Udder hair on beef cows

[drl]

Ive heard of guys clipping or torching hair on beef cow udders to help prevent mastitis or help with calf scours. How many do this and do you clip or torch? Worthwhile? We calve in barns since too cold and breed for show cattle so need to watch calving close so confined.

 

[branguscowgirl]

I don't do either and have not seen any mastitis or scours in 15 years......
My calves get oral Rota Corona at birth.

 

[Nesikep]

I clip *some* of them.. the ones that are really docile actually love the feel of the clippers and I do their whole body in the spring. It reduces lice too.

I don't have any worries about the ones that don't get clipped though.

 

[bigbull338]

we sure dont torch the hair off our beef cows baggs.nor did we torch the hair off our dairy cows baggs.

 

[TexasBred]

Ive heard of guys clipping or torching hair on beef cow udders to help prevent mastitis or help with calf scours. How many do this and do you clip or torch? Worthwhile? We calve in barns since too cold and breed for show cattle so need to watch calving close so confined.

We scorched the hair off all our dairy cattle simply because it made it easier to clean teats etc. Doubt it had any affect on mastitis but probably helped with bacteria count. No reason it would have anything to do with scours especially with beef cattle.

 

[Taurus]

I think someone has been bullshytting ya. Some of our cows are Galloway crosses, and they never had mastitis or calf scours. We did clipped them but only for cattle shows.

 

[Galloways1]

I agree with Taurus. I have had Galloway and Galloway crosses for over 30 years. Never had a case of mastitis or scours. We don't vaccinate the cows or the calves for scours either. We have lots of mud in the Spring.

 

[dun]

Sounds like overdowing something that doesn;t really need to be done or serve any purpose other being able to tell people that you do it.

 

[WalnutCrest]

I heard an old-timer say recently he thought hair on the udder was a sign of environmental stress (he was referring to ways cattle would sometimes show they were having difficulty adapting to fescue).

:???:

 

[Supa Dexta]

Mine just hair up for winter including their udders, some much more than others. Business as usual around here.

 

[Nesikep]

I I have lots with lots of hair on the udders.. unless they take a liking to laying in the muck it's no problem..

For milking it's better with less hair, but I don't think I'd think about using a torch to do it.

 

[Supa Dexta]

I was at a dairy auction recently and they had something they were calling an under singe. I just assumed it was for flashing across an udder to singe the hair but I didnt pay any attention to it. It was a long tube, bent up at the end a bit. I thought possibly you'd burn along fences with it, but wondered why the end would need to be hooked upwards, so I settled on udders since it was referred to as singe?

 

[dun]

I was at a dairy auction recently and they had something they were calling an under singe. I just assumed it was for flashing across an udder to singe the hair but I didnt pay any attention to it. It was a long tube, bent up at the end a bit. I thought possibly you'd burn along fences with it, but wondered why the end would need to be hooked upwards, so I settled on udders since it was referred to as singe?

Correct assumption

 

[dun]

An advantage of a hairy udder in beef cows is that you can easily tell if a calf has been sucking.