KNERSIE":1x0b9e6z said:
I won't even tolerate a hard pull in my herd. If the calf couldn't be pulled it means the pelvic opening is so small that the calf simply won't fit through the hole. Unless she was bred before she was weaned she has no excuse in my opinion and needs to be culled.
That isn't the type of genetics you need in future generations even if she have them without assistance from here on.
I have seen many more tiny udders raise poor calves than good sized udders raise poor calves, but will agree that udder size isn't the best indication of milking ability or milk quality.
Well, as far as hard pulls go, one has to look at the big picture, in my mind. Not all heifers get bred to the ideal bull, a large calf is generally the reason we have a hard pull. Usually 90+ lb calves in our case. If it is a bigger calf, I have no problem keeping her, usually she will have calves with no problem after that. But, if I have a hard pull, and the calf is under 80 lbs, then I have real doubts about keeping the heifer around for another year. Most of our heifers will pop out 75-90+ lb calves with no problems.
We have bought the majority of our cows as bred heifers. When you buy heifers, you never know for sure what they are bred to, the are all sold as 'bred to calving ease bull'. They aren't always...... We have kept a # of cows who we assisted as first calvers, a # of them were hard pulls. Of all these animals we only had 2 or 3 that had to be assisted in subsequent years. One consistantly had larger than average calves, and one like to give us malpresentations. Most of them went on to be good cows, with no other problems, some are 10-12 years old now.
A C-section, however, is another story, that pretty much shows that the animal had no room for whatever sized calf she had. A hard pull, the calf did come through the birth canal, and if she does breed back, providing the calf was a decent size, she should grow enough to make future calvings by herself. In this case I work on the 2 strikes rule, they get one free turn around the board, if they have problems the next year, then that is it.
As a commercial producer, I cannot afford to dump every animal that ever gave me a problem. It is hard enough making a go of it, let alone when you are buying/raising $1000+ bred heifers that end up $300 culls.