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Breeding / Calving Issues
heifer problem
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<blockquote data-quote="randiliana" data-source="post: 608717" data-attributes="member: 2308"><p>There are a lot of factors that you have to consider. What was the reason that this heifer couldn't deliver the calf? Was it simply because she didn't have enough room in her? Was there some sort of birth defect or malpresentation?</p><p></p><p>I am guessing from your post, that the heifer didn't have enough room. If that is the case, and the calf is of average or below average size, I would SHIP the heifer. You could keep her, but the odds are that she will not grow enough to prevent future calving problems. The fact that it was a C-section indicates that things were not just a little tight, but that there was no room. I would maybe keep a heifer that had an average sized calf that was pulled, but not a C-section. </p><p></p><p>We had a heifer that we pulled a 60 lb calf out of a couple years ago, it was a pretty hard pull. She went down the road, after raising the calf, as I believed that if she could not even handle a 60 lb calf, she would probably be trouble down the road when bred to our higher BW 'cow' bulls.</p><p></p><p>If the calf was large, then that explains why she had problems. In this case, I would wait to see what the other calves are like out of the same bull. If they are all large calves, then I would give this one another chance. If the rest are smaller than this heifer's calf, then I would likely ship her. All calving problems, even size issues, are not always the bull's fault. Sometimes it is just the way the bull 'clicked' with a certain cow, sometimes you get a cow that consistently throws a large calf, even when bred to calving ease or small BW bulls.</p><p></p><p>We also had a cow that had the highest BW calf of her group of heifers, she went on to consistently throw large calves. We ended up with 2 C-sections out of her, the first we contributed to the feed, and we had a lot of very heavy calves the same year, but the second one was the last she had on our place. Her Avg BW on 8 calves was 111 lbs, with a range from 93 - 150 lbs. Of her first 3 calves we had 2 assists and a C-section, then she had 4 by herself, and the last was another C-section. I hind sight we should have gotten rid of her after the second calf, which was a 150 lb c-section. We have other cows with higher Avg BW's, but have never had a problem with them.</p><p></p><p>As for bagging up, some heifers/cows really don't bag up a lot before they calve. And udder size is not a great indicator of how much milk a cow has anyways. We have a 12 year old cow here that has a small (tiny infact) udder. But she raises a good calf every year. Plus large udders tend to break down quicker, and be prone to other problems, such as mastitis, I have found.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="randiliana, post: 608717, member: 2308"] There are a lot of factors that you have to consider. What was the reason that this heifer couldn't deliver the calf? Was it simply because she didn't have enough room in her? Was there some sort of birth defect or malpresentation? I am guessing from your post, that the heifer didn't have enough room. If that is the case, and the calf is of average or below average size, I would SHIP the heifer. You could keep her, but the odds are that she will not grow enough to prevent future calving problems. The fact that it was a C-section indicates that things were not just a little tight, but that there was no room. I would maybe keep a heifer that had an average sized calf that was pulled, but not a C-section. We had a heifer that we pulled a 60 lb calf out of a couple years ago, it was a pretty hard pull. She went down the road, after raising the calf, as I believed that if she could not even handle a 60 lb calf, she would probably be trouble down the road when bred to our higher BW 'cow' bulls. If the calf was large, then that explains why she had problems. In this case, I would wait to see what the other calves are like out of the same bull. If they are all large calves, then I would give this one another chance. If the rest are smaller than this heifer's calf, then I would likely ship her. All calving problems, even size issues, are not always the bull's fault. Sometimes it is just the way the bull 'clicked' with a certain cow, sometimes you get a cow that consistently throws a large calf, even when bred to calving ease or small BW bulls. We also had a cow that had the highest BW calf of her group of heifers, she went on to consistently throw large calves. We ended up with 2 C-sections out of her, the first we contributed to the feed, and we had a lot of very heavy calves the same year, but the second one was the last she had on our place. Her Avg BW on 8 calves was 111 lbs, with a range from 93 - 150 lbs. Of her first 3 calves we had 2 assists and a C-section, then she had 4 by herself, and the last was another C-section. I hind sight we should have gotten rid of her after the second calf, which was a 150 lb c-section. We have other cows with higher Avg BW's, but have never had a problem with them. As for bagging up, some heifers/cows really don't bag up a lot before they calve. And udder size is not a great indicator of how much milk a cow has anyways. We have a 12 year old cow here that has a small (tiny infact) udder. But she raises a good calf every year. Plus large udders tend to break down quicker, and be prone to other problems, such as mastitis, I have found. [/QUOTE]
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