what do I give to make a cow give birth ?

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ddd75":2cx2kauw said:
Raven -- I'd say its more the cattle then the operator. My reseasoning behind that would be that I bought these heifers (herefords) from another guy. I've never had a hereford cow before. They are all around 22-24 months old and now giving calves.

My black angus heifers have given me several nice 65 lb calves with no assistance. Now with the same bull, all on the same feed, all in the same area, these herefords are giving me trouble. I've had to pull everyone. I even had to pull this one.. I know she is 1400 lbs.. she is 2 1/2 years old, and gave around a 70 lb calf and I still had to pull it.

My cattle are Simmental. My average calf is 87 pounds. The average went down from 88 to 87 based on this year's numbers. For my size cows, I consider anything under 80 pounds too small. In the past 8 years, I can remember at least 4 heifers delivering 100 pound calves, unassisted. Clearly, in this case, it is a Hereford issue! All my experience is with Simmentals and Angus with the exception of the dairy cows I was raised around.
 
lost another cow / calf pair this morning. had vet over. she agreed with me to dex / lute them. I have only 4 more remaining. I've had to pull everyone. I have 3 dead cows and 2 dead calves.

going to dex / lute one tomorrow and hopefully it goes well.

have had a few angus calves all fine no problems.. half the size of the hereford calves. all herefords are giving amazing looking black baldie calves. hopefully i can get the rest to survive.

pretty upsetting.
 
Explain how you are losing them? Sounds like the vet is involved, so if there is a big calf a c- section will save both. Why are the heifers dying? Please give us more details, and sorry you are having a rough time with them.
 
Fire Sweep Ranch":1aj4u0b8 said:
Explain how you are losing them? Sounds like the vet is involved, so if there is a big calf a c- section will save both. Why are the heifers dying? Please give us more details, and sorry you are having a rough time with them.


i have these herefors that are going way too long.. about 3 weeks longer then they should. calves are huge. they can't get them out.
 
It sounds to me from what I understand that if the Angus heifers are calving ok and both the Hereford and Angus heifers have been under the same management conditions then it could be an issue of genetics of the Herefords. Are the heifers out of the same bull? I have noticed that quite a few polled Herefords that I see at sales around here have fairly high BW, EPD's. I am not real proficient on Hereford EPD's but I have tried to stay as moderate as I can when selecting purebred females and not start out with something real high.
 
A few years back we had an Angus cow that I thought was getting unusually big a couple months before calving date. I thought at first twins, then became afraid something was wrong, she went over about a month when she started calving she couldn't have it. A vet came out and did a c section after he realized how large the calf was. the calf was filled with amniotic fluid and probably weighed well over 200lbs. The vet guessed it at 250, he called it a condition known as Hydrops. In that case the water bag was like a rubber ball almost and the afterbirth was enormous and a different texture than normal and it was probably 100 lbs, had a heck of a time getting it out of the barn. That was a freakish thing that was just an isolated event that I hope I never have to deal with again and to make matter worse it was one of my favorite cows at the time.
 
ddd75":15f6n94d said:
Fire Sweep Ranch":15f6n94d said:
Explain how you are losing them? Sounds like the vet is involved, so if there is a big calf a c- section will save both. Why are the heifers dying? Please give us more details, and sorry you are having a rough time with them.


i have these herefors that are going way too long.. about 3 weeks longer then they should. calves are huge. they can't get them out.

You still haven't explained how you are losing them. Are calves still alive when you get to them? How do the mothers die? Torn uterine arteries? Uterine prolapse or what? They just don't die.

Ken
 
wbvs58":9vzd6k39 said:
ddd75":9vzd6k39 said:
Fire Sweep Ranch":9vzd6k39 said:
Explain how you are losing them? Sounds like the vet is involved, so if there is a big calf a c- section will save both. Why are the heifers dying? Please give us more details, and sorry you are having a rough time with them.


i have these herefors that are going way too long.. about 3 weeks longer then they should. calves are huge. they can't get them out.

You still haven't explained how you are losing them. Are calves still alive when you get to them? How do the mothers die? Torn uterine arteries? Uterine prolapse or what? They just don't die.

Ken

last one was paralyzed after pulling the calf I had to shoot her. The one before that had the calf but was laying dead with her uterus out when I found her.
 
Paralyzed in the rear isn't rare with a big calf delivery. They generally recover. Just takes anti inflammatories and time/care.
What's the vets position on your situation with these Herefords? Sounds like you've been consulting.
How do you know their due dates? Sounds like they were bull bred.
Hope you have better luck with the rest!
 
MY :2cents: .
I like my heifers to calve at 26 to 28 months,at least.
Like to have them bred to calving ease bulls.
Need to feed them well,just not too well.A fat heifer is going to have more problems.
I have my eight on 16 plus acres ,up and down slopes so they have plenty of room to move.
That's what I do.Now,what you have or haven't done,I don't know completely but I think its time to get the vet out for a consult.We've had mostly Angus for years but I don't remember any Herefords giving any problems calving.
Postpartum paralysis is not real common but does happen.Most get up in less than 7 days but I did have one down for 6 weeks,once.And yes, we carried feed and water to her twice a day.She had gone in an old shed so weather wasn't a factor.
I'm not trying to get in your face,just offer suggestions learned from being around cattle most of 60 years and still don't know it all.
Hope things improve.
 
It sounds like you need to watch your cows more carefully. Did you pull the calf from the paralyzed cow? Not very common that a cow will have a calf on her own and become paralyzed. Also isn't very common that a cow prolapses and is dead by the time you find it. What else killed one? This still doesn't all add up.
 
got one who looked like she should of calved 2 weeks ago up and gave dex/lute.

she calved 28 hours later on her own. It was a very big calf I can't believe she was able to do it herself. Nice black baldie. got up and sucked, mother did great.

have 3 more to go, they are not as far as long, hope they will go by themselves.
 
You have a group of Hereford heifers that were bred to an Angus bull? It's probably not the heifers as much as the bull they were bred to...or that's what I'm reading. Maybe they weren't bred to an Angus bull but possibly a Limousin or Gelbvieh or Saler or Simmental or whatever bull that was black.

Why haven't you gone back to 'the guy' you bought these heifers from?
 

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