much easier to help them right away.
This is 9th calf since mid Jan. 6 hfrs - 3 bulls

 

[*Cowgirl*]

send that heifer/bull percentage our way PLEASE

 

[L Weir]

So how many are Machos?

 

[MikeC]

Jeanne, In one group of cows last year I had 7 bulls out of a total of 32 calves.

Unless my math fails me, that is less than 25%. :lol:

 

[dun]

I must be doing something wrong. We may get a run of one gender or the other but at the end of the calving season we're alwasy right at 50:50. One year we had a run of almost all bulls but the next year we had almost all heifers. Took 2 calving season but we still ended up right at half and half. Must be because we breed half of them with the chute facing north and half of them with chute facing south

dun

 

[Beefy]

we're always either ~50:50 or 60:40

 

[dun]

I must be doing something wrong. We may get a run of one gender or the other but at the end of the calving season we're alwasy right at 50:50. One year we had a run of almost all bulls but the next year we had almost all heifers. Took 2 calving season but we still ended up right at half and half. Must be because we breed half of them with the chute facing north and half of them with chute facing south

dun

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We also had 3 late fall calves - all 3 heifers - 1 Macho daughter & 1 Macho Granddaughter (first one!!)
Out of the latest 9 calves - 2 Macho Grdaughters, 3 Macho daughters & 1 Macho son.

 

[Stepper]

What was the shot (Oxytocin) that you gave the heifer for ?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Milkmaid quote:
"oxytocin isn't effective after 48 hours post partum, unless the uterus is resensitized with estrogen. When the reproductive tract is under the influence of progesterone (all times except during heat cycles and around calving), oxy will only stimulate milk letdown, not cause uterine contractions."

We use Oxytocin whenever there is any kind of dystocia. It makes the uterus contract.