Meconium staining of newborn calves

[slick4591]

I ran across this article and thought it might be good to know about.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Yellow calves are all the rage.

(14mo old heifer, hard pull and calf needed cpr)

 

[TCRanch]

Wow, I have never seen or heard of that. Good to know. Thanks, Slick.

Supa, how's the calf & heifer? 14 months old?! Bless her heart.

 

[Bright Raven]

Informative but not a game changer.

 

[dun]

Good information

 

[Bigfoot]

Knew what it was, never knew it had such fancy name. I'll have to impress everybody down at the feed mill now.

 

[ANAZAZI]

Informative but not a game changer.

If you did not think of it before it should be a game changer! It is one of the signs of difficult delivery, weak or too big calves. It is a good thing to breed away from in any case.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Supa, how's the calf & heifer? 14 months old?! Bless her heart.

That was a few years ago, she raised a few calves now but is on the short list to go. Udder looks good but milk doesnt seem to have what it takes to raise a good calf. Always duds ~ 2lbs a day or less.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

We had one this month. 280 days gestation, and I found her like the picture shows; on the ground and wet. Embryo calf, 61 pounds if I remember correctly. No signs of a difficult birth.

Not sure why it is sideways...

 

[Black and Good]

Good information! :clap: Thanks for sharing Slick. :tiphat: B&G

 

[Bright Raven]

Informative but not a game changer.

If you did not think of it before it should be a game changer! It is one of the signs of difficult delivery, weak or too big calves. It is a good thing to breed away from in any case.

In a small herd where the number of "events" are small, it is not a trait to breed "away from". Using a scenario similar to mine as an example:
1. Herd of 20
2. Over period of 10 years, I experience 3 to 4 events of meconium on the calf at birth. All from 3 different bulls.

It would make absolutely no sense to make sire selections based on that scenario.

On the other hand if I were using one bull over that period of time and I had 10 events, perhaps I should look at the bull as a factor.

In actuality. Never had a case.

I find the subject interesting but not a "game changer". I do not say that to disparage the publication. However, even the author presents the subject as an "indicator".

Excerpt

The jury is still out on what causes this and what we should do about it. Veterinarians have many opinions on this topic, as it is a difficult subject to study.

My intention here is to give some of my ideas on meconium staining and let you form your own opinions.

 

[Putangitangi]

As he wrote:

The jury is still out on what causes this and what we should do about it. Veterinarians have many opinions on this topic, as it is a difficult subject to study.

My intention here is to give some of my ideas on meconium staining and let you form your own opinions.

My opinion and experience is that it's not as indicative as I understand it is in human births. I've seen some staining in normal (watched right through from first signs to delivery) births and all those calves behaved entirely normally. I've had more troubled calves without any at all. I also have one family whose birth fluids are always a disgusting green. The first time I saw it I presumed the calf was dead and rotting; she was normal - white-faced too, so it was really obvious. She and most of her sisters and then some of the daughters have continued the trait.

 

[Aaron]

I get them all the time, likely more than unstained calves. No difference in mortality rates. Have hauled a lot more clean, than dirty, calves to the pile.

 

[Bigfoot]

Hardest pull I ever succeeded at. No crap on his face. I have seen it on ones I pulled, and also on ones born all nutural. I still associate it with a struggle though. This calf was born at the hight of the glut. As soon as his tongue went down, I sold him for $725. Don't ya miss those days?

 

[Son of Butch]

Yellow calves are all the rage.

WOW... not uncommon in holstein calves, but I've never seen any like that one before.

 

[Nesikep]

I've seen it in both (witnessed) easy births, and hard births.. and it's also been absent in many hard births.. It has never been a problem, so I see it as pretty irrelevant

 

[Supa Dexta]

I've got a couple pics over the yrs. Not sure why this one was - 87lb to a mature cow.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

It's the same with lambs. Normally associated with stress. :2cents:

 

[True Grit Farms]

Well we haven't had a yellow calf around here yet. But I'll sure be looking for yellow fluid in the water bag whenever that's possible. Thanks for the tip Slick4591.

 

[SIMMGAL]

Never put that much thought into it, but I've heard for years that it's associated with stress. Having mainly solid black or red cattle can make it a bit hard to tell when one is stained! Wonder how many I've just not noticed due to their dark color. Only ever noticed it on my Herefords, Char X and whitefaced cattle. Interesting read!!