The Butcher Heifer

[randiliana]

NOT!! anymore at least. It appears that she is going to have a baby :frowns: rather soon, too.

She has a bit of a story to her.

Born on Apr 22/2007, she had a whopping 205 day weight of 288 lbs. She injured one front leg at about 10 days of age, and just as she got over that she stifled a hip. So more or less, she hasn't been completely sound a day in her life. If she weighed 500 lbs in May when we turned bulls out, that would be optomistic, and that would be the reason she is bred. We just didn't worry about her coming into heat, that, and the fact that she was only with the bulls for about 10 days. I mean, as of Sept 20 she weighed in at 689 lbs, certainly not the greatest gainer we ever had.

Well, she had been on full feed from about Dec 1/2008, when one day I took a good look at her and thought, "geez, I don't think that udder is just fat". Well we preg checked her and sure enough it isn't just fat, and we promptly reduced her feed ration to just hay. I just wish that all our 'real' replacements would be as fertile as she is retty:

Well here she is all 950 lbs(if that) of her. Cross your fingers that she has a nice little calf by herself.View attachment 1

 

[Angus Cowman]

it always the ones you don't want bred that gets bred

 

[bigbull338]

id just keep a good eye on her.you may have to pull the calf who knows.950lbs isnt that light.

 

[randiliana]

Oh, I am not too terribly worried about her calving. Like you say, 950 isn't that small. And, we watch our heifers pretty closely when we are calving.

 

[hillsdown]

Randi you are pretty strict with what bulls you use so my guess is the old adage applies "that a small cow will usually have a small calf".

She will probably due just fine..Just hope she isn't too fertile and has twins.. ;-)

 

[randiliana]

Randi you are pretty strict with what bulls you use so my guess is the old adage applies "that a small cow will usually have a small calf".

She will probably due just fine..Just hope she isn't too fertile and has twins.. ;-)

Oh, wouldn't that be just the thing :shock:

No, I am not too worried about the bulls we used. We used them 2 years on the cows before deciding that they were OK for our heifers. And, I have definitely seen that for the most part that old adage is true. A small cow usually has a small calf.

 

[BoJack Cattle]

Bred after only 10 days with the bull. I wish I had 100 that would do that.

 

[cowman30]

it always the ones you don't want bred that gets bred

Right and the ones you really want to stick come up open.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

She actually looks pretty good for a previous "runt". Is she still lame? Looks like a good replacement.

 

[randiliana]

She actually looks pretty good for a previous "runt". Is she still lame? Looks like a good replacement.

She does look pretty good, 15 lbs of barley will do that :lol2: . She is pretty much sound at a walk, but you can see the hitch in her stride when she trots. She isn't that great when you put her next to most of the other replacements, but she's a lot better than one would expect.