If it's not one thing it's another!! Can you believe it!

[Douglas]

What did she "utter" that made you thnk she was bred?

My cows talk to me all the time. I know exact what they want. More food usually, course the bulls don't have to say much to get their meaning across.

I have been trying to shorten up my calving season the last couple of years. My calves started coming earlier and earlier until i was having calves in early January. That year i had two calves around new years and moved the Bull a month or so later but they were already rebread, hence my current dilema.

Do i need to do anything special with this 17 month old cow now that she has had a calf except try to get her well fed to rebreed next month?

Edit: Edit to mention that i appreciate all your input here Dun. I especially like your ideas about containing costs. If we did everything recommended by the experts we would be in the same situation as Detroit. I have done little over the years on the health side besides minerals and worming replacement heifers, and have only lost 1 calf out of 90 or so in the last 4 four years and that was do to drowning. but hay and fertilizer is killing me.

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

"I have done little over the years on the health side besides minerals and worming replacement heifers, and have only lost 1 calf out of 90 or so in the last 4 four years and that was do to drowning. but hay and fertilizer is killing me.

Have you had a soil sample test of your paddocks done ? You may find you are putting out fertilizer in places where you don't need to. When we had ours done we found some paddocks didn't need much, if any fertilizer adding.

 

[hillsdown]

I desided to call the vet today so he can come out and look at her on Thursday. Maybe he will tell me that she is old than the seller thought and I might have a chance to save them both.

Now that is the best thing I have read yet in this thread,,have her palpated and he will be able to tell how far along she is, if her pelvic area is large enough to deliver and the size of the calf. After you have discussed the findings you can re evaluate all of your options and go from there.

Good Luck..

 

[Dana Kopp]

We just had that lovely experience. A heifer born last Feb and was given an abort shot in Dec - we gave it too late. After staying up all night watching her we finally went in to check things out and realized that the calf wasn't fitting out. She had a c-section on Sunday morning. Baby and mom are both alive. We are bottling him because I don't see much bag and she needs to heal, he is really uncoordinated and doesn't have a lot of muscling - I think he is a preemie. But we had a cow lose a calf on Sunday so we are going to make a new match.

This was our fifth "teenage" pregnancy in 12 years. From now on all heifers will be getting the estrumate shot shortly after weaning.

So I really meant lutalyse, I had estrumate on the brain as we had been talking about it at home for a cow who hadn't cleaned.

I realized that my message sounded like we had never had a positive result. Our other four "teenage mothers" calved without issue or assistance. Each raised the calf on their own and bred back - they are all still in our herd, well except one and she left because she insisted on crawling through fences... This heifer was the youngest one of the five - the others calved in late May, June, or July so they were a little older when they calved.

 

[BARNSCOOP]

Well,
The Vet came out this morning and said first she was a couple of months older than the seller thought...so she is around 16 months old not 14 months old. He agrees she is around 800lbs. She is bred but he says according to her structures she should be 7-8 months bred but she is making a bag so that's odd. He says the calf is small. He believes she will be able to have the calf even if she has it in a couple of weeks.

So, I am pleased with his assesment and a praying for the very best.

Thank you guys,
Sonya