I got lucky

[Down in Dixie]

Well 9 months ago I changed out bulls and had a 4 day overlap of both bulls being on the property. I did notice one of my heifers had a limp during that time. She was roughly 6-7 months and I was about to pull her and wean her. Noticed a month ago she was showing signs. I pulled her from the herd and put her in the lot I was feeding out some steers in. She needed a little assistance but for the most part did good for having a calf at 16 months old. I always like a happy ending. Now for the questions. I will be keeping her in the pen and supplementing with feed. Is there anything else I should do to help her and the calf to keep growing good? I would estimate her to be 7-750 lbs

 

[TCRanch]

Congrats! Just supplementing and make sure she has the appropriate mineral for your area.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Well 9 months ago I changed out bulls and had a 4 day overlap of both bulls being on the property. I did notice one of my heifers had a limp during that time. She was roughly 6-7 months and I was about to pull her and wean her. Noticed a month ago she was showing signs. I pulled her from the herd and put her in the lot I was feeding out some steers in. She needed a little assistance but for the most part did good for having a calf at 16 months old. I always like a happy ending. Now for the questions. I will be keeping her in the pen and supplementing with feed. Is there anything else I should do to help her and the calf to keep growing good? I would estimate her to be 7-750 lbsView attachment 17976

Some extra groceries will keep her growing and help her milk production for the calf. Another thing I have done is pull the calf early by a couple months and give mama some time to get back in shape. Wean the calf early I should've said.

But a cows gonna do, what a cow does. She may just surprise you with another calf in 10 or 11 months! And hold condition doing it. Sounds like you've got a winner there. Very nice!

 

[Down in Dixie]

Thanks. I am keeping her on feed and a good mineral. Going to try and keep the bull off of her for 3-4 months also. She is my only cow that hasn't shed off yet so I'm hoping some since she had the calf she will shed off also.

 

[coachg]

What MMutts said

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Down in Dixie> Nice pair! Consider yourself blessed.. This you may not wish to hear. Were it mine (it's not) I would not take a chance
on the mother being late to breed back and thus sell her. If she is late to cycle the profit from her will questionable if naught.
[unless of course, she has a name!] I might keep her until I could wean the calf. If you want a pet that's fine but a gerbil would be cheaper.

 

[MurraysMutts]

And if she breeds a touch late, imo all the better.
Put her in fall calving when it's cooler!

I've 2 I'm gonna hope move up this time. If not I'll either sell em or move em to fall calving.

 

[Travlr]

Well 9 months ago I changed out bulls and had a 4 day overlap of both bulls being on the property. I did notice one of my heifers had a limp during that time. She was roughly 6-7 months and I was about to pull her and wean her. Noticed a month ago she was showing signs. I pulled her from the herd and put her in the lot I was feeding out some steers in. She needed a little assistance but for the most part did good for having a calf at 16 months old. I always like a happy ending. Now for the questions. I will be keeping her in the pen and supplementing with feed. Is there anything else I should do to help her and the calf to keep growing good? I would estimate her to be 7-750 lbsView attachment 17976

I read this when you first posted it and have been cogitating on it since.

I had a neighbor with a pretty small cow that had been stunted in its early life. He didn't know why, but the animal produced a healthy calf every year and weaned it at a decent weight so he kept it. I wouldn't be surprised that this heifer of yours would be stunted as well. Seven hundred or so pounds at 16 months old is pretty small where I come from. I'd be curious enough to keep her and see what happens in the future. About the only concerns I would have is making sure she is bred to bulls producing smaller birth weights and watching her for condition as the calf gets closer to weaning. I'd rather have a herd of thousand pound cows weaning five hundred pound calves than have a herd of sixteen hundred pound cows weaning six hundred pound calves.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

She has calved 8 MONTHS sooner than she should have. She has plenty of time to wait to be bred. I don't know if you breed year around or having a calving "season", but you are not money lost if you let her wait the extra few months like you suggested.
Feed her, give her a little extra time to be bred, and wean early - best advice.

 

[TCRanch]

Holding her back with a little extra TLC is not always a bad thing. Pretty sure we've all had surprises and mine turned out great - by eventually holding her back and I wasn't in a position where I needed to sell (plus, it wasn't her fault). Stunted? Don't think so but you can tell by the pics. She had another heifer calf this year and is right on schedule, doing great.

Gonna have an "oops" baby.

Any updates, Silver? My pair is still in the barnyard, she refuses to leave & join the herd. Little concerned she's not producing enough for such a big calf because he's always nursing but I'm going to pull him early anyway to give her time to recoup and he seems very healthy/bunky otherwise...

www.cattletoday.com

 

[Down in Dixie]

Thanks for the replies. I know there is a chance of her being stunted but her dam is called Shorty so I knew she was going to probably be on the short side anyways. I calve year round and will definitely give her a break and wean him early if I see her start to fall off any. My plan is to feed her a 16% all stock feed as that's the highest protein I can get at my feed mill. Just hoping that with enough feed she won't be to small and still raise a good calf.

 

[Down in Dixie]

This is her and her dam the day before she got bred.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Mama looks pretty ok to me!

I bet the kid does just