I'm having abnormally large calves!

[Wisteria Farms]

WHAT THE HECK!!!!

I am NOT feeding mom's any grain... no protein tubs... nothing but free choice hay...
The hay has been rotated between some sudan, alfalfa/grass mix. Should I NOT be feeding free choice?

Just weighed a calf born last night and he was 100lbs. Rest have been 90, 93 etc. This is NOT normal for us!! Tell me what I'm doing wrong PLEASE so I dont make the same mistake...

 

[dun]

Wrong bull, wrong cows or exceptionally cold winter? Or the old satnd by Shhhh it happens

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

Don't have too man yet but so far my calves have been much smaller than usual which I don't understand considering the winter we had.

 

[jkwilson]

I've been through it. Ran the same bull for 4 years on mostly the same cows with virtually identical management with no unusual weather. 3 of 4 years were smooth as silk with calves running ~72-80 lbs. The other one gave me mostly 90 lb plus calves including one that went close to 125 lbs. Go figure.

 

[rockridgecattle]

In our area, the general consesus is larger than normal calves. We have the same bulls as the previous year. Hubby thinks it's because his feed program changed. More alfalfa and less wild or slough hay. They, the cows also seem to have come off pasture a little better than normal. We are finding big calves, and this year they seem to be heavier milkers as well.

RR

 

[jillaroo]

We are finding the same thing. Funny thing about this year I guess. We are also having one h*** of a calving season...just about everthing that can go wrong has. Loads of malpresentations, cervix not dilated x 3, twisted uterus. No rotten calves tho and haven't has a uterine prolapse yet but I imagine I will now that I've said that! :lol:
Back to the calf weights. Usually we are 74-83 lbs on our heifers, but we've had most of the calves 83+ and most in the 90's. Cow-wise, we are normally 80-90lbs but have had a lot 100+.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I used to worry a lot about large calves, but then I got tired of small BA kid/calves. We named one goat boy but he had a lot of kid brothers. Now I usually eat a cow every year and I think the herd is better for it.

We got our first calf yesterday - - 89# out of a 1,120 rwf cow. Seemed to work fine.

 

[cfpinz]

We calve in November and December. If we have a dry June thru August, followed by rains in September you can be your ass we're going to have bigger calves. If the weather is constant and forage is either available or unavailable throughout the season, our calves usually run 70-80lbs on average. This year was one of the former types, calves started in the low 80's and ran to the low 90's on average, same cows, same bulls. A handfull in the low 100's, no huge ones though. Didn't pull a single calf this year, first time I can remember that happening.

My theory is the cows scrape by during the dry months with little intake and what they do ingest is low in nutritional value. When the rains come in September and the grass flushes, the cattle gorge themselves on the fresh, concentrated grass. Our grass is predominately fescue, so this coincides with one of the most productive times of the year for this species, also.

Or on the other hand, sh!t happens.

 

[dun]

We had 14 calves born in about a 2 week span. All but the last one were a litytle smaller then I expected. The last one sired by our old bull whos calves alwasy have run around 65-75 pounds out of a calf whos previous 4 calves averaged 74 pounds, this guy was 89 pounds. We've get 4-5 heifers bred to him and I'm a bit concerned of what size calves they're gonna have.

 

[Wisteria Farms]

Used same bull for 3 years... always reliably average BW's... but these are scaring me...Only have two heifers to calve (rest are seasoned cows) so will watch the heifers especially close...its just aggrivating when there's no clear reason for it...

 

[dun]

Global warming!

 

[pdfangus]

We calve in November and December. If we have a dry June thru August, followed by rains in September you can be your ass we're going to have bigger calves. If the weather is constant and forage is either available or unavailable throughout the season, our calves usually run 70-80lbs on average. This year was one of the former types, calves started in the low 80's and ran to the low 90's on average, same cows, same bulls. A handfull in the low 100's, no huge ones though. Didn't pull a single calf this year, first time I can remember that happening.

My theory is the cows scrape by during the dry months with little intake and what they do ingest is low in nutritional value. When the rains come in September and the grass flushes, the cattle gorge themselves on the fresh, concentrated grass. Our grass is predominately fescue, so this coincides with one of the most productive times of the year for this species, also.

Or on the other hand, be nice happens.

cfpinz hit it on the nose.
nutrition of the cow is a factor in birth weights.
I graphed my fall calving birth weights over fifteen years against month of the year and rainfall over the period and proved that grass affected my birthweights.

for the original poster my guess would be that the alfalfa hay is the biggest factor. high in protein....
feed grass hay prior to calving and then drop em on the alfalfa.

 

[Roan]

I think quality of hay and winter weather are the cause. We have had same issue. Cows look good but bigger babies on good hay and cold weather. How was the beef expo, have fun?

 

[CKC1586]

Wrong bull, wrong cows or exceptionally cold winter? Or the old satnd by Shhhh it happens

I have to agree with this! Had a round of WTH season with 3 of us two years ago. Was having big calves from a bull that had never thrown a big calf over 4 seasons and a bunch of twinning from him too!

 

[snickers]

this year two of our 6 yr old cow's who's teats were to big last yr and were on the cull list didnt make it to the sale barn so needless to say we were not looking forward to those big teats again, well lo and behold we didnt have to help the calves at all this yr. go figure.

 

[CosgrayHerefords]

We used the same bulls this year as we have for a couple years. We have had more 100 lb calves than we ever have had in 60 years raising herefords. Weird thing is our heifer calves are right on with last year averaging about 75 lbs, last year they were about 72 lbs. Our bulls last year averaged 83 lbs. This year they are AVERAGING 98 lbs. Biggest was a 132 lb. bull calf out of a heifer smallest was a 83 lb. calf out of a cow who every year has one of the biggest calves every year go figure. Vet said it has to do with the winter we had. We have one bull whose calves last year ranged from 55-80 lbs., averaging at 68 lbs. This year he is averaging 88 lbs. and had one that was 114 lbs.

He said they did a research project where they took 100 cows from North Dakota, bred them to the same bull, took 50 of them to Florida, and fed them the exact same rations. The Florida calves averaged 15% lighter than the calves born in North Dakota. Same genetics, same feed, different environments.

 

[dun]

We had 14 calves born in about a 2 week span. All but the last one were a litytle smaller then I expected. The last one sired by our old bull whos calves alwasy have run around 65-75 pounds out of a calf whos previous 4 calves averaged 74 pounds, this guy was 89 pounds. We've get 4-5 heifers bred to him and I'm a bit concerned of what size calves they're gonna have.

Had another calf sired by the same bull out of an older cow, 72 pounds. Something must have just lined up right(wrong) with the heavier one

 

[Stocker Steve]

.
nutrition of the cow is a factor in birth weights.
I graphed my fall calving birth weights over fifteen years against month of the year and rainfall over the period and proved that grass affected my birthweights.

for the original poster my guess would be that the alfalfa hay is the biggest factor. high in protein....
feed grass hay prior to calving and then drop em on the alfalfa.

I thought epds explained birth weight ;-) , but one neighbor got a good deal on alfalfa last year and his average weight went up 4#. The other neighbor never calves out heifers, keeps his cows thin, and brags not pulling any calves...

 

[dun]

.
nutrition of the cow is a factor in birth weights.
I graphed my fall calving birth weights over fifteen years against month of the year and rainfall over the period and proved that grass affected my birthweights.

for the original poster my guess would be that the alfalfa hay is the biggest factor. high in protein....
feed grass hay prior to calving and then drop em on the alfalfa.

I thought epds explained birth weight ;-) , but one neighbor got a good deal on alfalfa last year and his average weight went up 4#. The other neighbor never calves out heifers, keeps his cows thin, and brags not pulling any calves...

That isn;t how EPDs work. If bull A has a lower BW EPD then bull B and the cows are the same and managed the same, bull A's calves will statistically be smaller.
You have to compare bananas to bananas and not throw a nectarine into the equation.

 

[Nesikep]

as most of you know, my last 3 years have been abnormally high, and we're starting to feed the cows less and less during the winter, if it's really cold (by our standards below 0F), I feed a little more, but this year I was feeding 7x80 lb bales for 24 animals, first cut hay, mostly grass but with some alfalfa, last year was feeding 6 or 7 bales for 19 head.. it seems to be that once I take my cows out of the field and into the corrals, (where they don't move) my BW's go up, so the first 4 calves this year were in the 80's, all heifer calves, but since then heifer calves have been around 100-115, and bull calves from 110-140, with a couple exceptions to the rule, my average BW all inclusive is 102 lb right now... before 3 years ago, our average was 80ish lbs. Last year the lightest calves were a pair of twins (heifer + bull) at 65 & 75 respectively

That isn;t how EPDs work. If bull A has a lower BW EPD then bull B and the cows are the same and managed the same, bull A's calves will statistically be smaller.

Statistically, but perhaps not necessarily? statistics are that way