What do you think?

[greatgerts]

2 year old heifer pictured below. Preg checked in October, vet said open. Checked again in February (after turning bull out to catch up on what the other bull had missed soon after the check in October), vet called 2nd stage. At that time, she was starting a small bag. Now, the bag is getting tight, but if in line with what the vet said, she would not calve until July. She is springing some, but I sure cannot see her going another 3 months before she would pop a calf.
We have been raising these things for a long time, and I have never seen one bag this much if she is that far out. What do y'all think?

I will try and keep everyone updated as well on this.

*edited to add- Sorry for the quality. I snapped this with my phone.

 

[bigbluegrass]

First calf? With a bag like that I would say you have less than a month. But I had one heifer last year that was bagged up two months before she calved. I made a bet with my wife that she would be the first to calve. Turned out to be one of the last.

 

[greatgerts]

Yeah. This will be her first (She was also the first out of her dam). I have used the same vet for quite some time, but it's hard for me to imagine that she will still be waddling around in 2 1/2-3 months from now before she spits a calf out. October preg check date was 10/13/11. February check date was 2/14/12. The first bull with her was pulled 7/25/11.

 

[3waycross]

As tight as she looks she will be lucky to make it to Saturday!
What does the other end of her look like?

 

[greatgerts]

Not springing as much as most others, but definitely more than some right before they calved. Haven't had much of her genetics to use as example.

 

[Taurus]

That's really big bag.....be expecting a calf sooner than you think.

 

[greatgerts]

I agree! I didn't want to question the vet, because he has been very good to us over the last 10+ years and has rarely missed on palpating. In October, he had a young vet helping, so I thought that maybe he (young vet) just missed her when I saw her starting a bag 2 months ago, but our vet checked and said "second stage along the same time as the others" I began to really wonder.

 

[greatgerts]

One more thing, her due date based on heat (if bred on first heat after AI) would have been in the 4/8/12-4/10/12 range. So, she could be just a couple of days late now.

 

[Taurus]

If I were you I will keep eye on her.

 

[TexasBred]

One more thing, her due date based on heat (if bred on first heat after AI) would have been in the 4/8/12-4/10/12 range. So, she could be just a couple of days late now.

No offense intended but she looks like a cull to me anyway. Maybe it's just the pic but she doesn't seem to have the quality of the ladies behind her.

 

[jilleroo]

greatgerts, she looks very close to calving to me also. I wouldnt take my eyes off her for long. As for her quality, she looks a quite acceptable young heifer to me!

 

[KNERSIE]

Within the next 5- 10 days

 

[Bigfoot]

I would think she would be calving soon. Vets are human to. Good chance he made a mistake. I would'nt tell him.

 

[greatgerts]

I would think she would be calving soon. Vets are human to. Good chance he made a mistake. I would'nt tell him.

We have known him and his family for over 20 years. I think I owe it to him to let him know. Not to complain, but just to help. We had 2 that had been ultrasounded prior to preg check (one was 2 weeks, the other a month) and I said we didn't need to check them, but he said it might be good for them to check to see if they were accurate compared to the ultrasound, which they were on those.

 

[dun]

I would think she would be calving soon. Vets are human to. Good chance he made a mistake. I would'nt tell him.

We have known him and his family for over 20 years. I think I owe it to him to let him know. Not to complain, but just to help. We had 2 that had been ultrasounded prior to preg check (one was 2 weeks, the other a month) and I said we didn't need to check them, but he said it might be good for them to check to see if they were accurate compared to the ultrasound, which they were on those.

Depending on your relationship but telling him won;t hurt. When our vet is off by much I always harass the snot out of him about it. He'll never live down the 70 days he was off with Granny a couple of years ago. I alwasy give him a bad time about the 70 day premature calf (who just had her second calf). We had one cow that he was always 60 days late on her breeding date, 7 years in a row. Usually he's within a week-10 days.

 

[cow pollinater]

After literally tens of thousands of cows, I still have cows every once in a while that I stick my arm in and have no clue what I'm doing. If I'm able to walk away and let her defecate and then come back to her then she'll feel like a different cow but I usually don't have the time and vets never have the time.(if they did they likely wouldn't be worth using)
I have come to accept that there will be about a 5% margin of error any time you have someone stick an arm in a cow and give you a diagnosis. You can either respect that they're human and make mistakes or move on to someone else that will also make mistakes.
I have one vet that I love because I've seen him look a customer in the eye on herdcheck day and tell him "I have no idea... Lets work around and come back to her." Most of the vets that I work with will just guess rather than admit that they don't know right in front of a customer.

 

[greatgerts]

Well,
This heifer, now a cow, calved a 77lb heifer on Thursday 4/19. I was away for the breed's annual meeting, so my dad called and said that all was fine with her. She calved about 12 days late, or 9 days early if she was in heat with the others (AI date was March 16 and first round from bull was April 6). Cow looks good, and calf was very active when I got back home yesterday.

 

[bward]

How bout a picture?

 

[greatgerts]

Will try and get one later today!