Loosing teeth

[Herefordcross]

I've seen 'em many times at the sale missing teeth, how do you guys tell that teeth are missing in open pasture, I have never been able to, only in the chute. Other than one that you can tell at a glance is missing almost all of them.

 

[cfpinz]

After the corn in your (or neighbor's) garden is done for the year, cut it and take it out to the cows. You can see their teeth while they're "smiling".

cfpinz

 

[dun]

I've seen 'em many times at the sale missing teeth, how do you guys tell that teeth are missing in open pasture, I have never been able to, only in the chute. Other than one that you can tell at a glance is missing almost all of them.

I've been hoping someone would address this but since noone has, here's my take.

When they're on pasture the only way to get a feel for the condition of the teeth is body condition or if they slobber a lot will chewing their cud. We mouth all of the cows in the spring as part of the regular spring workup so we know who needs to be kept closer track off as to their condition.

dun.

 

[sidney411]

When you feed something like cubes they usually pick up their heads while chewing and you can catch a glimpse in thier mouths. Sometimes you can see their teeth as they are chewing cud. Best way is in the chute though.

 

[Herefordcross]

Well at I know I'm not missing anything because that's how we check 'em, in the chute. A friend of mine bought six good looking Angus families (Cow, calf at side, calf in belly) Three of them went right back to the sale he said it looked like they had been eating rocks. We have only had very few problems with it ourselves but, I hear tell that in sandy parts of the country their teeth diminish a lot faster.??

 

[Beefy]

i go by body condition mostly. knowing how they should and always have looked i can tell when somebody starts going down hill. of course you have to rule out other factors like being wormy or something. also, a cow with good teeth will clip off the grass whereas a cow missing teeth will have to tear. so sometimes you can sort of tell watching them graze.

Lord knows my cows eat sand.