The moon????

[TREY-L]

I had two calves born yesterday........after reading about the other births, I felt compelled to post. Do you think it was the moon phase or something?

 

[hrbelgians]

I had two calves born yesterday........after reading about the other births, I felt compelled to post. Do you think it was the moon phase or something?

My answer is yes. I may get criticized, however I feel that way.

 

[dun]

Since we're about a week past full moon I kind of doubt it. You might want to look back 283 days and see where it was when the calves were conceived

 

[hrbelgians]

Since we're about a week past full moon I kind of doubt it. You might want to look back 283 days and see where it was when the calves were conceived

Wow, that's an interesting thought!

 

[mobgrazer]

The moon… I weaned by the moon for the first time in years and there going at it. I was up half the night. I don't sleep good when they bellow all night. But I did clean out the oven and fridge real good for the wife.

 

[1982vett]

I'd say it is tied more to bad weather. Just two weeks ago I had three that calved in cold drizzly weather. If they would have calved 12 hours earlier they could have had nice sunny 80 degree weather. But No.

I don't keep detailed records on it but I think I find more calves being born on deteriorating weather than when weather is improving.

 

[Wisteria Farms]

I'd say it is tied more to bad weather. Just two weeks ago I had three that calved in cold drizzly weather. If they would have calved 12 hours earlier they could have had nice sunny 80 degree weather. But No.

I don't keep detailed records on it but I think I find more calves being born on deteriorating weather than when weather is improving.

Just a thought... and don't laugh at me... do you think they do that because predatory animals might be less active in real inclement weather? ie. gives momma a chance to clean up all the evidence...etc? I may be way-off-base but its just a thought.

 

[brandonm_13]

Most of what I've seen is barometric pressure changes that seem to affect these things. Of course the weather usually changes then to so you could interchage weather and barometric pressure. Just my thoughts.

 

[TexasBred]

I had two calves born yesterday........after reading about the other births, I felt compelled to post. Do you think it was the moon phase or something?

I doubt it...probably just reached "full term".
;-)

 

[bigag03]

Many times you will see a surge in the number of calves if cold weather hits as cows near calving. Cold weather triggers a release of oxytocin from the brain which is the hormone that controls uterine contractions.

 

[sizmic]

I try to calve my heifers in the moon, doesn't always work but very rarely do they go overdue.

Sizmic

 

[1982vett]

I'd say it is tied more to bad weather. Just two weeks ago I had three that calved in cold drizzly weather. If they would have calved 12 hours earlier they could have had nice sunny 80 degree weather. But No.

I don't keep detailed records on it but I think I find more calves being born on deteriorating weather than when weather is improving.

Just a thought... and don't laugh at me... do you think they do that because predatory animals might be less active in real inclement weather? ie. gives momma a chance to clean up all the evidence...etc? I may be way-off-base but its just a thought.

That's the reasoning that was past on to me. ;-)

 

[Alberta farmer]

Don't know about the moon but definitely barometric pressure. When the weather changes for the worse the cows will start calving a lot more!
Also anyone who has done a lot of AI will know that when a storm is coming...the cows will be bulling. You might go several days when the weather is nice when nothing is coming around and then the sky clouds up and lots of thunder and lightning and it seems like every cow is riding!

 

[mobgrazer]

I went back and looked at my records against the full moons. We had 568 births in 120 days. Yes I wanted them spread out a little. I broke it down to how many a day and then looked at what the full moons were. I did not see any rise in births around the full moons.

I did have 5 days that were a little higher then the rest. I looked back on the weather channel website and 3 of those days we had rain.