calf dwarf syndrome

leg wax

as most of you know i put up a pic of a very small calf on here on july 2011 or there abouts ,now not thinking anything was going wrong but i think that was the first signs, i have just read over on the british boards site of this same problem, now i have had 8 calves in total born with this problem ,i thought it was bvd and it still might be going testing animals just to rule it out,whats happens is my cows are going full term and have a abortion size calf some live some dont,now they are saying over there and my vet are saying that my winter sucklers need to get a other forage with the silage as she is in ,be it meal or beet but some other form of fodder with the silage,now last year was the first winter that i did not give any of these cows meal or molasses ,i usally only gave them meal for 6 weeks or so and then stopped ,and woe and beholed the problem has got a lot worse since i gave up meal ,has anyone anything to add or seen this before or heard anything of this problem or condition,i use bales by the way not pit silage.its something i said i would put out there to everyone with the way silage is this year i would not like anyone else to go thru it,i will be going back onto meal with the cows this winter as i think i have no choice.

pakalasa

It was discussed on here before;
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=77401027

IFJ article here;
http://www.farmersjournal.ie/site/farming-Preventing-dwarfism-in-cattle-12158.html

Are the silage bales from freshly re-seeded land?

leg wax

pakalasa wrote: »

It was discussed on here before;
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=77401027

IFJ article here;
http://www.farmersjournal.ie/site/farming-Preventing-dwarfism-in-cattle-12158.html

Are the silage bales from freshly re-seeded land?

thanks for that pakalasa ,yes a lot of bales here would be made from new grass.

pakalasa

Freshly reseeded grass tends to be lower in minerals - the roots are not fully developed yet. There was something in the Journal too about new reseeded grass being too leafy and not enough fibre in it.
You could feed minerals at half the normal rate (50g per head) for the start of the winter and then from 6 wks pre-calving go to the full rate. Access to straw would help with fibre too. Neither would do any harm anyway.

vanderbadger

leg wax wrote: »

as most of you know i put up a pic of a very small calf on here on july 2011 or there abouts ,now not thinking anything was going wrong but i think that was the first signs, i have just read over on the british boards site of this same problem, now i have had 8 calves in total born with this problem ,i thought it was bvd and it still might be going testing animals just to rule it out,whats happens is my cows are going full term and have a abortion size calf some live some dont,now they are saying over there and my vet are saying that my winter sucklers need to get a other forage with the silage as she is in ,be it meal or beet but some other form of fodder with the silage,now last year was the first winter that i did not give any of these cows meal or molasses ,i usally only gave them meal for 6 weeks or so and then stopped ,and woe and beholed the problem has got a lot worse since i gave up meal ,has anyone anything to add or seen this before or heard anything of this problem or condition,i use bales by the way not pit silage.its something i said i would put out there to everyone with the way silage is this year i would not like anyone else to go thru it,i will be going back onto meal with the cows this winter as i think i have no choice.

had one similar born yesterday, massive big ch cow, calf size of a dog, she is fine fully formed and everything but couldnt believe the size of her, just didnt look right to me that she was so small.. never give cows anything but baled silage, didnt bother with minerals last yr but have a big 80kg lick crystalyx pre calver this yr whether its any good or not

pakalasa

http://farmingforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=1010587