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I have a bred heifer (1300 lbs, frame 6, body condition 6+) that came to my place in January supposedly AIed for a February 8th calf. (Nothing so far.) We are finished spring calving and poured all the cattle last week, so I put a glove on and checked her. There is a small calf in there, on its back, flails it's legs when touched. Just going on the legs, I am guessing the size to be about that of a large cat. My goal was to see if she was open, but I was surprised the calf was so small. Must be an oops! Can you give me any range on when she might calve? Can you direct me to a site where I might educate myself further on this type of thing? Thanks.

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A good rule of thumb for fetus size and calving date is mouse-rat-cat to 30-60-90. That is to say if the fetus is 30 days old it is the size of the mouse and so on and so forth. By your heifer's fetus being the size of a large cat i would estimate she is about 100 days bred or so, and you can do the math to figure out an APPROXIMATE calving date. Just remember this is not an exact science just a general rule of thumb.

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as a rule of thumb.... you dont start feeling movement of the fetus until about 6 months.... and a fetus the size of a large cat is about 5 months... i would say your heifer is at least 6 months bred if you are feeling movement....at 6 months the fetus should be the size of a small dog...

i guess there could be exceptions, but this is the norm..

good luck gene

> I have a bred heifer (1300 lbs,
> frame 6, body condition 6+) that
> came to my place in January
> supposedly AIed for a February 8th
> calf. (Nothing so far.) We are
> finished spring calving and poured
> all the cattle last week, so I put
> a glove on and checked her. There
> is a small calf in there, on its
> back, flails it's legs when
> touched. Just going on the legs, I
> am guessing the size to be about
> that of a large cat. My goal was
> to see if she was open, but I was
> surprised the calf was so small.
> Must be an oops! Can you give me
> any range on when she might calve?
> Can you direct me to a site where
> I might educate myself further on
> this type of thing? Thanks.



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I had a quick look and couldn't find you a good site to look at. When I'm palping animals, I judge the fetal age on a few factors.

Vesicle size mouse= 60d ( I do younger than that but I won't describe how to do it....)

rat= 72d

watermelon= 90d then it drops over the brim of the pelvis, and the caruncles start developing. At 4.5mo, it's generally dropped to the bottom of the abdomen. 5 months you can palpate a thrill in the uterine artery. The calf doubles in size in the last 3 months of gestation. The calf starts into position at 8 months of gestation...

If you could feel bones, it's likely at least 6 months along...if it's small it's either closer to 6 months than calving OR maybe twins etc.

Clear as mud? V
 
texas a&m has a good publication... try

<A HREF="http://animalscience.tamu.edu/ansc/index.htm" TARGET="_blank">http://animalscience.tamu.edu/ansc/index.htm</A>

go under publications... beef cattle.... reproduction and calving.... determining pregnancy in cattle..

gene

> I have a bred heifer (1300 lbs,
> frame 6, body condition 6+) that
> came to my place in January
> supposedly AIed for a February 8th
> calf. (Nothing so far.) We are
> finished spring calving and poured
> all the cattle last week, so I put
> a glove on and checked her. There
> is a small calf in there, on its
> back, flails it's legs when
> touched. Just going on the legs, I
> am guessing the size to be about
> that of a large cat. My goal was
> to see if she was open, but I was
> surprised the calf was so small.
> Must be an oops! Can you give me
> any range on when she might calve?
> Can you direct me to a site where
> I might educate myself further on
> this type of thing? Thanks.



[email protected]
 

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