Our Calving seaon so far

[Nesikep]

Well, we've had 7 calves so far of about 18.. here's what's been on my plate

#1 nice big heifer, mother dumber than a sack of hammers, and this is her 3rd calf, it was born a week or so early. mother didn't give it a lick for 3 days, but all in all that one is fine now, she's got lots of milk and grows nicely

#2 nice bull calf, all well, again, mother dumber than a sack of hammers, but that got worked through

#3 super nice heifer, but the mother didn't want to be in the calving pen, nearly tore the place down, but she finally settled in... after 10 days the calf still comes up to you for scratchings.. real sweety

#4 first time calf, big steer, all is well with him, after a day he weighed in at 112 lbs, bigger than #1 which is 2 weeks old with good milk

#5 a heifer, another nice one, also really tame

#6, a bull calf, doing well

and finally, #7...

a pretty small first time calfer, luckily with a good build though... a 95 lb calf coming out hind legs first... my old man and I both had to pull with everything we had to get him out... he's a little slow upstairs, but mother is good, though doesn't seem to have all that much milk... we had to hose-feed it the first night, it just would not suck, it had it's jaw clenched shut, and I have cuts on my fingers to prove it, but when we gave it a feeding at 9pm, it suddenly woke up, and made an about face... it suddenly got up, wanted to suck, and was looking all around, head-butting us, and looking for teats everywhere... by morning I saw he had found the teats that are meant for him... but we're keeping a close eye on him


I'm close to getting internet at home now, it will only be dialup, but I'll still try and get some more pictures posted and not be a stranger around here

good luck everyone!

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

amazing how sharp those teeth can be. You calves sound a little large for my liking, but Shorties seem to have higher birthweights. I know the advertise 98% unassisted but that has never been my experience, nor anyone I know.

My sister and her in-laws always seem to have some sort of calf-pulling story.

 

[Angus Cowman]

good to here from ya Nesi keep us posted

 

[JR Cattle Co.]

amazing how sharp those teeth can be. You calves sound a little large for my liking, but Shorties seem to have higher birthweights. I know the advertise 98% unassisted but that has never been my experience, nor anyone I know.

My sister and her in-laws always seem to have some sort of calf-pulling story.

98% unassisted because the others just die :shock: i didn't say that :secret: I hope all goes well with the rest! good luck

 

[LoveMoo11]

Sounds like things are going well for you so far, hope the rest come without a hitch. You've got some big babies!

 

[wade]

Looks like your keeping a close eye on them and its paying off. I have 5 heifers and 5 cows to calve this spring. Right after I got home last night from my day job a heifer dumped out a nice little heifer calf. Got the calf and mother in the barn, turned my back for like 5 minutes and she had laid down and delived a bull calf. Milked the mother out gave both calves some from the bottle. They both got up and found a teat. Checked them this morning and both look fine. The mother of this heifer gave me a set of twins last year. Then she didnt breed back.

 

[bigbull338]

man dont you hate calving seasons like that.atlest they are doing real good raising their calves.

 

[Nesikep]

hey, this is a GOOD calfing season, no losses yet, cross fingers... calves 8 and 9 were a bit troublesome, a bit of a confusion since they were both born the same night, one of which was born to the mother who had lots of colostrum, and the calf was wild as the dickens, and healthy, screamed bloody murder when i caught him at 3 days old to band and tag him, 2 days later nearly dead, the cow never started making milk, so it was nearly starved, so we had to bottle feed him, then he caught a cold, so had to be put on antibiotics, now he's doing well, but if you've read my "where's the milk" thread, you'll see the cow not so well, after milking the bag of hammers for 3 times a day for 10 days and still only getting a cup at a time, I wrote it off last night, she's a hazard to my health, and I'm sick of chasing her with my 3/4" breaker bar as protection into the chute, so I'm working on getting her calf adopted by another really dumb cow, who also wanted to kill me after she calfed, but is now all sweet and gentle (maybe she's smart enough to know I might keep her around if she's easy to graft on to, and might put up with her ill temper at calfing)..

I figure by monday we'll have #10 and 11, maybe 12 depending on if my "horse" has twins,

 

[CPL]

Congratulations on your calves and good luck with the ones that are coming. The BW's seem a little big, but I always thought Canada (and any cold climate) tend to be bigger?

 

[cowman30]

amazing how sharp those teeth can be. You calves sound a little large for my liking, but Shorties seem to have higher birthweights. I know the advertise 98% unassisted but that has never been my experience, nor anyone I know.

My sister and her in-laws always seem to have some sort of calf-pulling story.

98% unassisted because the others just die :shock: i didn't say that :secret: I hope all goes well with the rest! good luck

98% unassisted deaths LOL!

 

[rockridgecattle]

if you have a cow with the mind set to kill you or knock you down at calving, she only gets worse with age. Ship her as soon as she weans that calf.
There are alot of better tempered animals which are good producers to keep.
your life is worth more than a cow, if you get seriously injured who will look after the cows, if you are dead wouldn't really matter.

This is experience talking. Calving season is alot easier when cows do not want to kill you
On another note, to get this cow milking have you tried oxyticin? 2cc in the muscle and she will not be able to hold her milk no way no how within 10 minutes of injection
Have you tried Atrevet for the psycho you want to milk? It is a tranq and given in a lower dose (about 10cc) it will subdue the cow. Watch the eyes glaze over
Better still, ship the...
A mat pen works great when it comes to milking a cow or grafting a calf. The split pannel makes quick, easy, safe work for the cow, the calf and the producer.
And finally, if you have a cow that is a kicker, get a friend or family member to hold the cows tail in a "C". Make sure does not twist the tail...Straight up and over the back, not a tight "C" either. Some how it throws her balance off and she can not kick.

 

[Nesikep]

Well, I guess it's time for an update, the cow that was dry after calving, well, I decided to exile her back to the corral away from her calf, meanwhile, we had a cow abort a set of twins, her 3rd set of twins in a row, only one of which she's successfully raised, HELP US GET RID OF HER!!, last year she adopted a calf, and this year, she's adopted the calf from the dry cow, every year she retains the placenta, every year she gets boluses, oxytocin, etc, and she's unredictable, every time you go near her, you have to feel her out, sometimes she's docile as a lamb, other times she'll try and run you over (I always carry a 3/4" breaker bar with me around her as a attitude adjustment device in need be) this cow just screws up every year, and every year she saves her skin by doing something right, like adopting a calf...

Meanwhile, my "horse" Tizia still hasn't calved, she looks like she's about to explode, I measured her "waistline"... anyone here who thinks they need to lose weight, can look at her and feel slim,.. it was 128" waist... take a look at the picture of me riding her which was what... a month ago? look at the following picture taken yesterday

can anyone tell me when she should pop? it's getting annoying to get up at 3 am to look at her chewing cud.. BTW, I'm not feeding her a lot, she gets about 1/4 bale a day, and maybe a pound of grain, since I don't think there's a heck of a lot of room for stomach in there... she's always been the beerbelly type, but at the rate this is going, I'm worried might end up with a pair of 100lb twins... looking at our breeding calendar, we have a questionmark of her being bred Aug 5th.. which would mean another 10 days... which I think is hard to imagine...

On some other notes, her sister is the lean leggy type, with a small udder and teats, she's raising a beautiful steer, he's about 5 weeks old and I'm fairly sure picking him up wouldn't be healthy for my back..

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Nesi - few questions about your pics. What's in the background - hay pile? What's with the huge spring sticking out of the dead stump?
Your wooden corral looks great.
"IF" she is carrying twins, you usually can plan on her being early - although most cows don't "read the book". My oldest cow never had twins, this year, went 1 day late with twins, heifer 88#, bull 98# :shock: That was a bellie full.
Yahoo! only set of twins this year - AND I'M DONE. Had last two calves this past Sunday (and they were a few days late - both bulls). Had 2/3 bull calves this year. But, that was OK this year, because I have 18 replacement heifers left over from last year.

 

[mnmtranching]

Nesi, I would do what ever is necessary to get those birth weights down, makes to much extra work and risk to those calves and heifers.

Don't hang on to those cows that give you trouble. Seems to me there are a lot of good cattle out there. Sell the bad ones and work on bulding a herd of easy keepers.

 

[Nesikep]

well, she finally exploded, at 7 am she had a nice bull calf at her side... threw him on the scale, 140 lbs... he hadn't sucked yet, but was an hour or two old, had no trouble standing, but his knuckles are a little bit kinked, which will surely work itself out with some time and playing. he needed very little help finding the teats, at which point a hand, a knee, a teat, anything was fair game to suck on.

if we had our way, we would rather have all 80 lb calves, that's a nice size, but breeding at 2 years makes it so this bull is OK for us, I don't even think this was too hard a birth.. it's the first time we've had a calf over 120 lbs survives, and by the looks of it this one is just dandy...

now we just have a couple stragglers to deal with

And here's Maddy having some fun

 

[jcarkie]

140 WOW !!! you can name him goliath, looks good. that is a dandy.

 

[cowman30]

Have a cow that will eat out of your hand when she doesnt have a calf at side but when she does you had better watch yourself. We worked her yesterday and she got belligerant and tried to get in my face. She met a cattle prod right in the nose.

 

[Nesikep]

we called him Paco, which is derived from the french word for Easter, which is when he was born, as we already have a Goliath... his knuckles are starting to straighten out a little bit, though he still gets tired if he stands for a long time, but he's super playful and lively, which is a sure sign all is well. as for his mother, she's so good to work with, I can walk up to her, give her a shot, boluses, etc without tying her up.. .I want more of them like her

as for the meanies, they get met with my bovine attitude adjustment device, an old 3/4" breaker bar.. the first mean cow that calved this spring is now the most docile, gentle thing there is, so we may still keep her (and remember her antics next spring), she's raising an unbelievable heifer calf (at 2 month it's probably close to 300 lb and has the build of a bull) as far as the rest of the calves, most are growing like weeds, and by weaning time, we may have 5 of them in the 700 lb range, and most are all nice reds

here's Paco at 4 days old...

 

[Nesikep]

well, the cows are all out on pasture now, shipped 3 cows and buried one because of being either too late or open... the one we buried was 19 years old, we figure she could stay one the farm... the rest of them are doing well.. Paco, the one born on easter shown above, wow is he growing, he's not yet 8 weeks old and I would guess he's between 275 and 300 lbs, I've been milking his mother as well, and she's good about it, I get a quart from a quarter, she has about 8% cream, so if you figure the calf sucks 6 times a day, he darned well gets nearly 6 gallons of milk a day, which is more than our Guernsey cow gave us... the rest of them are all growing well except for one, who is from a heifer which may have a short lifespan on our place if her calf next year isn't any better, Maddy (2R, the 'chairman of the board' as someone said, roan heifer) is a total suck, I have her halter broken, and she was eating grass around the house for the last month, I'll try and take some pictures as they are worth a thousand words and I'm getting tired of typing!

 

[Nesikep]

Well, I guess I'll update this a bit, saying first off that Next year's calving season is going to be a month behind schedule.... our bull suddenly got a bad case of ED, and rather than feed him viagra, we shipped him when we found out all the cows were cycling after a month... so now we have a little Gelbvieh bull, who's much lighter colored, but at least we'll have calves next spring.. it's too bad for the shorthorn bull we had to get rid of because the calves of his are beautiful animals, all nice dark reds, hardly any strange white markings, and they all have excellent conformations with full chests, etc,... ahh well, such is life. Meanwhile, the easter boy Paco is starting to outgrow the calves that are a month and a half older than himself, and he's a complete suck for attention, as is Maddy, who is turning out nicely too

anyhow, internet cafe time is over for me, tata, I have hay to bale!