Seems like I do every year. Sometimes 2. No sign, no nothing. You always wonder what happened. Then you gotta sell the cow. That's a big loss to. Was it a dog, a coyote, Mexican buzzards-------------frustrating.
You ever have one vanish??????
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M-5
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The dog drug up a part of a calf carcass today. I assume I know the heifer that had it she was springing 3 weeks ago but I never found anything. Don't know what happened but it's part of it .
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
Yep and we caught him two legged buzzard . Got the guy down theBigfoot":20a00nlo said:
road for 13 lost his glasses in the
pasture. TSWCA detective ran down the prescription the a hole was selling them out of his bar-b-que joint.
A
Anonymous
Just lost one yesterday. About a week old. No sign at all , except a bellowing cow.
True Grit Farms
Well-known member
No not yet, but I have 3 new borns out there right now. I don't need any more problems this year. Do you suppose something runs them through the fences and they just keep running till they drop?
We had a cow come up missing one year. The boss kept saying we had one left to calve I said no we have two. A heated discussion insued one evening. Neither of us was going to give an inch he said every cow in the pasture had calved I said if so you didn't tell me about a calf. The next day we went to that pasture with my paperwork in hand all had calved but sure enough one cow was missing. We then checked all other pastures the cow just was gone. A year later the boss was clearing on a back field and found her carcass only way we knew for sure was her ear tag was still attached. We have no idea what killed her the area she was found was a marsh so she probably got bogged down. How she got into that field is a total mystery, at that point it wasn't fenced so we didn't run cattle in it. So far we have never had a calf missing but it can sure happen.
Gizmom
Gizmom
Ky hills
Well-known member
Last year about this time maybe a week or two earlier, we had some synchronized AI calves coming. Had several come over a couple of days, and while checking them before heading out to church in the mountains that afternoon noticed a cow looking as though she was right ready to calve. Debated whether or not to leave, but figured she would probably be ok, and if not we would be back in a few hours. Sure enough when we got home, she looked like she had calved, but no sign of a calf anywhere. Never did find hide or hair of it. I figured coyotes, or buzzards were the culprits.
Couple years ago had some fall calving heifers, and I suspected one of slipping a calf about mid summer, never did see evidence of a fetus. A bit later a bear was seen in one of our back fields, and a neighbor's trail camera got a picture of a mother and cub. The neighbor also found a calf fetus with a white face, and figured it was from my cows, since I had some white face cattle. We wondered if a bear would have carried the calf over there.
Couple years ago had some fall calving heifers, and I suspected one of slipping a calf about mid summer, never did see evidence of a fetus. A bit later a bear was seen in one of our back fields, and a neighbor's trail camera got a picture of a mother and cub. The neighbor also found a calf fetus with a white face, and figured it was from my cows, since I had some white face cattle. We wondered if a bear would have carried the calf over there.
Have cattle disappear every year. Sometimes, we get some back years later. Odd deal, have a little piece of deeded ground about 5 miles above our headquarters ranch here in California. We bought it back in 2003 because it was close to us and a deal was there to be made. Anyhow, the first 4-5 years we owned the ranch we would buy 650-700 6 weight steers late October/early November, run them over and sell them off the grass in late May. The upper end of the country borders the National Park and is extremely rough. We always were out an unacceptable amount of cattle. The final year we ran yearlings, 672 head of cattle were turned out. We had 4 steers die. When we gathered to ship in May, the cowboys brought 626 head to the pens. We were out 42 head (over confirmed deathloss) or a little over 6%. The guys rode and rode, and I hired a helicopter one morning to clean out some pretty nasty canyons etc., that yielded 14 of our missing steers. Eventually, we wrote off the other 28 in our books as MIA and went on with life. The next year (2008 as I recall) we bought about 175 bred cows to go on that ranch and integrated it in to our Fall calving program. They calved, we branded them etc., and the switch to cows fixed our disappearing cattle issue on that ranch other than a cow here or there that fell within the acceptable deathloss. Mid-May of 2010 when we gathered that ranch to wean the calves, for the second year, mixed in with the pairs, were 12 of the steers that had gone MIA 2 years earlier. These now 3 year old, long tailed steers were averaging not quite 1,300lbs and trailing in those cows and calves. Where they had been the 24 months, including gathering the entire ranch to brand twice and ship once prior, is a mystery.
Son of Butch
Well-known member
Wow, wow, wow that is the worst.Caustic Burno":oeefsns9 said:
reeler
Well-known member
Yeah, the worst & the best-you caught the "buzzard".Congratulations to you CB, & the detective.Son of Butch":13m13ltb said:
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
Our worst predator was two legged and mans best friend here. We have got that pretty well cleaned up now.
WalnutCrest
Well-known member
I thought an alien space ship had carried one off once.
It was just a hole in the fence; he'd go graze the neighbors place, then come back to nurse. It took me a week to figure it out!
It was just a hole in the fence; he'd go graze the neighbors place, then come back to nurse. It took me a week to figure it out!
plumber_greg
Well-known member
When baby calves were $500 at the sale barn a few years ago, we had a lot of lost newborns around here. Easy to jump fence, grab baby. Sale somewhere every day. Mine were close to house, so I never lost any. gs
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
I have seen some couple day old calves run out of sight but they come back later. The thing here is we don't have any cows real close to us that could adopt them.True Grit Farms":grar6e7k said:
Some calves are weak and can just curl up and die in a fence line. You have to wonder if it is a disease issue or mothering issue? I have noted a breed tendency.
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
js1234":3182uxeb said:
No mountains and few cowboys here, but we do lose a few to state forests and swamp islands. With the increase in hunting land and reduction in livestock operations, they can drift a long way before they hit a fence or find a hiding spot.
Had an older neighbors who sold his milk cows and bought back some nut job grass yearlings. He was not able to contain a couple with his dairy cow fences and two of these free range steers decided relocate to some unfenced forest. The owner waited till winter and then hired a guy to run them down with a snow mobile. He dropped them, brought them back quartered, and made burger.
Nesikep
Well-known member
the only time we had one vanish was from a 2 legged predator, I think that was our first year.
