placenta

[SRBeef]

I had some one tell me that I should go around and pick up the placenta after a calf is born and throw it over the fence, etc. so the cow doesn't choke on it.

Well, I can't imagine that I am going to be around enough to get a very high percentage of these even if I wanted to. We have coyotes and dogs etc so I'm sure the genetic/historic reason for cows consuming the placenta is to not attract predators to a new born calf.

However this got me thinking that the more we do things for cows (like removing/discarding the placenta or maybe pulling calves etc.) the more we mess up the genetics of our herds.

I am trying to develop a herd that can out winter well, do well on mostly grazing and probably most importantly have calves outdoors unassisted every time. I want a herd of cows that can do what cows are supposed to do - including consume the placenta without choking.

I posted the picture below in response to another issue. But I think the over riding thought is to let cows do the work as much as possible which will over time strengthen the genetics of our herds.

Do many of you pick up the placenta? Why or why not?

Here's the photo. This is a spring 2008 heifer calf from #77 which I posted a picture of previously about outwintering in the north.

 

[dun]

If my wife sees a cow eating it she'll take it away. It gags her to think of it. I leave it aly until they;ve had their fill then haul it to the back and set up over it and wack coyotes.

 

[dun]

This was suggested to me:
"Of course you take it away!! Bring it in, rinse it off and cut into squares, fry it in butter and you have yourself a meal!!!

 

[angie1]

Nah, it grosses me out for sure, and I don't watch, but I let them have it.

 

[mobgrazer]

Depending on where I have looked I have found different reasons for them eating there placentas. Some of what I have found… nutrient imbalance, hormonal, bonding with offspring, help to keep wild animals away, bust of protean, can cause nitrate poisoning if over eaten, stimulate milk production…

This was one of the things I looked up a bunch of years back when I started breading cattle. I go out and collect them when I tag the calves an hour or so after birth.

It dose make me gag to watch them eat them but it's just as bad to pick them up sometimes.

There are a few coulters that eat sheep placentas. There have been a few lawsuits in the US about a hospital not giving the placenta back to the parents after they requested it.

 

[dun]

Depending on where I have looked I have found different reasons for them eating there placentas. Some of what I have found… nutrient imbalance, hormonal, bonding with offspring, help to keep wild animals away, bust of protean, can cause nitrate poisoning if over eaten, stimulate milk production…

This was one of the things I looked up a bunch of years back when I started breading cattle. I go out and collect them when I tag the calves an hour or so after birth.

It dose make me gag to watch them eat them but it's just as bad to pick them up sometimes.

There are a few coulters that eat sheep placentas. There have been a few lawsuits in the US about a hospital not giving the placenta back to the parents after they requested it.

Knew a woman that ate part of it. She wanted the "full experience" of having a baby.

 

[Keren]

For those of you who are disturbed by cows eating it ... well this will probably freak you out more. Women eating it ...

http://www.babycenter.com/0_from-here-t ... 1333089.bc

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... html?cat=5

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/sh ... p?t=425303

http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/eatplcnt.html

http://www.geocities.com/virtualbirth/placenta.html

Not my cup of tea YUCK!

 

[I luv herfrds]

Husband likes to take it away from first year heifers, but I pretty much just let them have it and check them to make sure they don't choke. What little bit they don't eat the barn cats get. Got a couple of cats that have actually fought the cows for it. Caught them last year eating one end and the cow the other.

 

[redcowsrule33]

I thought the choking thing was hokum until 2 years ago. Saw literally thousands of beef and dairy cows calve, never took it away, no one choked. However, my last cow to calve in 2007 (it always is the last one, isn't it?) started fussing around dusk. Walked down to check on her an hour later and she was just standing up after dropping the calf. Calf's head was up, mom loked good and was mothering, good night y'all, right? Started walking back to the house and the "angel on my shoulder" told me to go back one last time. On the way back I heard a godawful crash (she calved in our walnut grove) and started running. Here's the cow laying boots up strangling on the cleaning. Reached in and pulled it out, cow came to after a minute or so, got up, and started cleaning off the calf like nothing happened.

I still don't take the cleaning away. I don't have that kind of time to babysit that much. But it ain't hokum.

 

[CPL]

I've always been told that when they eat the placenta it helps their muscle contract back to normal size after the calf.

 

[novatech]

Cows been doing since the begining of cows. I wouldn't change a thing.
Now if my wife ate that thing with the first we wouldn't have had 4 more. The thought of kissing her after that... I don't beleive they invented a word to descrbe the feeling.

 

[hillsdown]

The most popular theory for why cows eat their placenta is predator avoidance, they use it as a defensive mechanism to ensure that there is no evidence of the birthing in order to protect against predators..

My girls get to keep theirs if they want, but if they are not eating shortly after it is expelled I grab it and throw it in the burning barrel..I do not want predators nor my pets around my new borns.

I have had a cow once choke on the membrane sac that the calf is covered in, she finally coughed it out just as I was jumping over the gate to help her,,it scared the crap out of me. I may fiddle more with my cows and watch them closer than some people but it makes me feel better. I really do not think that the cows suffer genetically at all from it because if we are not there to help them when they get into unforeseen circumstances they would be dead ....right ??

 

[4CTophand]

A cow makes so many different things and they are just infinitely useful, for example: The cow's placenta gives us cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The dura mater is used in human brain surgery as an implant, the lungs and the cow mucosa are used to make heparin - an anti-coagulant drug. Steroid drugs are made from the adrenal glands. The pancreas gives us insulin. The dividing septum in the nose of the cow gives us chondroitin sulphate, which is used to treat arthritis. The blood gives us adhesives for plywood, as well as chemicals in foam fire extinguishers, and fertilisers.
And the list goes on.

The bone and fat are used to make tallow, which is then used to make fatty acids, which then gives us brake fluid and lubricants for jet engines. The fat from the meat bone, hooves and horns gives us edible tallow which is used in chewing gum, and as shortening in baked goods. But the tallow also gives us inedible fats and oils which in turn are used to make synthetic motor oils, antibiotics, food packaging, acne medication, detergents, water proofing agents, and of course glycerine. Now glycerine is used to make a whole range of pharmaceuticals from cough drops to ear drops, as well as inks, anti-freeze mixtures, car paint polishes, and hair and scalp conditioners.

The collagen which comes from the cows' connective tissue and skin is used to make many biomedical products such as corneal shields, injectable collagen for incontinence treatments, meat casings for sausages as well as food additives and antibiotic wound dressings. And of course the collagen can be used to make gelatin which gives us many food uses such as powdered gelatin and instant jelly, as well as uses in cosmetics, photographic uses and health pharmaceutical products.

:tiphat:

 

[Workinonit Farm]

I'm not always with my cows at the time they calve. I've found the areas where they did calve and have found no placental remains. I've been there for some that did calve, at those times I have been known to 'haul' it away, other times I've let them have it and kept an eye on them.

Katherine

 

[SRBeef]

Cows been doing since the begining of cows. I wouldn't change a thing.
Now if my wife ate that thing with the first we wouldn't have had 4 more. The thought of kissing her after that... I don't beleive they invented a word to descrbe the feeling.

I was thinking the same thing.

We actually had the reverse - when #3 was born ( a BIG boy) the doctor had been up way too many hours and "forgot" to get everything out - caused a lot of pain and grief for a few days. My wife is a saint.

 

[rockridgecattle]

A cow makes so many different things and they are just infinitely useful, for example: The cow's placenta gives us cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The dura mater is used in human brain surgery as an implant, the lungs and the cow mucosa are used to make heparin - an anti-coagulant drug. Steroid drugs are made from the adrenal glands. The pancreas gives us insulin. The dividing septum in the nose of the cow gives us chondroitin sulphate, which is used to treat arthritis. The blood gives us adhesives for plywood, as well as chemicals in foam fire extinguishers, and fertilisers.
And the list goes on.

The bone and fat are used to make tallow, which is then used to make fatty acids, which then gives us brake fluid and lubricants for jet engines. The fat from the meat bone, hooves and horns gives us edible tallow which is used in chewing gum, and as shortening in baked goods. But the tallow also gives us inedible fats and oils which in turn are used to make synthetic motor oils, antibiotics, food packaging, acne medication, detergents, water proofing agents, and of course glycerine. Now glycerine is used to make a whole range of pharmaceuticals from cough drops to ear drops, as well as inks, anti-freeze mixtures, car paint polishes, and hair and scalp conditioners.

The collagen which comes from the cows' connective tissue and skin is used to make many biomedical products such as corneal shields, injectable collagen for incontinence treatments, meat casings for sausages as well as food additives and antibiotic wound dressings. And of course the collagen can be used to make gelatin which gives us many food uses such as powdered gelatin and instant jelly, as well as uses in cosmetics, photographic uses and health pharmaceutical products.

:tiphat:

HUH...and this has to do with the topic because....huh?

 

[Victoria]

If they want it they can have it, there is a chance of them choking but the benefits outweigh the risks... I think.

 

[Angus Cowman]

For those of you who are disturbed by cows eating it ... well this will probably freak you out more. Women eating it ...

http://www.babycenter.com/0_from-here-t ... 1333089.bc

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... html?cat=5

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/sh ... p?t=425303

http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/eatplcnt.html

http://www.geocities.com/virtualbirth/placenta.html

Not my cup of tea YUCK!

I think if my wife would have wanted to do this sshe wouldn't be my wife anymore she

That is sick

 

[TexasBred]

A cow makes so many different things and they are just infinitely useful, for example: The cow's placenta gives us cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The dura mater is used in human brain surgery as an implant, the lungs and the cow mucosa are used to make heparin - an anti-coagulant drug. Steroid drugs are made from the adrenal glands. The pancreas gives us insulin. The dividing septum in the nose of the cow gives us chondroitin sulphate, which is used to treat arthritis. The blood gives us adhesives for plywood, as well as chemicals in foam fire extinguishers, and fertilisers.
And the list goes on.

The bone and fat are used to make tallow, which is then used to make fatty acids, which then gives us brake fluid and lubricants for jet engines. The fat from the meat bone, hooves and horns gives us edible tallow which is used in chewing gum, and as shortening in baked goods. But the tallow also gives us inedible fats and oils which in turn are used to make synthetic motor oils, antibiotics, food packaging, acne medication, detergents, water proofing agents, and of course glycerine. Now glycerine is used to make a whole range of pharmaceuticals from cough drops to ear drops, as well as inks, anti-freeze mixtures, car paint polishes, and hair and scalp conditioners.

The collagen which comes from the cows' connective tissue and skin is used to make many biomedical products such as corneal shields, injectable collagen for incontinence treatments, meat casings for sausages as well as food additives and antibiotic wound dressings. And of course the collagen can be used to make gelatin which gives us many food uses such as powdered gelatin and instant jelly, as well as uses in cosmetics, photographic uses and health pharmaceutical products.

:tiphat:

HUH...and this has to do with the topic because....huh?

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/ ... sinscience

You can read the entire article that 4C cut and pasted from at this site.

 

[ROCKSPRINGS]

quote="TexasBred"]

A cow makes so many different things and they are just infinitely useful, for example: The cow's placenta gives us cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The dura mater is used in human brain surgery as an implant, the lungs and the cow mucosa are used to make heparin - an anti-coagulant drug. Steroid drugs are made from the adrenal glands. The pancreas gives us insulin. The dividing septum in the nose of the cow gives us chondroitin sulphate, which is used to treat arthritis. The blood gives us adhesives for plywood, as well as chemicals in foam fire extinguishers, and fertilisers.
And the list goes on.

The bone and fat are used to make tallow, which is then used to make fatty acids, which then gives us brake fluid and lubricants for jet engines. The fat from the meat bone, hooves and horns gives us edible tallow which is used in chewing gum, and as shortening in baked goods. But the tallow also gives us inedible fats and oils which in turn are used to make synthetic motor oils, antibiotics, food packaging, acne medication, detergents, water proofing agents, and of course glycerine. Now glycerine is used to make a whole range of pharmaceuticals from cough drops to ear drops, as well as inks, anti-freeze mixtures, car paint polishes, and hair and scalp conditioners.

The collagen which comes from the cows' connective tissue and skin is used to make many biomedical products such as corneal shields, injectable collagen for incontinence treatments, meat casings for sausages as well as food additives and antibiotic wound dressings. And of course the collagen can be used to make gelatin which gives us many food uses such as powdered gelatin and instant jelly, as well as uses in cosmetics, photographic uses and health pharmaceutical products.

:tiphat:

HUH...and this has to do with the topic because....huh?

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/ ... sinscience

You can read the entire article that 4C cut and pasted from at this site.[/quote]



:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: 4C needs :help: