2/B or not 2/B
Well-known member
We keep our bull with the cows until calving starts and our up and coming heifers stay separated with our butcher steer. When calves start dropping, we put the bull with the steer and move the heifers in with the cows. This system has worked fine in the past.
This year, the heifers have been really obnoxious when coming into heat and they direct all their attention to one cow, an airheaded shorthorn that lets herself get dominated by anyone. She's been pregnant about to pop and if one of those heifers is in heat, they'll be all over her 24/7 mounting her and vice versa. Really annoying because she was as big as a house and we didn't want her getting hurt, but she seems to be the one tolerating it and does nothing to stop them. This isn't an issue with the other cows, so I assume it's because she's an idiot.
Fast forward to her finally going into labor, with a hoof sticking out of her, and a little witch of a heifer mounting her and running her all over the pasture while she's having contractions. We tried driving the heifer off and she'd just come barreling back to the cow, stuck like glue. We didn't want to interfere while she was in labor, but I couldn't see leaving them together and having that heifer mounting her the whole time she was trying to deliver the calf. In the freezing cold darkness we spent two hours following them back and forth all over 30 acres until we finally got the cow into the corral and separated from the heifer. They didn't want to be apart and they didn't want to cooperate. After we got them where we wanted them, the heifer stood right up against the fence like a psycho trying to get back to her "girlfriend."
By this time, the hoof had gone back inside the cow, and she'd been walking or running with that heifer for hours. We left her alone for a while to relax and the calf's hooves came out again but she seemed to be struggling, groaning a lot and pushing without making anymore progress. We had to pull her calf last year and we figured she was pretty tired this year, so we pulled the calf to be safe, without any difficulty.
The idiot cow sat there staring into space instead of licking him off, while he laid their sopping wet in the cold with steam rising off him trying to figure out how to breath. We pushed him right up into her face and left them for a while and when she still did nothing, we dried him with towels. She delivered her afterbirth and ignored it, instead of eating it, so vultures came and we had to bury it. In the middle of the night, the heifer jumped the fence into the corral to be with her again.
We didn't see the calf nurse right away, so we milked her colostrum and tubed him to be safe. We kept them in the corral to make sure they'd be ok. She claims him, he's alert and active, and they're getting along fine so we banded him and turned them out. She makes all the other cows look like geniuses, which is sad. This will be her last here since she can't just do her job and handle her business like the others...
As far as the heifers...does anyone have any opinions about them? I figure they're just hormonal and took advantage of a weak link. You don't see them trying to mount any of the other cows, because they'll get put right back in their place. I didn't think there was anything wrong with putting them together to start with and I prefer to still think it would be okay in the future, once the box of rocks is out of the picture.
This year, the heifers have been really obnoxious when coming into heat and they direct all their attention to one cow, an airheaded shorthorn that lets herself get dominated by anyone. She's been pregnant about to pop and if one of those heifers is in heat, they'll be all over her 24/7 mounting her and vice versa. Really annoying because she was as big as a house and we didn't want her getting hurt, but she seems to be the one tolerating it and does nothing to stop them. This isn't an issue with the other cows, so I assume it's because she's an idiot.
Fast forward to her finally going into labor, with a hoof sticking out of her, and a little witch of a heifer mounting her and running her all over the pasture while she's having contractions. We tried driving the heifer off and she'd just come barreling back to the cow, stuck like glue. We didn't want to interfere while she was in labor, but I couldn't see leaving them together and having that heifer mounting her the whole time she was trying to deliver the calf. In the freezing cold darkness we spent two hours following them back and forth all over 30 acres until we finally got the cow into the corral and separated from the heifer. They didn't want to be apart and they didn't want to cooperate. After we got them where we wanted them, the heifer stood right up against the fence like a psycho trying to get back to her "girlfriend."
By this time, the hoof had gone back inside the cow, and she'd been walking or running with that heifer for hours. We left her alone for a while to relax and the calf's hooves came out again but she seemed to be struggling, groaning a lot and pushing without making anymore progress. We had to pull her calf last year and we figured she was pretty tired this year, so we pulled the calf to be safe, without any difficulty.
The idiot cow sat there staring into space instead of licking him off, while he laid their sopping wet in the cold with steam rising off him trying to figure out how to breath. We pushed him right up into her face and left them for a while and when she still did nothing, we dried him with towels. She delivered her afterbirth and ignored it, instead of eating it, so vultures came and we had to bury it. In the middle of the night, the heifer jumped the fence into the corral to be with her again.
We didn't see the calf nurse right away, so we milked her colostrum and tubed him to be safe. We kept them in the corral to make sure they'd be ok. She claims him, he's alert and active, and they're getting along fine so we banded him and turned them out. She makes all the other cows look like geniuses, which is sad. This will be her last here since she can't just do her job and handle her business like the others...
As far as the heifers...does anyone have any opinions about them? I figure they're just hormonal and took advantage of a weak link. You don't see them trying to mount any of the other cows, because they'll get put right back in their place. I didn't think there was anything wrong with putting them together to start with and I prefer to still think it would be okay in the future, once the box of rocks is out of the picture.
