Pregnant beef heifer - milk leakage?

[lms0229]

So my heifer is due to calve on September 3rd if going off 283 days... I think she will calve sooner... But I am really confused because I thought that most beef breeds wouldn’t produce as much milk as a dairy breed... I especially would not have thought they would be dripping milk from their teats before calving (happens with dairy I know). Now she is a healthy girl with a BCS of 6+ to low 7. I practice fetal programming, so I wanted to make sure baby and momma had all the nutrients needed for healthy calving. She is a rarer breed called Romagnola (think Chianina, Piedmontese and Charolais - which I thought to be poorer milk producers). So all my rambling to ask this of you beef experts... What is your view on a heifer or cow that produces a lot of milk? Good or bad? Pros and cons? Any of you experienced with similar breeds that would leak milk a few days before calving? I’m not worried about Mastitis because it’s only been a few days off and on, but just want to know if I should be happy or looking at culling out of my breeding program.

Thanks!

 

[76 Bar]

Milk production is dependent on genetics and impacted by available nutrition/feed resources. Ideally, the goal is sufficient quantity to raise a healthy calf without compromising the dam's condition and compromising her future fertility. Leaking milk pre or post calving is very undesirable and especially in a 1st CH. The major cause is a poor or injured sphincter muscle in the offending teat(s). In spite of what you might believe, leakage is a primary cause of mastitis in beef cattle. Were she mine, she'd definitely be on the cull list.

 

[True Grit Farms]

She'll have blowed out ligaments in her udder by her third calf.

 

[Son of Butch]

Way too soon to even consider culling. Be happy for now that she has milk to feed her calf.
Some come with a heavy flush of milk and tail off with a short lactation, others don't have milk until after they calve.
Leaking milk is undesirable, but you'll know a lot more by her bcs 60 days after calving and a closer examination of her
teat ends and udder at that time.

 

[Nesikep]

I wouldn't cull yet.. depending on how she milks after her calf and the feed you have available, she may drop a lot of condition.. but since she's starting out at a BCS of 6 or over, it's sounds like that won't hurt her at all.

I've had a few cows that leak milk even before calving.. never had a mastitis problem in them and they raise really nice calves.. If there's a problem then deal with it and cull.
As for blown out ligaments, it's no more or less likely.. some have bad suspension and are prone to it.

Here, I think this was her first or 2nd calf.. she never had udder problems and the calf was never hungry.. there were times when all 4 faucets were going.. I hand milked her too.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/hhc4UacsIGo[/youtube]

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Look how she performs as a cow. Our herd was built from beefxdairy cows, so almost all were quite extreme in the milk. At first used to milk some just after calving, later stopped. If calves are smart enough cow will have a fully working udder for years. Even if they loose one or two quarters some can raise a nice calf without trouble. Had one extreme one, which raised her own and an orphan calf just with two quarters. Later raised a nice calf with just one quarter.

This girl had her 5th calf this year. The udder is fully working, no trouble nursing too. And she weans of of the best calf every year. Her daughter is due with her first calf after a month and I'm pretty sure she'll be heavier milker too.
Heavy milkers often have trouble keeping condition after their first and sometimes second calf, but later they just seem to do as well as others.
Good milk supply means a heavier calf at the weaning. If calves don't have trouble dealing with her udder, she might be one of the best performing cows in the herd.

Quite extreme in many aspects. Have to mention she raised a calf every year and can't remember ever helping the calf to nurse. Her udder was perfectly working until the last year, when she got mastitis in one quarter before calving. She was 14years old then.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Different world's, I'd be embarrassed to have a cow with a udder like that. She couldn't make it through the swamp without high centering over here.

 

[Nesikep]

I'm slowly working toward a herd of cows with udders like this.. I consider this as good as it gets.. this is at 10 years old, Momma had a great udder at 18 too, daughter is good too, raising 2 calves this year

 

[lms0229]

Nesikep - I like your insight! Thank you to all who answered. So here is an update: she had her calf in less than 48 hours after I noticed her swollen udder and some milk leakage. The swelling went down immediately after calving. Her udder is now very tight again and teat size greatly reduced. Also, I have NOT seen anymore milk leaking on it’s own. She has a good udder in my opinion, but I’m wondering if she laid wrong and opened one up or something? The photo with the heifer calf was taken only 6 hours after calving. And the other is 2 days before calving.

 

[lms0229]

 

[Son of Butch]

You're not going to have to worry about her giving too much milk.
Care to say more about the calf or future plans?

 

[lms0229]

Good to know! I will research it further. I might need to increase her calcium. Her fore udder attachment is good and her median suspensory ligament looks well defined so I don’t think she is going to have “blowed out ligaments in her udder.” I was mostly just concerned on milk leakage pre-calving.

Son of Butch - Is there something in particular you are curious about? I can tell you she was 68 pounds at birth and very lively. I breed full bloods of various breeds and then I have been developing my own breed to suit the performance I am wanting for the environmental conditions I will have them in. This little girl is a byproduct of one component in my breeding program. I have had a few individuals wanting bull calves as sires for their herds, but honestly it would be 3 to 4 years before I would release one to anybody. This started out purely as fun for me, because I love genetics and this was a way to see what I could create. Plus, I wanted to be able to produce food for my family and friends. I had no intentions of taking it to a new level until I started getting requests from ranchers, so I am still not sure of the ultimate goal. Everyone’s perception of quality is different, but I am happy with the results I have seen thus far.

Picture is her at less than 24 hours old.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Great news! There should be no problem with too much of milk as stated before, deciding from the photo. Also I think you don't need to worry about the ligaments too.
But I do believe that her teats of front quarters might get bigger with each calving. She has that shape, which I personally call "cannon". Have a second calf cow calved this summer, which had such shape udder with the first calf, but I haven't thought much about it then. This year it turned into quite an unpleasant looking. Calf managed to deal with it, but at first preferred the rear quarters.
Hopefully it won't be like that for you.

 

[lms0229]

I agree about her front 2 teats. They are bigger than I would personally like to have. I could see where overtime they would continue to become bigger and the future calves would want to nurse off the back 2 teats. The sire of the heifer born had a long line of daughters with beautiful udders and small teats so I am hoping this little girl will carry on his legacy... he was an old bull and died earlier this year (everyone has that one bull or cow they get close too) Additionally, I have 2 other heifers bred to him - I have one confirmed pregnant and the other unconfirmed pregnant with his calves... but that will be it of this bull’s reign.

Kind of a cool story on this little heifer... my best friend (we are like sisters) lost her grandma recently and after her service I came home to this little girl. My best friend has never been around farm animals and so for months she has been having me update her on soon to be mom’s progress... needless to say I plan on naming the calf in remembrance of her grandma. Sappy but a cool story.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Nice story. Hopefully she'll do well for you.

Our heifer looked like this last year:

I did saw that her teats are pretty long but thin.

And this year. The front ones got thicker. Not a problem with an elder calf, but I do strongly consider culling her in a couple years, especially if there will be at least one calf having trouble and she will loose a quarter or two.

She is from a great dam with a perfect udder. Teats were the size of a thumb in all parameters. Daughter doesn't look even half that good.

 

[lms0229]

Yeah eventually I will end up culling her from the herd. I will make sure to breed her only to sires with amazing udders and use larger sires on her the older she gets, so that the larger birthweight calves will hopefully have an easier time with her teats. The good news is they have gotten a little smaller in the last few days with the heifer calf nursing more and more, but something I am definitely keeping an eye on.

How old is your cow now? At what age do you plan to cull her? How are her female offspring looking udder wise?

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Yeah eventually I will end up culling her from the herd. I will make sure to breed her only to sires with amazing udders and use larger sires on her the older she gets, so that the larger birthweight calves will hopefully have an easier time with her teats. The good news is they have gotten a little smaller in the last few days with the heifer calf nursing more and more, but something I am definitely keeping an eye on.

How old is your cow now? At what age do you plan to cull her? How are her female offspring looking udder wise?

Yes, big teats might be a problem at first, later it just don't get to be full, so not a problem then. Yep, I like that those not pretty ones had bigger calves too. It's quite a funny view to watch a tiny calf trying to deal with a teat almost the size of his head... :roll:
Mine is still a young one too- had her second calf this July. No idea about her daughters and it'll take some time until I'll know. Her first calf was bull and the second is a heifer, so only 1+months old now. Plan about keeping her and if everything goes well will replace her dam with her. The cow will stay here for a couple years maybe. I wait until that moment when the calf will have trouble with her udder. It might happen next year or even never. Had several cows with much worse udders and they still did well,so who knows. Otherwise, she's the only daughter left from her dam, which was a great cow, so trying to cope with some her flaws for now.

 

[lms0229]

 

[lms0229]

Wanted to post an update of this little girl at a little under a month old in this picture. She is filling out nicely!

 

[lms0229]

She is starting to try and eat grass! So she has this weird look on her face in the picture but it shows her form well.