today we had to pull a dead calf that was 2 months early that thing was freakin huge it made you think the bull we used had epds with like 150lbs it took forever to get that thing out tomarrow i will see if the cow is alive or not. the papers we got on the herford bull when we got it said said low birth weight-75
LB my as$
- Thread starter Moocow11
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manaftergodsheart413
Well-known member
Do you feed a lot of high protein grain?
rocket2222
Well-known member
Sorry about the calf. You may not be reading your bulls papers right. The birth weight Epd should be a small number normally between -10 and +10, something like -2.9 or +4.6 its the first or second number in the "subject animal" line, depending on how old the papers//bull is. Sounds like with your number of 75lbs your looking at "individual performance", which is a low BW. but he still may not be a calving ease bull.
Moocow11":2u68mfta said:
What was his BirthWeight EPD? EPDs are a better indicator of the bull's breeding ability than his own performance. But don't blame everything on the bull, remember the cow has as much (probably more) influence on the calf's size as the bull.
I hope she's on her feet tomorrow.
manaftergodsheart413
Well-known member
I don't know whats could have happened sounds like a freak accident.I've got to be honest I haven't ever heard of a bull thats supposed to be a bull that throws low birth calves calves that weigh 150 pounds and I know you read the papers correct because how could you not.Does anyone think the may have made a mistake while shipping the semen and may have mixed a straw from another bull in there?
a two month early freakin huge dead calf...
sounds like a freak. or either it wasnt 2 months early.
did you have to pull it on account of it being dead or was she having it? i'm thinking maybe she was ontime and possibly bred to somebody else.
sounds like a freak. or either it wasnt 2 months early.
did you have to pull it on account of it being dead or was she having it? i'm thinking maybe she was ontime and possibly bred to somebody else.
Tod Dague
Well-known member
That was my thinking. Could be a neighbor bull got in.Beefy":tx921cc5 said:
manaftergodsheart413
Well-known member
I am so sorry about the cow and calf incident wish I had an awnser
TNfamilyfarm
Well-known member
sorry about the calf, i hope you didnt AI the whole herd!!!!!!!
Sorry about your calf, hope the cow is okay. Is she up? The BW EPD you listed does not make sense to me either, Rocket is right on, the BW EPD should be a lot lower number like, 3.6 or 5.4, some number like that, not a weight. Maybe you can give us the reg. number or name of the bull you used so we can look at the EPD's and give you a better idea what happened. Did the calf look like a purebreed hereford? Or could it be the neighbors bull got in as suggested before?
Thanks, Alan
Thanks, Alan
manaftergodsheart413":bmfqct4p said:
Look at the markings on the straw, that will tell you which bull it was. The chances of getting semen from one bull into straws labeled for another bull is pretty slim. There are certain nicks that just generate totally bizarre results. I used a Lincoln Red bull on a customers cows and one cow had a monster calf while the others bred to the same bull had tiny little calves. The next year we used another bull on the same set of cows and all of the calves were the same size. Thenext year we used the Lincoln Red bull again figuring that it must have been a fluke with that one cow. She had a monster calf again and all of the others were small. From then on all of her calves were in the same size range as the other cows when they were all bred to the same bulls. But we never used that particualr bull on that cow again.
dun
*Cowgirl*
Well-known member
I tend to go with beefy. Calf on time, bred to a different bull.
ALACOWMAN
Well-known member
i believe theres alot more gentics envolved in these big ass calves than just nutrition. granted some can be over conditioned. but a large calf can still be a throw back from a few generations and on the dams side and using epds outside a given breed can be a crap shoot as well. thats why i think when you consider the birth weight on a bull its important to know the back ground if possible of the moma. because you can condemn a bull because of it. and it be a long way from his fault
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
ALACOWMAN":rozfvcvc said:
Now this post is right on as I have seen a bull throw small calves and when crossed with a certain cow you had better have a good set of chains. Are you sure the cow doesn't need culling.
Moocow11
Well-known member
the bulls were lbw and easy calving i have the cows dam and great dam they are all easy calving i dont know what happened but the bull i had them with, got them because they were in a corral that was about 5.5 foot tall. i didnt read the the papers wrong i even had some one else read them. the cow was an angus, the calf was a black baldie. we had to pull the calf . i will still keep the bull he is very nice. just use him on the bulls. i know the bw weight should be low number sbut i am interpeting the the numbers to the bw they should produce
Dusty Britches
Well-known member
rmuse206":2ui6asvl said:
Calving Ease EPDs aren't always available. In fact, I would venture they are not common.
Either a different bull bred that cow, you are mixing breeds and can't use EPDs, or the cows genetics were high BW EPD.
