Heifer calving problem

[CosgrayHerefords]

We summer our heifers at my grandparents house and I see them about once a week. So I go today to check on them to see how they are growing and to get the heat checks from my grandpa and I see a heifer that has started to develop an udder. I inspect her a little closer and realize her starting to spring up and definately has sprung an udder. Kind of surprising since we turned the bull in 3 weeks ago! This heifer was born March 11, 2009 and looks like she will calve any day now to one of our herd bulls who smallest calf calved this year was 97 lbs and had 4 born at 110 or higher. Have any of you had experience with this and what did you do, vet was closed today so I'm calling him tomorrow morning but just wanted to know if anyone had experience. We usually give shots of lut to all bigger heifer calves but we pulled the bulls out when she was only 5 months old and she was one of the smaller ones and the bull with her was 2,500 so I am astonished she got bred and we didn't give her one!

 

[randiliana]

We've had a couple yearlings calve over the years. We've been lucky and had no major problems, although we did have to assist the last one. They were always bred to our herd bulls too. You definitely could have some problems, or she could just have it by herself. Someone NEEDS to be keeping an eye on her so someone is there to help her out if she needs it. You could be facing anything from an unassisted birth, to an easy pull to a C-section.

 

[novaman]

I guess this proves you should never assume! ;-) Shot of lute is cheap compared to the issues you may be facing.

 

[snickers]

we bought a cute little hereford heifer a couple of years ago and she weighed 470 lbs. was gonna wait to bred her and lo and behold 8 months later she had the smallest hereford calf we have ever seen, I bet the calf was lucky to weigh 45 lbs. anyway that was a good thing the calf was so small. this year she had a baldie bull calf and he wasn't nearly as little but still a small calf but doing well and gaining like crazy so all in all our situation turned out ok, hope you have the same happen. my husband wouldn't believe me that she was actually pregnant and I couldn't believe she got bred at that weight either but apparently it happens.

 

[Oldtimer]

Just another of the reasons I like running only light BW- easy calving bulls on ALL the cows and heifers...Makes those OOPs and bad presentations, that undoubetedly show up, much easier to deal with...

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

The vet may want to palpate her to see how big the calf "appears" to be, and decide what to do from there.
Hmmm - let's see - I know what your mistake was - You pulled the bull. "We" were told that if you leave the bull in the herd year round, he will be the matriach and you won't have heifers calve before they are 2 years old :shock:
I'm not being nice. This is just an example of the fact that young heifers, small heifers, medium heifers CAN GET BRED before they are supposed.

 

[CosgrayHerefords]

Just talked with the vet and he is coming out tomorrow to sleeve her and see how far along she is. I have the same feelings towards calving ease as you do, the thing is I just bought a whole herd of 16 mature cows and 4 heifer calves and I bought them after they had been weaned and all the cows were bred so I had no control over this. The bull has been shipped and replaced with a bull that threw calves in the 60-80 lb range and a bonus was he has a pedigree I like more.

 

[vclavin]

Just talked with the vet and he is coming out tomorrow to sleeve her and see how far along she is. I have the same feelings towards calving ease as you do, the thing is I just bought a whole herd of 16 mature cows and 4 heifer calves and I bought them after they had been weaned and all the cows were bred so I had no control over this. The bull has been shipped and replaced with a bull that threw calves in the 60-80 lb range and a bonus was he has a pedigree I like more.

You still need to be careful, keep in mind, bulls DO NOT throw 60-80-lb calves . Your cows/heifers may have larger or smaller calves depending on their genetics and your environment.
Valerie

 

[dun]

Just talked with the vet and he is coming out tomorrow to sleeve her and see how far along she is. I have the same feelings towards calving ease as you do, the thing is I just bought a whole herd of 16 mature cows and 4 heifer calves and I bought them after they had been weaned and all the cows were bred so I had no control over this. The bull has been shipped and replaced with a bull that threw calves in the 60-80 lb range and a bonus was he has a pedigree I like more.

You still need to be careful, keep in mind, bulls DO NOT throw 60-80-lb calves . Your cows/heifers may have larger or smaller calves depending on their genetics and your environment.
Valerie

They sure contribute to it though. Our bulls calves over 3 years have ranged from 55-87 pounds, the majority in the 65-75 pound range. The 87 pound calf was from a cow that has always had 87 pound calves. If she was bred to a chihuhua she would still have a 87 pounder. We had 3 heifers bre to him this year, one 55, 1 62, one 114. The heifer that had the 114 pounder is from a third generation of cows that has never had a calf over 80 pounds.

 

[CosgrayHerefords]

You still need to be careful, keep in mind, bulls DO NOT throw 60-80-lb calves . Your cows/heifers may have larger or smaller calves depending on their genetics and your environment.
Valerie

I understand that, however I have been around the bull for a while and know the herd, and that bull no matter who he was bred to had calves in the 90-130 lb range. So in my opinion he could be bred to the lightest birthweight cow on the planet and still throw one 100 lbs. The bull I have with them this year had 11 calves last year all with different pedigreed heifers and his biggest calf to date was a 81 lb bull calf and most of them were in the 60-70 lb range. So you are going to have your cows that no matter what will throw the same size calf, but a majority of the time the bull does matter.

 

[vclavin]

I didn't mean the bulls had NO influence, if that were true, we'd not have to worry about calving ease bulls and low bw buls. I simply meant the female has the majority of the influence, then you add in her environment and the bulls influence.
Valerie

 

[novaman]

I didn't mean the bulls had NO influence, if that were true, we'd not have to worry about calving ease bulls and low bw buls. I simply meant the female has the majority of the influence, then you add in her environment and the bulls influence.
Valerie

I'm waving the BS flag on that one. The sire has every bit as much influence on calving ease as the dam.

 

[vclavin]

I didn't mean the bulls had NO influence, if that were true, we'd not have to worry about calving ease bulls and low bw buls. I simply meant the female has the majority of the influence, then you add in her environment and the bulls influence.
Valerie

I'm waving the BS flag on that one. The sire has every bit as much influence on calving ease as the dam.

Nope, not according to a n old vet nor the the geneticist, but then, you guys are so much smarter that the experts! Right! I ean , they just waste our money doing all they research projects and putting the data together to fool us into thinking they are trying to help us.
Valerie

 

[dun]

I didn't mean the bulls had NO influence, if that were true, we'd not have to worry about calving ease bulls and low bw buls. I simply meant the female has the majority of the influence, then you add in her environment and the bulls influence.
Valerie

I'm waving the BS flag on that one. The sire has every bit as much influence on calving ease as the dam.

Nope, not according to a n old vet nor the the geneticist, but then, you guys are so much smarter that the experts! Right! I ean , they just waste our money doing all they research projects and putting the data together to fool us into thinking they are trying to help us.
Valerie

Where can we read the results of all of these studys?

 

[vclavin]

look it up like I did. Do your own homework! I did. By the way, didn't you read in a ppost here that someone had a cow that had xlb calves no matter what bull they used - doesn't that tell you anything?
If you keep bw records on your girls, you can comparethem year to year, sire to sire and you'll see what i"m talking about.
Valerie

 

[vclavin]

http://www.cattletoday.com/archive/2010 ... CT2177.php

Read the whole article before you comment. Yes, I did read it all. We can both pick out the parts that say what we want, it's the article in whole that matters. I don't care who is right or wrong - you may - I just simply want to know all I can so I do not have these calving problems.
In case you didn't know, heifers first calf is 90% of what she has when mature + bull influence.
Valerie
PS. Maybe we just "read" an article differently. The meaning may be different to us. I know family lines have certain size calves -small, medium, large, before you add in the influence of environment and sire.

 

[KNERSIE]

Genetically each parent contribute 50% (in theory off course)

Practically the cow provides the environment for the foetus to develop in, you can still figure that into the cow's 50% if you wish, but then the environment the cow lives in also plays its part, so, as much as I'd hate to admit it, I agree with vclavin on this.

 

[novaman]

Genetically each parent contribute 50% (in theory off course)

Practically the cow provides the environment for the foetus to develop in, you can still figure that into the cow's 50% if you wish, but then the environment the cow lives in also plays its part, so, as much as I'd hate to admit it, I agree with vclavin on this.

I agree that the cow may have a greater influence but she said majority and by that I am assuming she means most. I formerly used natural service on my dairy cows. Pulled calves here and there, not alot, but a several every year. I switched to AI in 2008 and haven't brought the puller out since those calves started hitting the ground, with the exception of one sire I used who had a poor calving ease proof. This proves, at least in my mind, that the sire has a major influence on calving ease. If the cows were hard calvers with NS than there should be a number who remain hard calvers now. Not the case at all. The sire influences the size and shape of the calf and that plays a critical role in how the little bugger squirts out.

 

[vclavin]

Genetically each parent contribute 50% (in theory off course)

Practically the cow provides the environment for the foetus to develop in, you can still figure that into the cow's 50% if you wish, but then the environment the cow lives in also plays its part, so, as much as I'd hate to admit it, I agree with vclavin on this.

I agree that the cow may have a greater influence but she said majority and by that I am assuming she means most. I formerly used natural service on my dairy cows. Pulled calves here and there, not alot, but a several every year. I switched to AI in 2008 and haven't brought the puller out since those calves started hitting the ground, with the exception of one sire I used who had a poor calving ease proof. This proves, at least in my mind, that the sire has a major influence on calving ease. If the cows were hard calvers with NS than there should be a number who remain hard calvers now. Not the case at all. The sire influences the size and shape of the calf and that plays a critical role in how the little bugger squirts out.

Are you getting 60 and 70 lb calves?
Valerie

 

[novaman]

Are you getting 60 and 70 lb calves?
Valerie

Nope. If I were getting calves that small I would freak. However, if your question is am I getting calves that are breed average, than yes I am. None of the breeds I run (Gelb, Char, Holstein) have a BW in the 60-70 pound range. Couple things to keep in mind: 1. I am in a cold weather area so BW tends to be higher 2. IMO BW and calving ease aren't directly related 3.The shape of the calf has alot to do with ease of calving.