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There's better ways than this to start calving
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<blockquote data-quote="regolith" data-source="post: 1183570" data-attributes="member: 9267"><p>I got a phone call about the blood test results this morning.</p><p>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.</p><p>*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.</p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>With two cows left to calve, these are the stats so far:</p><p>136 cows calved, 69 heifer calves 69 bulls.</p><p>Two sets of twins, both B + B.</p><p>Three calves stillborn - two of those were coming backwards, the third was 93's calf.</p><p>Thirteen assisted calvings. That's unusually bad.</p><p>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.</p><p>17 cows treated for milk fever.</p><p>48 of the 136 cows were first-time calvers.</p><p></p><p>AI'd 70 cows in twelve days... not going too badly.</p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="regolith, post: 1183570, member: 9267"] 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. [/QUOTE]
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