Stupidest calving concept

[MillIronQH]

What is the stupidist idea you ever heard anyone come up with regarding calving out first calf heifers? Old man in NM I worked for one spring said that if you fed them at night they'd calve during the day. He hired me to calve them out. (supposed to be all I had to do...Not) 250 heifers and the split was like 126-124.Z

 

[Tod Dague]

What is the stupidist idea you ever heard anyone come up with regarding calving out first calf heifers? Old man in NM I worked for one spring said that if you fed them at night they'd calve during the day. He hired me to calve them out. (supposed to be all I had to do...Not) 250 heifers and the split was like 126-124.Z

We've fed in the evening and it worked well for us.

 

[Jogeephus]

The stupidest thing I ever saw was a fella turning some six month bred heifers onto a big cornfield that had been blown down by a hurricane and leaving them there till they calved - I mean attempted to calve.

 

[Frankie]

What is the stupidist idea you ever heard anyone come up with regarding calving out first calf heifers? Old man in NM I worked for one spring said that if you fed them at night they'd calve during the day. He hired me to calve them out. (supposed to be all I had to do...Not) 250 heifers and the split was like 126-124.Z

Actually there is research showing it works. We feed in the evening and have few calves born at night.

From the link below:

"Can you change the time of day that cattle calve?
Merely changing the feeding time can change the time of calving. Feeding cows at night is the easiest and most practical method of reducing the number of night calvings."

and

"How much can feeding in the evening increase daytime calving?
A British study involving 162 cattle from 4 different farms compared the percentages of calves born from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. with cows being fed in the morning versus feeding in the evening. 57% of the calves born during the day were from cattle fed at 9:00 am versus 79% born during the day when cows were fed at 10:00 p.m. A study done in Iowa with 1331 cows from 15 farms showed that 85% of the calves were born between 6:00 am and 6:00 p.m. when fed once daily at dusk."

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department ... ll/faq8181

 

[Beefy]

assisting all calving heifers.

 

[rockridgecattle]

that feeding at night never worked for us. It was the exact opposite. Cows would fill themselves senseless and then pop them out one after another at 2 am.
I'm sure i've heard a few but too exhausted to think.

 

[Beefy]

feeding right before dark seems to work pretty well for us. most of my cows calve between noon and 3pm unless they are heifers. heifers tend to calve either around noon or early in the morning, like around 3 or 4.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Well not sure if this was an idea but a newby up here was going to right the calving dates on eartags at pregtest time. He figured he could just read the date on the tag and know what cow to put in the barn. I had a purebred breeder tell me he liked to 'challenge' his heifers with bigger bw calves. Heck I hate even seeing one being born lol.

 

[flaboy?]

Feeding, what's that? Don't cows eat grass. Gotta feed em from a sack to get em to calve? :shock:

 

[Frankie]

Feeding, what's that? Don't cows eat grass. Gotta feed em from a sack to get em to calve? :shock:

They eat grass when there's grass to be eaten. We calve mostly in Jan/Feb. Not much grass available then so we feed hay and cubes.

 

[dun]

Feeding, what's that? Don't cows eat grass. Gotta feed em from a sack to get em to calve? :shock:

They eat grass when there's grass to be eaten. We calve mostly in Jan/Feb. Not much grass available then so we feed hay and cubes.

When we're feeding before calving and only for heifers or those we suspect may have a problem, they get about 1/2 lb late in the evening of corn gluten or whatever grain we have left over from the previous years weaning. They only get it for 4-5 days before they're fue and this year all of the ones we fed that way calved between 7am and 9:15 pm. The ones we didn;t feed calved between 6 am and 5pm. Kind of an "Oh well, what's the point" kind of deal.

 

[cfpinz]

Man I know breeds all his heifers to a longhorn bull for small calves. (No offense to the longhorn breeders.) His cows are angus.

cfpinz

 

[MillIronQH]

Man I know breeds all his heifers to a longhorn bull for small calves. (No offense to the longhorn breeders.) His cows are angus.

cfpinz

I wonder how many months we'd have to go back to find my arguement to do just that???Z

 

[Northern Rancher]

Actually calving a cow anywhere but on the grass seems pretty dumb to me anymore lol. Note I'm a reformed winter calver from a way back-nice cuddling up to momma when the nails are popping and the wind is howling.

 

[cfpinz]

Man I know breeds all his heifers to a longhorn bull for small calves. (No offense to the longhorn breeders.) His cows are angus.

cfpinz

I wonder how many months we'd have to go back to find my arguement to do just that???Z

I must have missed it, but why would you want to take that knock when there are so many calving ease angus bulls out there?

cfpinz

 

[dun]

Man I know breeds all his heifers to a longhorn bull for small calves. (No offense to the longhorn breeders.) His cows are angus.

cfpinz

I wonder how many months we'd have to go back to find my arguement to do just that???Z

I must have missed it, but why would you want to take that knock when there are so many calving ease angus bulls out there?

cfpinz

Hot ziggies................... Fight - Fight

 

[Beefy]

Man I know breeds all his heifers to a longhorn bull for small calves. (No offense to the longhorn breeders.) His cows are angus.

cfpinz

I wonder how many months we'd have to go back to find my arguement to do just that???Z

:!:

 

[peg4x4]

Mabe not the right place--but--worked for a lady (rich enough to be excentric) She'd have the bulls brought in so she'd have calves born at the "right"time..Good idea,right?? However,she had these old,uglybulls that she wouldn't put up because they were too mean. :shock: .... Then she honestly couldn't understand why the calves came early,and looked like those old bulls.... :lol:
Always wished I could be excentric, :???: gotta settle for being slap crazy..

 

[Keren]

Stupidest thing I ever heard was bringing in every first calf heifer, putting them in the crush and pulling every calf. Regardless of whether they needed help or not. "Just to make sure".

Also, not a stupid calving concept, but a weird bull concept, a simmy breeder who insisted on having all the five month old bull calves brought in and rung through the nose.