waihou
Well-known member
Well calving has finished and spring is meant to be here, but today is wet and 6C and it's snowing in the hills.
We finished the calving this week in our little herd, with 14 bulls and 14 heifers, all unassisted and most unseen. I like to keep an eye on the 2yr heifers as they sometimes need a bit of guidance to let the calf feed but this year all 7 new girls were excellent at calving and feeding within half an hour, nice short labours too.
Here are a few photos of our Murray Grey herd and the new arrivals.
Here is a general view of some of them.
We calve in one paddock with cows behind an electic tape
and then shift the cows as they calve. They only get grass and and baleage all winter and now the grass is growing, only that from now on.
The calves are all weighed at birth and the senior cows calves averaged 40kg calves, thats about 88lbs I think and the 2yr heifers avg @75lbs.
This cow is 7 and was shown successfully last year, she has another super bull calf this year. Here she is the day before she calved
and the result age 28 days
Some of the 2 yr olds and their calves
This is the new sire we used over the 2 yr olds-now just turned 2 himself-he is a son of Lerwick Park Zeppelin for those who know the Aussie sires!
We finished the calving this week in our little herd, with 14 bulls and 14 heifers, all unassisted and most unseen. I like to keep an eye on the 2yr heifers as they sometimes need a bit of guidance to let the calf feed but this year all 7 new girls were excellent at calving and feeding within half an hour, nice short labours too.
Here are a few photos of our Murray Grey herd and the new arrivals.
Here is a general view of some of them.
We calve in one paddock with cows behind an electic tape
and then shift the cows as they calve. They only get grass and and baleage all winter and now the grass is growing, only that from now on.
The calves are all weighed at birth and the senior cows calves averaged 40kg calves, thats about 88lbs I think and the 2yr heifers avg @75lbs.
This cow is 7 and was shown successfully last year, she has another super bull calf this year. Here she is the day before she calved
and the result age 28 days
Some of the 2 yr olds and their calves
This is the new sire we used over the 2 yr olds-now just turned 2 himself-he is a son of Lerwick Park Zeppelin for those who know the Aussie sires!