What a great day. NOT

[Wick]

Woke up this morning checked cows, found my first embryo calf dead. Guess it was born in the middle of the night and froze. What a way to start the day. NOT . That crap just pisses me off so bad. I don't see how these farmers who leave the cattle out with no shelter and don't bother checking on their cows at calving do it. I see cows calving in those condidtion all the time and cows/calves seem fine. I just don't understand it. My cows get real good hay, minerals, vacs, fresh water, and I keep close watch on them. Then this happens, $400 calf before its born and then the thing froze/died? There goes some profit. Dang it that stinks and makes for a lousy day. Just venting.

 

[Dee]

First off I'm sorry about the loss. That happens to me also. And I wonder the same thing about the folks that have 300 head, and just let them calve at a leased pasture, never check 'em, and round them up in the fall and pull the calves. I have to assume there are fatalities there too, they just don't care to admit it.

 

[fit2btied]

We had a cow drop an 80 lb heifer on the ice in the middle of the night Tuesday and we found it about 6 am Wednesday. It was cleaned and dry on top but frozen to the ground underneath. It obviously hadn't sucked. We took it to the barn, thawed its ears and tail and warmed it with a hair dryer, tubed it with colostrum, and gave it a B-12 shot. We managed to keep it alive until about 4 pm and then she checked out. It surely does stink, but I couldn't imagine not having them. I always say at least this way, I don't have money for beer and cigarettes!

 

[L Weir]

I know the feeling. My hubby and I pulled an aborting calf last night. A 50 lb bull calf. It sucks to say the least. It makes me feel like the worse cattle person in the world. The cow had pnumeonia and had a high temp the other day.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Sorry to hear about your loss! A real bummer!!!

Those "big" cattlepeople and/or the "absentee owner/ranchers" probably just don't worry much about at and figure a percentage loss is just part of the game.

On the other hand, the "rest" of us take each and any loss seriously and grieve the loss of any.

At our facility we have two 50x75' "maternity pens" that each have a loafing shed and water tank. We put the close to calving dam in there until she calves so both have protection as well as easy to "capture" the calf to weigh it. Both stay in the pen about a week, then turn them out with other mamas with new calves in the pasture.

Of course, one benefit we have with Longhorns is they are extremely easy-calving and very attentive and milking mamas...even our first calf heifers instinctly know the drill. Having to pull a calf is essentially un-heard-of among Longhorns. We've never had to give any medications to either the Mama or her calf after a calf was born and never had a calf get sick. The only medication we keep on hand is LA-200 for a rare incident...just in case. Never any need for vitamin shots, etc., since we feed #1 quality hay and #1 quality minerals for both our cattle and horses.

Again...sorry for your calf loss!

 

[mnmtranching]

I don't know but those calves are tough. We're calving up here it's been -20 or colder every night. I have the cattle in open sheds [out of the wind lots of bedding] I dry off the calves with heat and towels then their on their own. Nine so far all is well. However I know what it's like to lose a calf, it sucks. It seems to me maybe some other problem caused the dead calf, Good luck with the rest.

 

[vs_cattle]

Sorry About Your Less

 

[Wewild]

I don't see how these farmers who leave the cattle out with no shelter and don't bother checking on their cows at calving do it. I see cows calving in those condidtion all the time and cows/calves seem fine. I just don't understand it.

I'm sorry for your lose.

We don't farm any more. We run cows about as you have described except for the checking. We check them twice a day.

The thing about our cows around here is that they don't seem to appreciate the sheds we supply.

 

[MoGal]

Sorry for your loss.

We've lost 2 cows and their calves plus 2 other calves born alive (one was 3 weeks old when it died and the other was either born in a ditch and drowned or fell off into it). We check ours morning and evening but I've just about decided no more jan/feb calving until we get our own place and can have them by us so we can check them more. From now on we'll have March/April calving or Sept/Oct/Nov calving.

 

[Wick]

I got replacement calf, skinned dead one and put hide on replacement put in with momma and she took it right off. I am thinking about breeding for fall Sept. calves from now on. I know there will be a 6-8 month gap in the cash flow but it is still warm here in Sept. and plenty of grass for them to have their calves in clean open pastures. Probably will have to feed a little more and the calves might be a little lighter but beats this cold,snow,ice stuff.

 

[mnmtranching]

The folks I know that Fall calve really like it. That is the problem losing the six months.

 

[Beefy]

if your death loss decreases is it really a 6 month loss?

 

[Wick]

Thats a great point, the fall around here is still warm and the grass is still growing some. I all ready have some late summer calvers and some in the fall. Just the majority of my cows calve in the spring. Probably will have to change a few things around to make it work.

 

[ENNOT]

Sorry about your lose, but if you are gonna have them, you are gonna lose them. I was feeling about like you a couple weeks ago when I pulled in and found my favorite 1st calf heifer dead with the calf half way out. There is not a whole lot you can do unless you get up every two hours during the night. I did that in college with the college beef herd and we lost just as many as if we had slept all night.

We run around 200 head and the cows are lucky to get checked twice a day. We check the first calvers twice a day since they are sometimes stupid. We have all of our replacement heifers out on pasture and they are lucky to get check two to three times a week. We run out on crop residue circles in the winter that are 25 miles from home. At some point you need to cut your costs somehow. You need to make sure you have cattle that can do it on their own.

There's nothing you could have done to save that calf this morning. I know it sucks, but you can't live with them. I am not trying to sound like ol' Caustic (he really is a good guy everyone), but you gotta cut your loses. And switching your calving season may not be the right decision. The weather this year has been tough on all cattle producers. Don't make a drastic decision to your program because you lost an ET calf.

 

[cfpinz]

We live in pretty much the same climate and if I had my rathers, every cow would drop in Sept/Oct. Because of pasture and lease restrictions, we calve in Nov/Dec mostly, works good here.

cfpinz

 

[just learnin]

Sorry about your loss.
It sucks!

 

[mom to 4]

I got replacement calf, skinned dead one and put hide on replacement put in with momma and she took it right off. I am thinking about breeding for fall Sept. calves from now on. I know there will be a 6-8 month gap in the cash flow but it is still warm here in Sept. and plenty of grass for them to have their calves in clean open pastures. Probably will have to feed a little more and the calves might be a little lighter but beats this cold,snow,ice stuff.

We calve (actually the cows do) about 60% of our herd in spring (late Feb. thru April) and the rest in fall (late Sept. - Nov. ) There are usually a few stragglers in between. Had our last "fall" calf born New Years Eve this year. It works pretty well for us. The first few in the spring sometimes have some pretty cold/wet days, but the mama cows do pretty well at finding a sheltered place in the woods to calve. Our spring calves started yesterday, a few days early. Must have been that Alberta clipper that passed through. We have four so far -- all doing fine. Thankfully, the weather is going to moderate this week. We're trying the "maternity pen" idea for the first time. We kept our 6 first-calf heifers up close to house. Hope we don't have any troubles. 3 of them are kids' pets.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Woke up this morning checked cows, found my first embryo calf dead. Guess it was born in the middle of the night and froze. What a way to start the day. NOT . That crap just be nice me off so bad. I don't see how these farmers who leave the cattle out with no shelter and don't bother checking on their cows at calving do it. I see cows calving in those condidtion all the time and cows/calves seem fine. I just don't understand it. My cows get real good hay, minerals, vacs, fresh water, and I keep close watch on them. Then this happens, $400 calf before its born and then the thing froze/died? There goes some profit. Dang it that stinks and makes for a lousy day. Just venting.

those folks dont get away with it. you just dont see it. but im sure if you roamed their pastures you would kick up a lot of bones ;-)

 

[1848]

Woke up this morning checked cows, found my first embryo calf dead. Guess it was born in the middle of the night and froze. What a way to start the day. NOT . That crap just be nice me off so bad. I don't see how these farmers who leave the cattle out with no shelter and don't bother checking on their cows at calving do it. I see cows calving in those condidtion all the time and cows/calves seem fine. I just don't understand it. My cows get real good hay, minerals, vacs, fresh water, and I keep close watch on them. Then this happens, $400 calf before its born and then the thing froze/died? There goes some profit. Dang it that stinks and makes for a lousy day. Just venting.

That's too bad. Did you use first time heifers for your recips?

 

[turning grass into beef]

To begin with I'm sorry for your loss.
I know this is no consolation but we used to calve in January and February so I know first hand what you are dealing with. A number of years ago we increased the size of our herd so we were faced with the decision to either build more facilities or calve at a different time of year.
We now calve in May and June. We check the mature cows twice per day and the first calf heifers 3 times per day. We assist about 1% of the mature cows and about 10-15% of the first calf heifers. Our death losses at calving are usually around 3% over the entire herd. Now that I have experienced calving in late spring I would never go back to calving in winter no matter how small or large the herd.