premature calves

[talltimber]

I've noticed one or two others mention this lately, and I've had three now. Two heifers and a mature cow. First was a heifer along about mid July, the latest was another heifer last night. What is causing this? Is the heat/humidity a factor? What is going on? The two heifers were 30, and 48 days early. Cow was in the 21 day ballpark early. All have good water, shade, grass and mineral. Feeding the heifers a little commodity feed. All vaccinated and wormed twice a year. Heifers were the latest new additions in May, and not turned in with the cows.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Whats the breeding? Stacking major calving ease on top of itself?

 

[Lucky_P]

Live, viable calves, or dead preemies?

 

[cowgirl8]

Whats the breeding? Stacking major calving ease on top of itself?

Small birth weight is different than premature...

 

[talltimber]

I don't know for sure if the calf the older cow had was alive or not. It was dead when found. I had to go in early, wife found it, thought the head was swelled a little. That's all I know. 90-100* heat that day. By the time I got home, it was all swelled looked like to me. Maybe hard birth actually killed it. Cow standing over a dead calf that morning, cleaned off, three weeks early.

First heifer I told you all about already. Never felt movement of the calf. Got all but pelvis and back legs cut out the next morning, put heifer down. 48 days early.

Second heifer. Fine last night at 6-7:00 or so, but had noticed springing some and a very small bag change yesterday. Came back at midnight to check a different heifer, this one had afterbirth (or what I thought initially may have been waterbag) hanging. I searched the pasture near her at that time. My wife almost stepped on it when we went to the barn to prepare to move her there. About 30 lbs or so, maybe less idk, haired up, cleaned off. Heifer still had afterbirth hanging this morning but seemed normal except for smelling the spot where the calf was and bawling a time or two. 45 days early. (mentioned 30 days early before, but got my heifers due dates mixed up)

To be exact, as far as knowing, I only know or believe, that the first heifer's calf was dead, but no proof of that either.

Supa, idk know for sure without looking, but I want to say no, because I remember thinking that we may have a problem with a low ced/cem number. I'll have to look to be certain.

 

[Lucky_P]

Low BW/High CED may account for calves coming 10-14 days early due to short gestation - but they should be viable, vigorous calves - just small. Prolonged high ambient temps during the last trimester will also contribute to low birthweights. But...if you're getting calves 30-45 days early... I'm thinking you've got issues other than lowBW/highCED/short gestation.

In no particular order, I'd be thinking about:
Anaplasmosis
Leptospirosis, Neospora, IBR, BVD
High N03 levels in forage or water

 

[Supa Dexta]

Whats the breeding? Stacking major calving ease on top of itself?

Small birth weight is different than premature...

What profound insight. :roll: Low birth weight has been directly linked to lower gestation lengths. My question is for my own interest in the subject. So pay attention to my screen name, and then next time just assume I know more about cattle than you, that will make it easier on both of us.

 

[cowgirl8]

Whats the breeding? Stacking major calving ease on top of itself?

Small birth weight is different than premature...

What profound insight. :roll: Low birth weight has been directly linked to lower gestation lengths. My question is for my own interest in the subject. So pay attention to my screen name, and then next time just assume I know more about cattle than you, that will make it easier on both of us.

Good deal....Note to self, SD does not like being questioned, it makes him mad because for some reason we should know he does not need to be questioned...duly noted.... :roll:

 

[backhoeboogie]

Trich is the first concern that comes to mind. A neighbor's bull can jump a fence and wipe out a calf crop. People have lost hundreds of calves and been devastated by it.

Heat can cause it. Many other things. But my first and foremost concern would be ensuring its not an outbreak of Trich

 

[TCRanch]

A friend of mine had a lot of abortions last year & 2 preemies, most of the cows tested positive for Lepto.

 

[talltimber]

I talked with Dad about it, and he called the retired veterinarian that he and our neighbors used back when he was in practice. The jist of his opinion was, it is what it is. Fescue/heat/humidity/maybe a touch of anaplas thrown in for good measure. He said he tested the neighbors until they "run out of tests to run" on them and found nothing. This was a few years ago. His thoughts were, hold the bull a couple more weeks and back them up some.

Question to anyone who might know: Is there a certain stage of development of the calf that is more susceptible to being affected by the heat/humidity, etc.? If the calf was not as far along, are they more tolerant, or the cow, and able to come through this type weather better? The back them up thing is not making sense to me if they are not more vulnerable at certain stages vs. others.

Upside, got a live one tonite with a little tug. Heifer loving him like she's known him her whole life. Just enough bright spots to keep a guy from swallowing a gun barrel.

How effective is the current lepto vaccines? These heifers were supposed to be vacc'd and all mine were in the spring.

 

[Lucky_P]

Trich abortions will occur in the first trimester - you likely would not even see an abortus, and maybe not even any discharge... would just have cows coming back into heat that you'd thought were bred a couple of months earlier.

 

[talltimber]

I talked with another old vet this morning. He basically quoted the other one. He added that there has been a number of early calves this year, that he contributes to the weather. Some alive, some dead. He said at this point, he thinks it's heat related. Not that it couldn't be something else, but said if I lost more to let him know and we'd run some tests. He said, you run a good vacc program, minerals, and should be good for the most part, but there are times that the conditions can outweigh the vacc. Like standing around in lepto infested holes.

I had an early go this morning so my wife checked cattle. She's got three from the old cows on the ground this morning, all alive. Two up sucking and one still flopping around trying to get up, just now had it. So maybe we've got straightened back up some.

 

[cowgirl8]

The start of our calving season will produce 75% of the all problems in the whole time calving... Always seems way worse at first...Do as your vets say, its really all you can do at this point. Test if you continue to have problems. If you dont have a large herd, then any problem is going to seem really big...do averages at the end of the calving season, it tells you way more than counting each one...

 

[TexasBred]

Whats the breeding? Stacking major calving ease on top of itself?

Small birth weight is different than premature...

What profound insight. :roll: Low birth weight has been directly linked to lower gestation lengths. My question is for my own interest in the subject. So pay attention to my screen name, and then next time just assume I know more about cattle than you, that will make it easier on both of us.

That would be a dangerous "assumption".

 

[gizmom]

Our calving season was supposed to kick off on 9/29 we knew that we would have a few early but sure didn't want them as early as we have been so far. Today we had #8 two of these were DOA one the end of August and the other last week. We figured out the one was out of a heifer we purchased out of Nebraska she was actually due on 9/15 so the calf was about 3 1/2 weeks early but dead. The other we have not figured out who had the calf, found it dead. No cow hanging out over it, no bloody discharge or messy rear end and with so many milking up just couldn't figure out which one lost it. One born yesterday a bull calf is very weak yesterday he could stand on the back end just couldn't get the front end to hold him up. We tubed him and hoped for the best. This morning he is still alive and actually standing on the front end, got another pint of colostrum in him and again will hope for the best. Had another heifer calf today out of a Resource heifer and our 6149 bull. Our herdsman Mike that usually does all of our breeding was out last year due to illness during breeding season. We had to schedule our breeding through our SS rep and work with his schedule, which put us doing our AI work a little earlier than we would have liked to. So far all of our early calves have been out of first calf heifers with the exception of one having her 2nd calf and of course the unidentified mamma of the dead calf. Living in Florida we are use to heat and so are the cattle, this year has been a little different for this time of the year not only is it hot but it is really wet. The combination of heat and humidity is taking a toll on these young cattle trying to do so much. The oldest of the first calf heifers that have calved will turn two on October 1st, so we ask a lot of these young cattle. I sure want to back things up a bit for next year and at least not have a due date until the 2nd week of October. Doing that we will still get a few late September calves but I don't think it will be as rough as this year.

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_h.../downloads/beef0708/Beef0708_is_Mortality.pdf

I have attached a link to a study done on calf losses in various size herds. Just remember some years your the windshield and some years your the bug.

gizmom