Surprise!!!

[milkmaid]

MM, hope your right. Had three girls this past year which jumped two months (calved two months earlier than the previous year). Most of the rest were within 2 or three weeks from their previous years calving date. Already culled several that fell back.

Cypress, boss runs herd bulls year round in the dairy herd and we have several that run a 10 month calving interval. And those are holsteins that are milking pretty heavy -- I'm sure a beef cow that had very little stress on her (dry cow) would breed back at least that quickly -if not quicker- if given the chance.

 

[milkmaid]

Double R -- sounds like you could use a new vet! Or at least you ought to meet one who can accurately tell how far along a cow is.

My vet is really, really good. (He knows it too; email starts with "expertvet"... :lol2 I had him out a few months ago to check two cows. One was 39 days, other was 42 days according to my records. He called them just a day or two off, but he was very close. I don't always tell him what the cow should be (days bred) before he has a feel...just to make sure he's not falling asleep. LOL. He can check down to 32 days accurately and can check up to ~90 days and be nearly to the day. Over that and there's a general consensus that it's harder to accurately tell stage of gestation. However, I don't believe he's ever been more than 30 days off on anything over 90 days gestation.

 

[cypressfarms]

Hey Cypress nice looking calf. I was just wondering what crosses you used to get that beautiful colored paint calf. I have a few blacks but really want some of those colors.

Most of the girls I have are brangus, but I've been working on adding a beefmaster herd of girls to breed to my angus plus bulls. This cow was bought bred, and was supposed to calf in the "fall". She's registered, as well as the sire of the now dead calf. Not sure of the color of the sire.

 

[Alan]

the smallest calf i've seen live was about 35-40 lbs.

Sorry to hear about your calf cypress.

My first year dealing with calving I got a 28LB heifer that was normal except she was about the size of a dog. I gave her to some freinds after we weaned her. They fed her for 2 years and now she is in the freezer. She weighed in at about 800lbs on the hoof when she met the .22

Alan

 

[Double R Ranch]

Double R -- sounds like you could use a new vet! Or at least you ought to meet one who can accurately tell how far along a cow is.

My vet is really, really good. (He knows it too; email starts with "expertvet"... :lol2 I had him out a few months ago to check two cows. One was 39 days, other was 42 days according to my records. He called them just a day or two off, but he was very close. I don't always tell him what the cow should be (days bred) before he has a feel...just to make sure he's not falling asleep. LOL. He can check down to 32 days accurately and can check up to ~90 days and be nearly to the day. Over that and there's a general consensus that it's harder to accurately tell stage of gestation. However, I don't believe he's ever been more than 30 days off on anything over 90 days gestation.

MM,
Yeah you are telling me. Unfortunitly the other local enough vet is UC Davis. And it is quite a drive. Our vet claims that you can not tell anything under 3 months bred. Apparently that isn't the case. I can not wait til I can figure this preggn out myself. I am trying. At this point it seems like I do just as good of job as he does. ;-) And I am just learning myself.
Anyways,
Hope all is well with you and yours.
Double R

 

[Bama]

The vet around here is better at 90 days out. He said he can't really tell less than that. I thought that was the norn until talking to some folks on here. I didn't think they could tell as early as 35 days. I was surprised to learn differant.

 

[dun]

The single most common complaint I hear about vets, other then not being able to get them to come out, is preg checking errors. There are so many variables in the size and position of the fetus that it's pretty difficult sometimes. I know of several vets that are very good at it and they still sometimes will miss by a trimester or call a bred one open or vise-versa.

dun

 

[cypressfarms]

The single most common complaint I hear about vets, other then not being able to get them to come out, is preg checking errors. There are so many variables in the size and position of the fetus that it's pretty difficult sometimes. I know of several vets that are very good at it and they still sometimes will miss by a trimester or call a bred one open or vise-versa.

dun

Great point Dun.

At what point do you feel that a seedstock sale should take some repsponsibility for "weird" things like this? This was not a run of the mill cattle auction. It was a first class Beefmaster auction in Mississippi.

 

[cypressfarms]

Update:

I had sent a letter overnight certified to the owner of the farm about a week ago. Well the owner is a doctor, and only comes by once every week or two. The ranch manager couldn't stand it any more and called me. (No one but the doctor could sign for the letter at the post office) After I explained the whole story, he said that without question, they would 100% stand behind their customer (me). Looks like they will give me choice for a refund, pick of another cow, etc. This cow was consigned by another farm, and he told me that they had not issued payment to this farm yet, and if the consigner farm would not honor a guarantee, than he would personnaly "make it right". Sounds good so far.

 

[Herefordcross]

THis must be turning into a nationwide thing. A couple of years ago we bought 15 bred heifers all due to calve in March/ April, AI ed heifers, black angus. This guys vet gave me a copy of his paper work, tag #, weight, shot history, also stated how far along bred, they evidentally use lutalyse and then breed them in bunches or something. But, anyway first calf hit the ground in December, rest were done calving by Feb. the 15th. It was cold here, very cold for our part of the country. We ended up emptying the shop strawing the floor hung torpedo heaters from the ceiling and put about six heifers in the shop to calve. It was right around zero here and we had just come out of fifty degree weather so you know what kind of shock it was on those heifers. Since then I will not buy bred cattle, when we buy "open" heifers we give them lutalyse, after pregnancy checking to make sure there aren't any six month old calves in the girls or something like that that would really screw 'em up if we aborted them. And then we breed 'em when we want to. Last night I bought two "open" Limis for my uncle at a sale, vet swung by today, guess what one is about six months along! And the sale barn vet "checked them both" wait until I get on the phone monday and start chewing their a$$es!

 

[milkmaid]

MM,
Yeah you are telling me. Unfortunitly the other local enough vet is UC Davis. And it is quite a drive. Our vet claims that you can not tell anything under 3 months bred. Apparently that isn't the case. I can not wait til I can figure this preggn out myself. I am trying. At this point it seems like I do just as good of job as he does. ;-) And I am just learning myself.
Anyways,
Hope all is well with you and yours.
Double R

Oh, you can tell cows that are under 3 months bred. Shucks, the only time for fetal sexing is 60-90 days of gestation via ultrasound. Calf is too big after that.

Maybe your vet can't tell ;-) but there are folks out there who can. My vet can tell on the ultrasound at 24 days, and I watched him checking a 28 day-bred heifer once and saying he was pretty sure he could feel that fetus, and if she turned up open he'd be really surprised. He won't confirm anything under 32 days though!

I'm working on learning too. I have a few out here I ought to sleeve up and have a feel, just for practice. I have 'em heavy bred, short bred, open, cycling and not cycling...I can teach myself. Vet's given me a few lessons and what I really need is just experience.

All's going well with me and mine, hope things are good there too Double R. ;-)