Early surprise

[jgn]

Checked on the cows tonight and had a heifer lingering behind following the rest up. I also noticed last night she was kinda hanging out away from the others. I eased over toward her on the 4 wheeler and as she came over the rise coming with her was a nice little black and white faced heifer calf born today. I wouldn't have been shocked but this heifer (now cow) was born 2/8/04. This makes her exactly 16 months old tomorrow. I knew she was a fast developing calf just like her mom was but didn't think she developed that fast. I'll post a pic of both as soon as I get a good one.

 

[greenwillowherefords]

Glad she didn't have problems.

This reminds me of a friend who had, I think, a spring-calving cow that was bred by a fall bull calf. She came in in less than a month, and this big old eight month old bull calf bred her.

 

[msscamp]

We had two of those surprises last spring. One goofy looking bull calf and the cutest little grey brockle face heifer you would ever want to see.

 

[nemecekj]

We had the same thing happen. Our heifer (now Cow) Also calved very young, I believe younger than 16 mo. though it was a couple years ago. She showed no signs, didn't even drop her milk bag until after giving birth! I'm glad to hear that your's is doing well, our calf had quite a few problems (wouldn't feed, rejected by mother) but She's fine and dandy now, looking to get another just like her before to long! Congratulations!

 

[jgn]

Happy to report mom and daughter are doing great. Thanks.

 

[branxchar&charx]

We had two of those surprises last spring

my grandpa had nine of those this spring. they were not replacements, although a couple of them are replacement quality. they were born around last spring, weaned in november, and what do you know, heifers start calving in march. a few were older than 16 mo. and im sure a few of those were younger. my grandpa always hold his weaned calves from fall until april/may. then sells.
first heifer was absolutely nuts. and had take her to vet to get the calf pulled. calf is doing great, it has outgrown many of the other calves that were born about the same time it was born.
we thought that was the only one. i knew there was one more to get it but she was one of the last ones. i found one heifer by accident in the pasture tryin to have it. pulled it and calf died about a week later. heifer sold with the rest of the calf crop. ended up losing three of the nine. all had to have assisted calving, one came out dead, the other had a limp and died the next day, it was about two weeks or so.
a total of 6 of the 9 had to be assisted. fixin that problem this year though, since it is pretty much a year round calving season we weaned all calves that weighed over 450 in late may and the next weaning will take place prob. in sept. that was one h*ll of mess.
sorry bout the rambling but that was the first time i ever had to deal with something like this

 

[msscamp]

This was our first time, as well. The heifer's that calved were born somewhere between late Feb-middle of March or so of 2003. We weaned in October, and these two heifers calved April 2004 - one early and one later. Both had to be pulled, one heifer was a good enough milker to support her calf, the other heifer's calf had to be supplemented with bottles, but both babies lived.

I had to laugh, I happened to come home early the day that the first one calved. I was outside doing something, walked past the corral and saw her down with feet stuck out of her backside. Knowing she's a yearling heifer, I immediately called Dad and told him we may have a problem, one of the heifers is calving. He snickered and said, "What makes you think she is calving?" I said, "There are feet stuck out of her backside". I never knew snickers could die so fast, or a mile could be covered so quickly. ;-)

Sorry for rambling. :oops:

 

[Susie David]

Same thing on our place...bought a replacement last August a nice little heifer with a 2004 ear tag and all her baby teeth. She started getting a "hay belly" the first of the year and dropped her utter in March and squeezed out a small bull calf a week later in April ...easy birth but didn't know what to do with the calf. A yearling Limo heifer came over and helped her clean the calf and I spent the morning feeding colostrum substitute and teaching it to suck...both cow and steer are doing well....still has all her baby teeth.

 

[Ryan]

We had a heifer that we put in a pen with some other older heifers and a bull. We were just going to leave her in there over night but ended up staying in there the whole weekend. Low and behold 9 months later at 19months old she had a beautiful heifer, AND she has consistently been one of our top producers since. I guess she now has had 5 or so calves.

Ryan