This calving season SUCKS

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Fire Sweep Ranch

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I am usually not a Debbie Downer, but sure hard not to be with the way this last half of the year is going!

Had one of my best cows go into labor today, one week early (calf was sired by Broadway). It is really cold here, in the low 30's (it was 80 Thursday!). I went to check the group for my noon check, saw my favorite cow in labor. Sat and watched her for awhile, then decided to check presentation and then go to the house to get warmer clothes on. Calf was position perfectly, and even pulled a foot away when I grabbed it. I thought "great, small early live calf.... LOVE IT!". Ran up to the house to get my Inforce 3 and First Defence for the calf, grab a warmer jacket, head back out to the pasture. I find the cow standing over her DEAD calf! The calf must have been born with her standing, because her head was under her shoulder, twisted back. I immediately straightened her out, tried several rounds of pumping her chest and breathing in her nostril, to no avail. When I moved her, there was a small piece of placenta right where her head was. My guess is that she landed on her head, with the placenta covering her face, RIGHT when I was not there..... grrrrrr. 58 pounds, and I checked the cow for a second calf. No second calf.
That is my third calf I lost this fall, along with the really nice embryo weanling heifer and a good cow back in August......
So, 7 live calves, 3 dead. Not doing so good. It can stop at any time now..... :bang:

That was my 4th Broadway - the first was 48, second was 72, third was 30 (two weeks early) and the last one, 58 pounds (one week early). Not sure why people are having calving difficulties with him, we sure are not!
 
You are no Debbie Downer! You handle life better than about anyone I know.

I know about your bad luck. It is unbelievable! In the length of time I have known you, you rarely lose livestock.

Regarding Broadway, you had four as follows:

48
72
30
58
For an average of 52

I have had three, as follows:

72
93
84
For an average of 83 which happens to be the average weight for all my calves this year.

What that tells me is that the location has more to do with it than the bull. However, two of yours being early, skews the data plus far too few data points.
 
Sorry to hear that. How many more you have to calve? Hopefully the rest will go good.
As far as the weather : you know what they say about Missouri weather. If you don't like it wait five minutes it will change! Lol. I take that back it's not funny I'm outside working today! I'm frozen, and ready for a bowl of chilli when I get home...
 
I lost a calf like that several years ago. Stupid cow had it standing up and squirted into a fence and it was all tangled and dead by the time I found it.
 
That's awful! And eerily familiar. I ran back to the house a few years ago to grab a jacket & a flashlight, couldn't find the cow when I got back to the pasture and ended up with a dead calf. Coulda, woulda, shoulda? You are definitely due for some good luck!
 
farmboy80":wlv83h54 said:
Sorry to hear that. How many more you have to calve? Hopefully the rest will go good.
As far as the weather : you know what they say about Missouri weather. If you don't like it wait five minutes it will change! Lol. I take that back it's not funny I'm outside working today! I'm frozen, and ready for a bowl of chilli when I get home...

We have about 6 to 8 every month until March, then just a few more in April and one in May. We have never had a run like this, and I am still sick over it. So is the cow, she was looking for her baby tonight, mooing at the calves that are out there right now. And, it was a heifer! We have 5 bulls and only 2 heifers.
And this sudden cold and dry just downright stinks. The good thing, all the pigweed is dead now with the hard freeze last night, but the grass growing season is done!

And thanks all for letting me vent/cry. I try not to complain, we are so blessed. But I take my stock seriously... and I was really looking forward to this calf. I have yet to keep a Broadway, the live ones I have had have been on sides of cows we consigned to our state sale. This one was going to stay.... :cry2:
 
Hate to hear that,, but you don't think she got up to move,because you got a little too involved... Not being a smart a"" just curious.. I've done the same many times myself..and some not enough...
 
ALACOWMAN":mig6c5b1 said:
Hate to hear that,, but you don't think she got up to move,because you got a little too involved... Not being a smart a"" just curious.. I've done the same many times myself..and some not enough...

This is an old show heifer, you can walk right up to her in pasture and she will come for rubs. She was not disturbed by me in the least, I walked right up to her to check the position of the calf, she never moved. She was still laying in the same position when I walked out of the pasture, so I doubt I bothered her at all. If I have one that is nervous, I leave them be and watch from a distance. But I do not have any of those!
This is her third calf, 58 pounds is tiny for her. She likely stood to reposition, and the calf slipped out. I was unlucky enough to not be there to correct the position of the calf when it hit the ground.
I don't think you are a smart ***
 
Sorry about the season so far, maybe that is the end of the bad part. It's tough to lose any, but especially the little ones , for me anyway .
 
I had a heifer pop one out next to a wall. Didn't even know she had it till I got her up. Turned around to claim it and lick it once she knew but by then it was too late. Head was tucked under and dead. My dad said if you are around cattle enough you will experience all the bad things that can happen. It just stinks when they pile on top of each other. I hope this is the last of the bad news.
 
I feel for you and am sorry to read your story.
That's a situation I fear, to the extent that I watch nearly all my cows/heifers calve. I've sometimes waited for a while to see what will happen to a calf that lands on and lies on its own head and occasionally a vigorous licking will help it turn the rest of its body so the head is free but often it looks like that isn't going to happen and I've been glad I was there to fix it.

Most cows, from my observation, aren't deliberately doing anything life-enhancing to their calves when they're born, so they don't take the membranes off the noses of those that will suffocate, unless the calf is lucky and the cow starts in the right place and it rips free; they don't turn them over if their necks are bent, unless they're overwhelmed by hormones and getting a bit rough with the calf.
 
I sat in a truck one time watching a cow calve.
She was a big and veteran cow but not an old cow....
she kept getting up and lying back down but was making progress.
she stood up and the calf was half out and the calf popped right out.
she turned around to lick it and her uterus popped out....
I picked up the radio and called the boss to call the vet...
while I was talking to him the cow fell over dead....had popped the uterine artery.

if you stay at it long enough you will see that ma nature is a harsh old gal sometimes.

in the words of Josey Wales....."Buzzards gotta eat, same as the worms."
 
Putangitangi":27jhls4y said:
I feel for you and am sorry to read your story.
That's a situation I fear, to the extent that I watch nearly all my cows/heifers calve. I've sometimes waited for a while to see what will happen to a calf that lands on and lies on its own head and occasionally a vigorous licking will help it turn the rest of its body so the head is free but often it looks like that isn't going to happen and I've been glad I was there to fix it.

Most cows, from my observation, aren't deliberately doing anything life-enhancing to their calves when they're born, so they don't take the membranes off the noses of those that will suffocate, unless the calf is lucky and the cow starts in the right place and it rips free; they don't turn them over if their necks are bent, unless they're overwhelmed by hormones and getting a bit rough with the calf.
Yes, they always start by licking the butt!
Haven't seen you in a while, good to see you back!
 
Oh I've been around reading, just had nothing much to say.

Calving at present, 32 of 39 done, all well so far other than a couple of really tough pulls and one backwards. Fifth 2-y-o heifer calved easily yesterday to ...whateverhisnameis 878, just slid it out, but two of the earlier heifers needed help (not that bull). One to go. :)
 
Had my first one hung up last night. Looked like it had been dead for a while. By the time I got it out mom went down and gave up and didn't make it. Hurt my feelings pretty good. As small as my little operation is I get attached to these girls.
 

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