Bestoutwest
Well-known member
It was finally our turn to lose a calf. Ever since we started we have had a rough go at it, but we've kept plugging away. We finally got our "herd" (very, very small) all bred and calved out in a year. Heck, we even brought one in the house and saved it about a month ago! We had one on Easter, and things were going pretty well with her. Whenever I fed in the past couple of days, she had been laying down, but looked alert. I came home yesterday and she was layed out like calves will do, but it didn't look abnormal. I fed and she didn't move, but again, young calves have their own agenda and I chalked it up to her having expended energy earlier and was catching up. In the early evening I saw her dam licking her and pushing her with her horns, like she was trying to get her up. We went out and it had labored breathing something wicked. We went in trying to figure out what to do and went back out about 1/2 hour later and she was dead. What's really getting me is that her poor dam is looking for her and seems to be looking to us for help. I've been out there a couple times and she'll come up to me and moo with a panicked look in her eye. And, it was this cow's final year anyway b/c we're getting out of longhorns completely, so she'll be shipped soon as I can find some burger buyers. Those two things are just really pulling my day down. This sucks.