Twins and buzzards....I hate both

[cypressfarms]

This morning went out and checked the herd. Couldn't last night, got home too late with the kid's activities. When I went out I immediately knew something was wrong. Buzzards circling. Always a very bad sign. One of my best Brangus cows, she's 7, had apparently had twins overnight. My guess is that they were both born dead, the one calf with most of it's body remaining was only 30 pounds or so. The buzzards had worked on the first calf so much, that it was only a line of bones from the skull to the rear hip bone. I've never liked twins, and I hate buzzards more. Moma decided to protect one of the twins body, so it was fairly intact.

Now I just did an evening check and I have a heifer very close. I'll probably go out at least 3 or 4 times tonight checking on her - just because I'm paranoid about the buzzards. If the heifer has any problems at all, they'll go in for the kill. The buzzards have seem to be more aggressive lately. I think I may have to sight in my .22 rifle scope tomorrow on one...

 

[shadyhollownj]

Gotta love when they line up on the fence posts. Just like shootin bottles except more fun. Sorry about the twins they never work out.

 

[jilleroo]

Don't you have a little something you could sprinkle on the twin's remains???

 

[Oldtimer]

That surprises me-- because I never knew buzzards hunted at night...

We see few buzzards in this area (and probably different from the southern ones)-- but lots of eagles- golden and balds...And I know they only hunt in daylight...
This morning while I was waiting for the feedtruck to warm up to go out and start rolling out bales- I counted 4 eagles soaring over or sitting in trees watching my feedground... I'm sure they were looking for a tasty pheasant or grouse to show itself....

 

[Kingfisher]

This morning went out and checked the herd. Couldn't last night, got home too late with the kid's activities. When I went out I immediately knew something was wrong. Buzzards circling. Always a very bad sign. One of my best Brangus cows, she's 7, had apparently had twins overnight. My guess is that they were both born dead, the one calf with most of it's body remaining was only 30 pounds or so. The buzzards had worked on the first calf so much, that it was only a line of bones from the skull to the rear hip bone. I've never liked twins, and I hate buzzards more. Moma decided to protect one of the twins body, so it was fairly intact.

Now I just did an evening check and I have a heifer very close. I'll probably go out at least 3 or 4 times tonight checking on her - just because I'm paranoid about the buzzards. If the heifer has any problems at all, they'll go in for the kill. The buzzards have seem to be more aggressive lately. I think I may have to sight in my .22 rifle scope tomorrow on one...

Are you sure it is the birds getting them calves??

 

[chippie]

Don't you have a little something you could sprinkle on the twin's remains???

Don't poison them. You could end up killing other animals that don't deserve it.

 

[curtis]

Were they Mexican buzzards ?

 

[tripleBfarms]

I think I may have to sight in my .22 rifle scope tomorrow on one...

I shoot every one I see....hate em. Just make sure nobodys watching.

 

[mjnetex]

Buzzards/vultures roost at night, they can't see to hunt. Turkey vultures won't harm a newborn calf/down cow, etc., the black/Mexican
vultures do that. Also, before I got jennies, I had to run off black vultures a couple of times from a cow and newborn calf, I noticed
that once you scare them off, they don't return. Also driving down road and saw cow/calf up against fence surrounded by black vultures,
walked out and scared them off, drove by several hours later and they hadn't returned. Anybody else have this experience, once you scare the
black vultures away, they don't come back? Also, turkey vultures hunt by smell, the blacks use sight, they watch the turkeys and take
over what the turkeys have found. I LIKE turkey vultures!

 

[alisonb]

http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=7322

 

[TexasBred]

Don't you have a little something you could sprinkle on the twin's remains???

Don't poison them. You could end up killing other animals that don't deserve it.

I don't think you can poison a buzzard. Had a dead dog in the pasture behind the house that had been poisoned and they would walk around it and sit on it but never took one bite of it.

 

[cypressfarms]

Are you sure it is the birds getting them calves??

I don't really know the difference between Mexican buzzards, but they looked like our normal type: black and some white on the tips of their wings.

I'm almost positive it was vultures. The one calf that was mostly whole had it's eyes poked out. Only vultures do that. The vultures were also tearing down the first calf to bone when I arrived. They hadn't gotten to the 2nd calf because moma (and others) was defending it. I'm still guessing that they calves were born dead, but you never know. I've had small twins and both survive before, but I was there when they were born.

I am not saying that the vultures attacked at night. By the time I got out to the pasture it was at least 10:00 a.m. That gave the vultures plenty of time to carry out their work. They could have even done it the evening before.

Protected or not, there may be fewer around here in the future. That's all I'll say.

Today made it better though, Had another fine heifer calf born, so it kind of took the sting out of the twin ordeal.

 

[Lucky_P]

I'm pretty confident that either vulture species will take advantage of a down cow or newborn calf - whether it's alive or dead - so long as it can't or won't escape or put up a pretty significant fight.
They're 'protected' species, so if I were having a problem with them, I'd be employing the old SSS treatment.

Would not recommend poisoning carcasses; as others have indicated, non-target species may be impacted, as this fellow found out:
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/ca ... on.html#cr

 

[cypressfarms]

I'd like to ammend my title from "twins and buzzards... I hate both" to "twins, buzzards and heifers that abandon their calves...I hate all three".

Just had a really nice heifer that I've been waiting on calve.Nice black brockle face that was a cross between my brangus bull at my dad's place and a true black baldy. She calved in the evening Christmas eve. I saw the calf stand and walk next to her; big bull calf. (Big for me is 90 pounds) The heifer(moma) had cleaned the baby off and eaten the afterbirth. At this point I was thinking that this would be a good moma. I left them to spend some quality time. Next morning I showed up and no moma. Moma apparently left the calf to go to the hay shortly after I left and the calf never sucked. The calf was barely breathing, was cold; I knew it wasn't going to make it. My 6 year old boy was with me, so for the sake of things I brought the calf to the front and tried to tube it with milk. Poor guy never had a chance. For three days now the brockle heifer goes back to where she had the calf and looks for it. She has a nice udder, she's really tame - but if she can't raise a calf she's gone. Been debating whether to give her a second chance, but with the prices high like they are, it's hard to take a chance that she would do better next year with calf 2.

What started as a great calving season has quickly changed in just one week. Fortunately one of the older momas pulled things up for me by bringing a really nice heifer up just a couple of days ago. Give me an old cow any day. For the life of me I can't see why people pay so much money for bred heifers when they have no idea what kind of moma it's going to be. I'd take a 5 year old cow any day over a bred heifer. I understand genetic improvement and all the arguments for heifers, but it's hard to argue with a live calf versus a dead one. Thankfully I have no more heifers to calve this season; only proven momas. That's worth a lot of piece of mind.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I HATE TWINS too!

 

[keysbottles]

Had our first set of twins a month ago. They are doing great, the mama has good milk and holding up so far. They are heifers and cute as a button. I only hear negative things about twins,,,I guess I got lucky.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Had our first set of twins a month ago. They are doing great, the mama has good milk and holding up so far. They are heifers and cute as a button. I only hear negative things about twins,,,I guess I got lucky.

Yes, lucky is correct. I have made good money off of twin heifers - but, if I could wave a magic wand and NEVER have a pregancy that ended up in twins - I sure would go for it!!!! The negatives far out-weigh the positives over the long haul.

 

[fitz]

Had our first set of twins a month ago. They are doing great, the mama has good milk and holding up so far. They are heifers and cute as a button. I only hear negative things about twins,,,I guess I got lucky.

Yes, lucky is correct. I have made good money off of twin heifers - but, if I could wave a magic wand and NEVER have a pregancy that ended up in twins - I sure would go for it!!!! The negatives far out-weigh the positives over the long haul.

Me too! My first two fall calfers had twins. Each had one nice looking calf and one little runt. They both took the smaller calf and would have nothing to do with the better calves. I finally brought both calves to the barn and started the bottle. When they got to taking some hay and feed a Lady came and took both. I was sure glad to be shed of them. Still stuck with two big old cows with a dink by side. But things certainly could have turned out far worse.

fitz

 

[robert]

This is a sure way to jinx myself but our oldest and best pathfinder cow (coming 9yo) dropped twin bulls during the night, her second set in 3 years, like her previous set of bulls they were already up and about, one lighter than the other by about 20lbs but both viable. Seems to me some cows get in the habit of having twins.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

It's called FERTILITY!!!
My oldest cow in the herd decided to have twins the last two years. Hopefully not this year.