Hard Pull for Small Heifer - Future Issues Here?

[MichaelB]

I had bought a Tarentaise heifer last year that is of smaller frame. She has very good breeding, and comes from a long line of cows with no calving issues. She was bred to a Tarentaise bull that was a rather large and very well muscled.

She calved in February (at least 22 months old), and for the first time in my experience as a cowman I had to pull the calf. It was presented correctly, with front hooves down and nostrils up. She had been in labor for about 2-3 hours and while she was straining, the calf wasn't going any further. The first pull with a cotton rope around the front legs got him about half way out, then we rested and I grabbed the calf around the barrel and pulled him the rest of the way. I weighed the calf on a bathroom scale and he was 76 lb., which was larger than many calves I have had. Despite the first night of worrying if the calf would freeze and wondering if my cow had gone into shock, they bonded by morning and now Blizzard is a fine, growing steer with a dedicated mother (she calved outside just before a major blizzard in the mid-Atlantic).

My question is, how critical should I be in assessing her for future breeding? She was a small heifer, and he was a large calf. She presented the calf correctly, but couldn't push him through on her own. Would this be a sign that she will need to be assisted with future births?

I plan to use a black angus bull (Long Distance from Genex) with a very high CED score when I have her bred in June, and after that she will generally be used to produce crossbred Black Angus calves, although a Tarentaise/Hereford cross is also a very efficient choice.

http://genex.crinet.com/beef/index.php?action=DETAIL&code=1AN01202&lang=EN

Other than this assisted birth, she is of a much better quality than the cows I had previously and I don't want to replace her unless necessary. Any experience with how assisted first time heifers will handle future pregnancy and birthing?

Thanks,

MichaelB

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

You will get all kinds of answers here. I guess it depends on how much you like her. I would definitely take the chance and try again. She proved she could push, and is raising the calf without any further problems. If you only had to pull using a cotton rope, then it was not a hard pull in my opinion. When you have to get the jack out, that is a hard pull! I do not mind helping our first calf heifers when needed, but have yet to have to help them the following year. So, I would keep her to try again and not worry.

 

[dun]

That really sin;t that big of a calf. From the pull it sound like what our vet calls "Heifer Disease", they just don;t go into labor and push like they should. Over the years we've had a few and they didn;t have any problems calving from then on. Just seems like the switch doesn;t go on in their dam head that first time that they have to push.

 

[Lucky_P]

You got the calf out alive, in one piece, with what wasn't a really hard pull. Heifer got up and is evidently doing a good job with him.
She'd get another shot at it here, unless something happens between now and the next calving - like coming up open, or developing a bad attitude, etc.

 

[Nesikep]

I'm of the same opinion... though I don't consider 76 lbs all that heavy, she's raising him well and I haven't found that I have a much higher chance of needing to assist later in life... Some will need it and some don't.

For me, if I don't use any rope or chains, I'm quite certain the cow would have been fine doing it herself, I just don't like "retard" calves, and the sooner they're on the ground, the sooner I can do back to doing other things... If I need chains, but don't need to break a sweat, that's mild assistance, and if me and/or my dad are busting our butts off trying to get it out, that's a hard pull! We don't have a calf puller and have never needed one (cross fingers)

 

[cowgirl8]

You got the calf out alive, in one piece, with what wasn't a really hard pull. Heifer got up and is evidently doing a good job with him.
She'd get another shot at it here, unless something happens between now and the next calving - like coming up open, or developing a bad attitude, etc.

Dittos....If it were mine though, i'd still keep her with heifers and breed her to a heifer bull. We do that for my peace of mind. I figure if her first calf was too big, breeding her to something that makes a bigger calf is pushing it. We always keep heifers we've pulled calves out of and never have to again but they go to a LBW bull for their second..

 

[MichaelB]

Thank you for your responses, and I'm relieved that it is unlikely that she will have problem deliveries going forward. She is smaller than the other Tarentaise cows I have owned, and even then I usually select black angus heifer bulls for breeding.

I guess in retrospect it wasn't such a hard pull, it's just that I had never had to pull one before and I knew that I had to do something. I've had 6 calves born here, and usually their mommas deliver and clean-up within 45 minutes or so. I described pulling a calf to someone in my office as trying to grab two massive garden slugs and pulling on them, which is why I found a cotton rope to wrap around his pasterns. I will buy a set of obstetrical chains if I ever have a next time.

MichaelB

 

[dun]

If you donl;t need chains or a rope, I have found that just wearing a pair of jersey gloves give surprosingly good grip on the slimey legs.