The biggest calf we've had from a heifer.

[AinisR28]

Yesterday one of our heifers had calf much bigger than we expected.
2,5 years old Holstein(88%) x Simmental(12%) heifer, calf was sired by Holstein(50%) x Simmental(50%) bull.

Exactly 50kg (110lbs) and a very difficult calving, including hip lock, but at least both seem fine now. Calf is surprisingly lively for such a big boy and after such a tough birth.

 

[MurraysMutts]

That's a large farm animal. Glad everything turned out OK!

 

[A.J.]

I'm glad you all were there to help, and momma and calf are doing ok. Id say the calf will grow fast. I see you are located in Latvia. I'd be interested to hear more about your operation. I like learning more about how things are done in other parts of the world.

 

[AinisR28]

I'm glad you all were there to help, and momma and calf are doing ok. Id say the calf will grow fast. I see you are located in Latvia. I'd be interested to hear more about your operation. I like learning more about how things are done in other parts of the world.

Hey, yes, I'm from Latvia.
We had a small dairy farm, but father is getting older and we decided that we must change something. Now we're raising beef cattle (25-30 cows), kept some of our dairy cows, mostly Holsteins and Latvian Brown cows, since it was impossible for us to replace all of the cows immediately. Most of cows are crosses of dairy and either Simmental, Charolais or Angus breeds.
We have 2 years old angus bull bought from Estonia as our main bull, but also had Holstein x Simmental bull on some cows and this heifer.
In pic calf we had few days ago also from the same bull.

 

[Ky hills]

I've seen some pretty big Holstein calves, when I was getting them from dairies.
Back when I had registered Charolais, I've had some 100-110 lbs calves from heifers. I remember even having a 100+ lb calves from a calving ease AI bull.
Had to pull one.
We frequently had 120 lb calves from cows and even two 135lb calves from cows.
Sometimes those big calves would be slow to get up and nursing, but then some would surprise me with how lively they were.
That's a nice looking cow and calf, I hope the pair does well.

 

[A.J.]

Hey, yes, I'm from Latvia.
We had a small dairy farm, but father is getting older and we decided that we must change something. Now we're raising beef cattle (25-30 cows), kept some of our dairy cows, mostly Holsteins and Latvian Brown cows, since it was impossible for us to replace all of the cows immediately. Most of cows are crosses of dairy and either Simmental, Charolais or Angus breeds.
We have 2 years old angus bull bought from Estonia as our main bull, but also had Holstein x Simmental bull on some cows and this heifer.
In pic calf we had few days ago also from the same bull.
View attachment 55610

Thank you for sharing. Many of the family dairies in my area have switched over to beef cattle like you all are doing. Member @lithuanian farmer on here always has interesting posts from your part of the world, and I hope you will continue posting as well.

 

[Dave]

Years ago I got 4 Holstein/Simm heifer bottle calves from a dairy. My theory was to breed them to an Angus bull and keep the heifers from that breeding. It was a failure. One had a huge calf which was so big it killed both of them. One I had to pull the calf. Everything looked fine. She was raising the calf and 3 weeks later she was dead in the pasture. I had to bottle raise her bull calf. Another didn't breed back after the first calf. I think the last one had 3 calves before she failed to breed. So much for my plan.