There's better ways than this to start calving

[regolith]

Five year old cow, due on the eighth of the month, she was chasing my dog round the paddock this morning so I guess from now on I'll pick up the dog on the way to the late calvers *after* I've seen to the springer cows.

Was going out this eve so I checked her just after four pm. Down. Went to the shed for calcium and a glove, treated her for milk fever, checked for the calf. Head and feet were right there in the birth canal, smallish calf seemed like it should slide straight out. Cussing myself for not having thrown the calving rope on the bike when I fetched the calcium, also it's nasty cold and I was planning on going straight into the vet for cow coats once I'd seen to her.

Ended up taking my cardigan off to wrap round the calf's legs for a bit better grip. It's a fine big heifer, Jersey-sired, Mum was keen to see her so I pulled her round to her nose, phoned the vets to ask them to put aside two medium cow coats since it's fifteen minutes to closing time and it'll take at least eight minutes to drive there.

I had a bunch of older cows blood tested two weeks ago. Calcium and magnesium levels were all well within optimal range, supplementation of magnesium same as last year, 1.2 - 1.5 times the recommended rates, weather wasn't the best, today's grass break was so big they couldn't eat it all, so there was no excuse for her being hungry today - I'd seen her at lunch time she was up and eating then.
If a healthy five year old cow will go down with milk fever under those conditions I can expect every older cow to get it... wouldn't be the first year that's happened either. According to my records fifteen out of 130 cows went down last calving.

The vet receptionists got a bit alarmed when I started shedding my boots and overalls at their door, and decided to run and give me the cow coats before I stripped any further.
Only problem is, I got back to the paddock with one and put it on her and found it only had one strap. Fastened that strap and hoped for the best. Took the calf back to the shed in case she laid on it while trying to get up, put some frozen colostrum in warm water to defrost and went out.

The calf has had a bottle of colostrum, the cow is up and walking around but she wasn't wearing her coat. I guess I'll need to stitch something onto the tail end of the coat to stop it coming off like that.

 

[alisonb]

Sure hope for your sake you are wrong...good luck!

 

[bigbull338]

if your thinking youll have that meny milk fevers.id get ready and have everything there that you need to treat them with.

 

[Nesikep]

Wow, sounds like an ordeal!.. but well, 8 minutes to the vet is pretty good for you! Hope you don't have that many with milk fever too

 

[regolith]

The cow looks pretty steady on her feet this morning, so all good.
Looks like number five is planning to be next to calve. That one's only four years old, no milk fever worry there.

 

[Putangitangi]

It has been cold this week! We've had more rain than usual as well. You too, Regolith?

 

[regolith]

It has been cold this week! We've had more rain than usual as well. You too, Regolith?

'Lakes in paddocks' type of wet and the wind turned cold two or three days ago. I've been giving the cows extra area to minimise soil pugging.
The rain gauge has only caught about 35 ml this week, and for the water lying around it seems like we ought to have had more than that.

 

[Putangitangi]

We've had 82mm this week. Enough! For us it's been cold on the highs - 12 degree days (Celcius) but the nights have stayed above six, so the grass (even the Kikuyu) has kept growing. The cows are fat and healthy, but they'll be horribly muddy before long. Pugging will be an issue again this year, even with light stocking rates. August is always the worst. I don't calve until October.

 

[brightspark]

I use to give a vitamin D shot , when you thought she would calve in a day or two , it is suppose to help activate the calcium in the bones it helped for me I dairied in Victoria Australia , or buy a box of cal bags as insurance ,good luck ,have fun

 

[branguscowgirl]

Wow when do you have summer there?
Sure wish you the best with the Milk Fever. I hope the rest of your girls stay well.

 

[Putangitangi]

Wow when do you have summer there?...

While you're having winter. Hottest months are Jan/Feb.

 

[regolith]

I use to give a vitamin D shot , when you thought she would calve in a day or two , it is suppose to help activate the calcium in the bones it helped for me I dairied in Victoria Australia , or buy a box of cal bags as insurance ,good luck ,have fun

I've got enough injectable/oral calcium on hand to treat about the next four cows to go down, so no worries there I get used to picking them up again after all these years dealing with milk fever.
Didn't know that about the Vit D. I'll start dosing with the calcium the day I think they're going to calve for cows that are high risk, but still don't prevent them all.

A few dry days forecast for next week, should make a difference.

 

[regolith]

Dry cows

One that isn't dry

New calvers going home to be milked. The cow on the left is the lowest index cow in the herd while the black one is almost the highest, 183 in the middle is the cow from the previous photo.

New calvers today.

Shot the culprit, but not fast enough for the photo competition:

Found two so far there must be more, I've lost about twelve seedlings to date with evident signs of slug grazing. This is in my office; frost tender plants being wintered inside. I still haven't figured out how the slugs got there.

This one likes hunting insects. I don't think she's met any live mice yet.

 

[TexasBred]

Rego I know you're dairy is a grazing operation but you must have some problems with the nutrition for those cattle to have that many cases of milk fever. That's just not normal. Might want to sample the grazing and have it tested for calcium, potassium and magnesium levels and especially make sure they do not get an abundance of these minerals during the dry period.

 

[regolith]

Rego I know you're dairy is a grazing operation but you must have some problems with the nutrition for those cattle to have that many cases of milk fever. That's just not normal. Might want to sample the grazing and have it tested for calcium, potassium and magnesium levels and especially make sure they do not get an abundance of these minerals during the dry period.

Last time I pasture sampled this farm, this time of year, the sample was considered too dangerous to be grazed with high levels of both potash and nitrates.
However the high level of milk fever has accompanied this herd all across the country with markedly different soil types and nutrient levels on the other farms. We've been working on the fertiliser input and grazing rotations on this one to get the soil tests in better balance.

 

[regolith]

One beautiful dry day yesterday and today it's back to cold and soggy

Twenty cows calved, intervention rates are higher than they've ever been, but minor hassles nothing critical. More than half the calves have had their first feed from a bottle because they're not figuring out what an udder is for within a few hours.
Four assisted calvings, all of them easy pulls with the calf presented correctly, no apparent reason for the calf not being born except the first and fourth were cows showing signs of milk fever. The second was a normal-sized twin out of a heifer, didn't check for a second and she had it on her own later but only the first one was born alive.
The live twin is quite enough of a handful!

Seeing vet vehicles driving past several times a day and it should only be the coastal farms that have even started calving yet... on Sunday too. I figured they must be coming past this way especially to admire my cows and calves in the roadside paddock.

I guess you learn something new every year. For all I've said the science 'proving' dairy calves hardly ever get enough colostrum on their own has got to be nonsense, this year my calves are doing the utmost to prove it. One of them messed around for half the day without getting a feed, I gave her a bottle she emptied it then went straight to her mum and started sucking like she'd been doing it for months :shock:

Grazing the cows round the sheds at night and one of the new mothers was kicking up a fuss for hours, she went quiet then I walked through them after midnight and she realised again that her calf was missing, and kept it up till daybreak.
I found her calf this morning piled up with another two in the corner of the hayshed, out of the wind and rain.

 

[bigbull338]

how meny cows do you have left to calve before your done.

 

[regolith]

115 - 120, including about 49 first time calvers. The heifers' official start date was yesterday.
Getting organised to draft out a milking group and start supplying milk today, I've got fourteen that are calved long enough for their milk to be sold.
If I'm to get any more photos of a big group of cows and calves it'll have to be today, the calves will get pulled twelve hours before I catch milk for the factory which could be tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Nesikep]

It sounds like a zoo over there, and I'm sure there's not enough hours in the day (or night) for you.. good luck with all the heifers and the rest of them

 

[regolith]

335's calf, now two weeks old on 17 July

Cows and calves the same day, a few minutes of sunshine

finding shelter from the rain

Dry cows later the same day

The small calf shed this morning, the white calf is Ayrshire sired.

The milking herd, 23 in number and rising, 32 cows calved to date.

Nearly all the calves are inside right now, just one newborn and two strong heifers 2 - 3 days old out with their mothers. Another 10 ml of rain this afternoon, not much on its own but it's falling on already sodden ground.