My season in a nutshell...

[callmefence]

Man I don't know what to tell you Tim . sorry it happened and keep on keeping on.
That's definitely way passed bad luck. I hope you get it sorted out

 

[Supa Dexta]

Can't solely blame the bull either. Sometimes its just the combo of the mating and can come from the cows side as well. Even if she's had small calves in her past.

I track birth weights and sire usage pretty strictly, and there's times where something large shows up out of the blue. Genetic, environmental.. who knows.

I had a rough season this year myself, but it was for health reasons. Both the cattle and my own. On with the show, its all you can do.

 

[angus9259]

He said not to blame my cows, as I was ready to load them and get rid of them. He said it was the bull I rented. Said the bull needed shot and so did the guy who rented him to me. Funny thing...the other calves came easy and were small and fast growing.

Tim

Sorry for your loss. There are certainly years like that.

Your vet is wrong imo. Minimally it takes two to tango genetically and your other cattle proved that out. Blanket proclamations are almost never right and rarely helpful. We all like to have a smoking gun in life, but it rarely exists in agriculture. I personally would not use the bull again. I would likely not use the cow either especially now that she's empty.

 

[angus9259]

Can't solely blame the bull either. Sometimes its just the combo of the mating and can come from the cows side as well. Even if she's had small calves in her past.

I track birth weights and sire usage pretty strictly, and there's times where something large shows up out of the blue. Genetic, environmental.. who knows.

I had a rough season this year myself, but it was for health reasons. Both the cattle and my own. On with the show, its all you can do.

Supta said it better.

 

[millstreaminn]

Sorry about your luck. I've had a rough season too. I haven't lost a calf in 3 years and this year I had one die of parontitis, one I had to pull and he died before I got him out, and then a cow that had a stifle injury. We did a terminal c- section on her and saved her Tc Total heifer calf then put the cow down. It sure sucks to loose one especially when you only have 15. I only use calving ease bull on all my stock, heifers and cows.

 

[True Grit Farms]

I'd like to know the type of bull used, and on what breed of cows? Was the bull registered? And did the BCS of the cows have anything to do with the calves growing to large. It seems like those that baby - feed their cows have more calving issues.
I know fat women have more pregnancy problems than skinny women.

 

[millstreaminn]

Mine are all between 6-7 BCS. The female vet says my cows all have "old lady butts." My cows keep that condition on grass, hay and mineral. Don't know how I could feed them any less.

 

[skyhightree1]

Tim,
I am sorry for your loss and problems but in all honesty with the size of your herd I would have been AI them 100% you can get the best genetics for a cheap price vs renting a bull and having this train wreck. I know stuff happens all the time but sometimes we don't take the path that's a lil less risky. Even AI you don't know 100% you wont have problems. Sale barn or private sale doesn't matter either can give you problems and its a risk. I have a friend who loses a few cows and heifers a year due to huge calves and I keep telling him buy a good bull but he is hard headed because some calf ok with big calves.

 

[TCRanch]

Mine are all between 6-7 BCS. The female vet says my cows all have "old lady butts." My cows keep that condition on grass, hay and mineral. Don't know how I could feed them any less.

Last Fri we had a hard pull on a heifer with an 89 lb bull calf, dead, she suffered nerve damage & has a retained placenta. Her BCS is a 6, she's short & stocky but was pelvic measured & the bull we have with the heifers hasn't thrown anything more than 75 lbs in 2 years. A neighbor was out to help us get her up with the hip lift & his comment was "she's built like a German woman", which I suspect is similar to an old lady's butt .

Tim, sorry for the rough year.

 

[Bigfoot]

If I'm reading you right, you lost a cow, and 3 calves. That's awful to hear on 8 head. Even if 5 of the 8 were heifers. That'd be an annual death loss I'd expect to see on an 80 cow herd. Surely the law of averages will catch up, and it will be smooth sailing for a few years.

If I had leased you a bull, I'd feel terrible, but I'm not sure I'd feel much ownership in the problem. Unless, I had made some radical claims about the bull being a known easy calver.

 

[Nesikep]

Sorry about those losses.. Our first year we lost 1 cow, 1 prolapsed, and lost 3 calves.. all on 12 head during calving season, then lost 2 to pneumonia in the following summer.. (the best cows of course)
This year I had my first C section on a heifer, about a 110 lb calf on a 900ish lb cow wasn't going to happen.. Lost the calf since it took a long time to get the vet out... I can't complain, I'd gone 120 calves without a loss.
My birthweights are always high here.. Just happened one year and it has stayed that way... Average bull calf is about 100-105 lbs, with a few every year at 130... As long as it's a mature cow they have no problem with that.

Sorry for the rough year!

 

[Nesikep]

Yeah, I guess mine are larger than yours.. probably 1400ish for most of them

 

[Kingfisher]

I think I'd pelvic measure those cows. To bad pricey Vet didn't do that for you while he was there....

 

[millstreaminn]

Seems like a bit much. I paid my vet 250.00 to do a c-section on a cow then put her down. That also included a trip to my place the day before to give her the set up drugs for surgery. This vet lives 30 miles from me, one way.

 

[skyhightree1]

If I may, can I ask what you guys would expect to pay to have vet come and use calf jack to remove calf? I paid $416...am I offbase or is this high? A friend felt it was money well spent...but I was thinking it would be around $200. I am not in a cattle region...so I am gonna have to learn to do this stuff myself!

Tim

Tim,
I am not in a cattle region either and my vet is 55 miles or so one say from me. Speaking with different folks the one vet is stretched thin and caters to big dairy farms mostly and is hard to get him away from them. When you do he is not very expensive but some vets have after hours rates vs regular hour rates. I would expect something like that to cost me no more than 325. That being said since I am in a region not big on cattle I try to keep all tools needed on hand and drugs and do stuff myself. I am pretty self sufficient and honestly would suggest you look into buying those emergency things. The 400 bucks could have bought you a nice calf jack that you would have forever. There are some things of course we can't do and vets are needed but there's a whole lot more we can.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CALF-PULLER-Her ... SwAYtWITT~

 

[Bigfoot]

I was out of town the other day, and one was having trouble calving. Family called the vet, and it was $85. I thought that was plenty cheap. That's the first one I've had the vet pull in many years.

 

[TCRanch]

Our vet pulled one last year & the total was $145, including the trip charge & penicillin for the heifer. Total charge this year to BANGS, pelvic measure, Express 5 VL5 & calfhood vaccinate 10 heifers was $152. Money well spent in my opinion but we're also fortunate that both vets in the practice do large animals & we're all of 20 minutes from town.

 

[Bigfoot]

Our vet pulled one last year & the total was $145, including the trip charge & penicillin for the heifer. Total charge this year to BANGS, pelvic measure, Express 5 VL5 & calfhood vaccinate 10 heifers was $152. Money well spent in my opinion but we're also fortunate that both vets in the practice do large animals & we're all of 20 minutes from town.

I have all the heifers I keep, worked by the vet. Pelvic measured, and an exam. It usually comes in just around $20 per head. Kinda silly I guess to have him vaccinate, when I can do that, but there already in the chute. It's money well spent. Every once a blue moon there's one I need to kick out. I figure the 20 bucks on the one, pays for the $20 on all the others. Atleast I'm not feeding the thing for nothing until I figure out on my own that something is wrong.

 

[cow pollinater]

This was a Balancer bull. 50/50 Angus/Gelbvieh. The cow/calf I lost was a Hereford

Tim

That isn't entirely the bulls fault. For one thing a lot of herefords have some big calves lurking around the pedigree. You also have tons of heterosis in this cross. Gelbvieh and hereford brings just about as much heterosis as you can get without adding ear and angus serves as a third cross. That probably added about ten pounds of calf to the equation.

 

[Muddy]

Some gelbvieh/balancer will throws huge calves.