Sorry to hear about your calving problem! A lot of variables could have caused that to happen. The average range of Longhorn calf weights is between about 50 and 65 lbs. As one of the other posters said in this thread, could have been some genetic things involved. Longhorns have a larger pelvic opening when calving than a number of the other breeds as well which aids in easy calving. Even HUGH longhorn bulls will sire the usual longhorn weight calves. Case in point: One of our 1,000 lb females was sired by her former owner's 2000# bull which produced a 61 lb calf for us. On another one of her pregnancies, about an 1,800 lb bull from another breeder was the sire which gave us a 49# calf. As to the disposition of the Mama--yes, you can get a very over-protective dam (one reason they have survived over the hundreds of years) as well as a very people-friendly calm mama. We've found that the more you walk around them, talk to them, and gain their trust we can (in most cases) pick up the newborn calf and weigh it without mama causing a problem. I must also refer back to genetics, and "disposition breeding". When walking through a longhorn herd one can usually tell who are the "nice" ones and if there is one or more that might have an attitude. I think most of us longhorn breeders sincerely try to breed out and cull to the freezer any female or male that has serious calving or disposition problems. After all...it's not good for business and marketing if one is turning out honery critters, right?
