Hi!
I'm new here but definitely not new to cattle.
This past year I used a Red Angus bull on part of my herd, and Black Angus on the other half. I have not had a single bit of difficulty with the calves sired by the black bull. They drop out of the cow, no matter the temperature, they get up and nurse.
Out of the red bull, on the other hand, I've had several "problems".
#1- Calf that froze despite decent temps (in the 20s, born in the barn). I brought him in the house within two hours of birth and have kept him alive. I was happy with his progress...until his hind feet fell off. Above the pastern, mid way to the hock. It's horrible. His ears were nipped too.
#2,3, and 4- Calves born in normal temps that could not figure out where the cow's teats were. I seriously had to catch the cows, who have perfectly normal udders, and shove the calf under. Took 2 days with a particularly stupid one. Two of them had some sort of problem figuring out how to stand. I had to keep righting them b/c they would roll their heads upside down and paddle.
#5- This is the calf my main question is about. He has squinty, weepy eyes and was born stupid. I mean, seriously, if not PC, the calf is retarded. It took 5 days for him to figure out how to suck the cow, despite repeated lessons. The tip of his tongue protrudes from his mouth and he froths all the time because of it. There seems to be something wrong with his joints. It's like his hocks don't flex. His knees do bend but seems like his front pasterns don't either. Now obviously the Red Angus bull has bought his ticket to town, but what do I do with the cow? Sell her now as a pair? She weighs near 1500# and I don't want to carry her through the year with that calf on her. Does anybody know what might be wrong with the calf?
* I feed 22% protein tubs all winter, along with salt and free choice mineral. I don't think it's nutrition as the cows are a touch thin but the calves from the black bull had no problems at all.
I'm new here but definitely not new to cattle.
This past year I used a Red Angus bull on part of my herd, and Black Angus on the other half. I have not had a single bit of difficulty with the calves sired by the black bull. They drop out of the cow, no matter the temperature, they get up and nurse.
Out of the red bull, on the other hand, I've had several "problems".
#1- Calf that froze despite decent temps (in the 20s, born in the barn). I brought him in the house within two hours of birth and have kept him alive. I was happy with his progress...until his hind feet fell off. Above the pastern, mid way to the hock. It's horrible. His ears were nipped too.
#2,3, and 4- Calves born in normal temps that could not figure out where the cow's teats were. I seriously had to catch the cows, who have perfectly normal udders, and shove the calf under. Took 2 days with a particularly stupid one. Two of them had some sort of problem figuring out how to stand. I had to keep righting them b/c they would roll their heads upside down and paddle.
#5- This is the calf my main question is about. He has squinty, weepy eyes and was born stupid. I mean, seriously, if not PC, the calf is retarded. It took 5 days for him to figure out how to suck the cow, despite repeated lessons. The tip of his tongue protrudes from his mouth and he froths all the time because of it. There seems to be something wrong with his joints. It's like his hocks don't flex. His knees do bend but seems like his front pasterns don't either. Now obviously the Red Angus bull has bought his ticket to town, but what do I do with the cow? Sell her now as a pair? She weighs near 1500# and I don't want to carry her through the year with that calf on her. Does anybody know what might be wrong with the calf?
* I feed 22% protein tubs all winter, along with salt and free choice mineral. I don't think it's nutrition as the cows are a touch thin but the calves from the black bull had no problems at all.