There's better ways than this to start calving

[regolith]

Told ya it was a bad day, now my computer won'tletme type p[ropeorly.
That was only the start of the trouble; onthis farm my biggest fearhas alwaysbeen a cow going downinthe vetracebecause there's no easy way tpo get a tractor in to get her out.
Easier than I expected, but still wasn't possible without damaging a few things. I never expected to get anywhere near the vetrace without smashing a wall or railing, but as it turned out it was getting back out again that was the problem. The vet helped, right through till we got 93 hauled out to grass where she stood up. She's been getting up and down a few times since the vet left, but not walking. The vet was concerned that we didn't treat all her grazes from when she was struggling to get up, but it was practically dark by then & I'll check them in the morning.

The vet's recommendation was not pulling calves in the vet race. After a few minutes thought she came up with a solution - to put the cow in the race to get a halter on, then back them out and use the yard gate swung back to hold them against the edge of the pen. The key is that if they did go down, by untying the gate they're effectively 'in the open', and if need be I can get a tractor up to them without risking every gate and railing in the vicinity.
Don't tell the cows, but their fences don't have any electricity till daylight when I can fix the wire back onto its pole.

 

[regolith]

making new fence for the calfshed run. Been wanting to do this since I got to this farm, now I can drive the tractor straight in through the ugliest tape gate ever seen. New gateway is twice the size of the old one and not butted right up against the shed.

 

[Nesikep]

It can always get worse!... When it rains it sure does pour!, hopefully things start to smooth out for you. What did that bull calf weigh?

I like that list picture of the calves

 

[regolith]

Another day, another hard calving
Cow and calf doing fine - this one was a milk fever I checked after treating and found calf all ready to fall out except the head was turned back with nose pointing down.

I weighed 93's calf this morning Nesi - 45 - 46 kg. She should have been able to have a calf that size, though she is getting on in years, eleven this year.
She can't stand on her own yet; I don't know how she was getting up and down last night. At least she eats out of a trough and drinks out of a bucket; Maya (185) was adamant on harvesting her own food and 93 is now eating the special food I got for her.
185 didn't respond well to the treatment for her pneumonia and died last week. It's amazing she carried on as well as she did all those weeks, the state her lungs were in. The calf I'd fostered on to her for the last few days didn't look too impressed this morning at being hauled out to a paddock to meet another cow... I think she thinks 93 is going to die on her too.
I'm not sure how long it'll be for 93 to get steady enough on her feet to join the milking herd, but I've got calves that can manage her milk if it's going to be a while.

 

[regolith]

oh well, but I get to look at these every day:

top is 132. The three heifers are half sisters, Andromeda, Gemma and the one without the cups on yet is 147. Gemma (148) did the top production out of the 2 yr olds on herd test and 147 was second.

Leonie, now four years old. She did well on the September herd test and her daughter Leora (27) did top production of the registered Jersey heifers.

 

[J&D Cattle]

Love the pics. Hope hard calving and milk fever ease up for you.

 

[Nesikep]

sure sounds busy for you there with all the trouble.. Is Leonie missing all the hair from her tailhead?..

I've been doing some milking these days as well, all hand milking. Mega is behaving very well for it, I'm just milking once a day and getting a gallon each time.. enough to flood my mother with milk, we're going to be having lots of custard and the likes. I imagine the calf was still getting 2 or more gallons a day from her (with 6 or so milkings).

 

[regolith]

short answer yes, definitely as she's on heat today, sorry CT dumped what I just wrote, will update at night.

 

[regolith]

I tailpainted the herd about four weeks ago - Leonie is wearing red tail paint and there is hair under it in the photo. She's wearing green now like Andro and Gemma in the photo above, and some of the cows do rub the hair clean off when they cycle.

93 stood on her own for a few short seconds after I wound the hip lifters off her at lunch-time. This evening she didn't repeat the feat, she bounced around so much she managed to jump the hip lifters off the tractor and that was her back on the ground. She appears to have a touch of mastitis in two quarters, and I brought another calf out to her this evening as the first one seems happy with what she's getting and isn't milking her out.
It's strange to have to use the hip lifters to stand and hold a cow up repeatedly like this, mostly I only use them to lift the cow, then wind them off and the cow walks away. It's been around nine years since I've seen this degree of calving paralysis. Very glad I got the hip lifters repaired yesterday as she'll need lifted about three times daily till she can get up on her own.

Just ten cows left to calve and it looks like it might be two or three days before the next one.

 

[regolith]

93 should stand tomorrow on her own I think. She was up for a good fifteen minutes after the hip lifters were taken off her this evening, and twice today I've seen her lift her hind end right off the ground and tumble over before the front could follow.
I'll be glad when she can harvest her own food.
The older calf has been suckling her while she's lying down. Younger doesn't have anywhere near that sort of brainpower; I still have to lead her to the teats once or twice a day.

 

[Nesikep]

Slow progress.. .the kind that tests patience I'm sure.. Must be glad to see the end of this in sight!

 

[regolith]

93 has got up on her own twice today... not yesterday, but she did stay up and walk around for a long time in the evening.

18 Sep

19 Sep

21 Sep

Was only expecting two Simmental sired calves and 110 had the other yesterday no problems, another bull (except now she's gone and lost it! hope it turns up again in the morning).

 

[Nesikep]

Just be careful with 93 when she gets up on her own, if the calf goes to nurse, that she doesn't fall on top of him... they all look cute, I've gotta wait 6 months until I get calves again.. New bull so I'm crossing fingers

 

[alisonb]

Rego - Do you ever experience LDA/RDA in your herd, something I've never heard you mention?

 

[regolith]

If you mean the displaced abomasum cp hinted one of my cows was in danger of a couple years back... then no, we don't.
Unless it's happening without detectable symptoms.
The milk fever, however, is even worse than the weather we've had this spring.
Another set of soil tests show extreme high potassium levels across most of the farm which may be predisposing. I mean to do more blood tests asap as we've started AI now & I'd like to reassure myself that the blood magnesium and calcium levels are still good.

 

[TexasBred]

If you mean the displaced abomasum cp hinted one of my cows was in danger of a couple years back... then no, we don't.
Unless it's happening without detectable symptoms.
The milk fever, however, is even worse than the weather we've had this spring.
Another set of soil tests show extreme high potassium levels across most of the farm which may be predisposing. I mean to do more blood tests asap as we've started AI now & I'd like to reassure myself that the blood magnesium and calcium levels are still good.

I think you may have just found your problem. Always pulled calcium down during the last two months of gestation so as not to build up a large level in the blood.

 

[regolith]

I got a phone call about the blood test results this morning.
Now if I'd just picked five milk cows (2 10 yr olds, a five year old, two yr and three yr old) the report was all levels are good.
*But* I also had a five year old cow calved the day before in the group. The vet was very concerned about the low calcium and phosphate level on her, and told me any cow that low in calcium would normally be a downer.
This cow is now five days calved and has not shown any symptoms of milk fever. I'll dose her with calcium this eve according to the vet's advice and they've got an 'expert' in the team who can look at the situation. I think it's safe to presume on the precalving and current blood test results that the mineral levels are generally good and most of the mature cows (not just the ones I see showing signs) are experiencing a significant dip in calcium at the point of calving.

Milk fever cases to date are only just slightly ahead of last year - I'd thought it would be way worse - with 17 cows treated for milk fever. I give calcium to a lot more cows than that, but record 'MF' against any cow that is staggery or goes down.

With two cows left to calve, these are the stats so far:
136 cows calved, 69 heifer calves 69 bulls.
Two sets of twins, both B + B.
Three calves stillborn - two of those were coming backwards, the third was 93's calf.
Thirteen assisted calvings. That's unusually bad.
One cow coded RFM - retained foetal membranes. She's the mother of the first set of twins. One or two cases is normal if mineral levels are good.
17 cows treated for milk fever.
48 of the 136 cows were first-time calvers.

AI'd 70 cows in twelve days... not going too badly.
And finally, some real sunlight and grass growth is taking off. Cows are just hitting peak production now at around 21 litres/cow or 1.9 kgMS - a little better than they were doing at the September herd test.

 

[branguscowgirl]

You are one busy lady!! Glad your cow is doing better. All that milk fever would have driven me insane. You work very hard!

 

[regolith]

With the stillbirths - that means I haven't found any newborn calves lying dead in the paddock this year. This might be the first year that's never happened.
Two of those were live healthy calves that died because they couldn't be born fast enough. The third was already dead when I checked the springers in the morning; I saw a heifer with one hind foot sticking out and brought her to the shed to pull the calf.
Additional to the stats - I've reared two heifers that were 'abnormal' at birth. 116 is pictured earlier in this thread. The other appeared to be brain damaged at birth, had contracted tendons and folded down ears but as she was also making steady improvement I gave her a chance. Both have been held back with the youngest calves and are still getting milk.
With hindsight it may have been better to not attempt to rear these compromised calves; I'm not sure that either of them will ever be normal.

 

[regolith]

You are one busy lady!! Glad your cow is doing better. All that milk fever would have driven me insane. You work very hard!

Well I'm no better than you brangus 8) Completely insane and just hanging on till I can get a couple milkings off.

Cow 93 happy with three healthy calves running around her - I have no plans to bring her into the milking herd until she's weaned those. Yes, I do have photos.