cowgirl8":3jem0sul said:
What probably happened is when this heifer was weaned, some other weanling nursed on her small udder. That ruins them. Hopefully she'll be able to raise this calf, but watch carefully and make sure its thriving. I'd sell her ...
I have a three year old right now that is doing a fabulous job raising her second calf, and she was sucked on by another calf at weaning (both were weaned together) so much that she developed an udder when she was not even bred! We had to separate her when we discovered what was going on (for awhile obviously) and give her something to dry her up quick because we were in the middle of show season when it happened.
Here she is raising her first calf, a 3/4 blood Simm bull that Stocky is now using in his herd:
Here is a pic of her calf she is raising right now:
And a pic of her as a heifer (notice her nipples are a bit long?):
I think the only thing it might have done was stretched out her teats, since they are a bit big when she first calves but go back to normal size in a few days.
So yet, another farce.... Have YOU RAISED a heifer that has been sucked on? I have, and by the looks of the calves this cow is throwing, I am sure glad I did not ship her!
Here is a cow with two quarters that do not seem to function, even though each embryo calf she raises wean off just as big as the others:
Her first calf was a red bull, by Amigo, and was cut. All of her calves since then have been embryo calves, and I surely would not use her as a recip if I did not think she could do the job! She is due in a week with another embryo calf, so her udder is starting to fill.
So a two quartered cow, though not desirable, is not the end of the world if she can do her job.