When Calving Starting

RightTurnClyde

Dawggone wrote: »

Weirdly enough it doesn't work in a linear way. Large herds are way more affected than small ones.
Also, herds that are never outdoors get very few problems.
It's more to do with concentrations of mozzies midges etc.

Could you not go all indoors rather than flying herd???

Dawggone

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Could you not go all indoors rather than flying herd???

I couldn't be looking at all that grass...:)

Sure when there's grass to be grazed you have to take it. Plus the added health benifits with exercise etc.

Kovu

One dark red heifer out aaaaand two tootsies of another :pac:
Frosty night to be sitting watching, wrapped on an all weather horse cover here!

Kovu

Kovu wrote: »

One dark red heifer out aaaaand two tootsies of another :pac:
Frosty night to be sitting watching, wrapped on an all weather horse cover here!

And a big red bull followed!
Heifer sucked one side, milked the other and bucket fed him as he wasn't too bothered getting up. Dad still snoring in bed oblivious to it all :P

Nettleman

well done, how much over was she? AI calves or bull?

farawaygrass

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

I know plenty that did similar and it rarely works out

That's true! Talking to a fella once, he is a few years passed now, he had a fairly big farm of good land and no family. A younger lad who's wife ran her own restaurant in the town started bringing him dinners everyday. The old buck was saying he shouldn't be doing it but wasn't stopping him either! Anyhow, the young lad eventually asked him had he any plans with the place, he said it was all going to a nephew. The old man was laughing as he told me-"the dinners stopped fairly quick after that"!

sh1tstirrer

farawaygrass wrote: »

That's true! Talking to a fella once, he is a few years passed now, he had a fairly big farm of good land and no family. A younger lad who's wife ran her own restaurant in the town started bringing him dinners everyday. The old buck was saying he shouldn't be doing it but wasn't stopping him either! Anyhow, the young lad eventually asked him had he any plans with the place, he said it was all going to a nephew. The old man was laughing as he told me-"the dinners stopped fairly quick after that"!

I knew a man with 50 acres and half a million in the bank his step nephews were helping him out on the farm for years. 5 years before he died a distant cousin stepped in when the hard work was done and started taking him to the pub. He got the bulk of the estate and a few other cousins that never even visited the man. The step nephews got nothing.

Reggie.

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

I knew a man with 50 acres and half a million in the bank his step nephews were helping him out on the farm for years. 5 years before he died a distant cousin stepped in when the hard work was done and started taking him to the pub. He got the bulk of the estate and a few other cousins that never even visited the man. The step nephews got nothing.

Plenty of them horror stories about

Kovu

Nettleman wrote: »

well done, how much over was she? AI calves or bull?

AI CH, carried 288 days, round of applause and a medal for tanko :D

tanko wrote: »

If it's twins I'd say she'll calve around the 10th of March give or take a couple of days either side.

Had a good laugh when she took a break between calvings to hoover up a grape of silage!

Bullocks

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

I know plenty that did similar and it rarely works out

Did you get stung for a few cooked chickens yourself !

sh1tstirrer

Bullocks wrote: »

Did you get stung for a few cooked chickens yourself !

I've a motto "expect not and you shall not be disappointed"

Greengrass1

First AA calf here this morning 14 days early.
Cow just sprang up in 2 days and dropped it.
easy way of bring back th CI and 70e more milk from the cow

tanko

A cow just after calving here, very quickly after putting the water bag out. Feckin cleaning was wrapped around the calf's head, suffocating him. Just got it off in time, I'd say a couple more minutes he would have been gone. Seems ok now.

Mad4simmental

tanko wrote: »

A cow just after calving here, very quickly after putting the water bag out. Feckin cleaning was wrapped around the calf's head, suffocating him. Just got it off in time, I'd say a couple more minutes he would have been gone. Seems ok now.

Had a close one here a few weeks ago with the same.

tanko

Mad4simmental wrote: »

Had a close one here a few weeks ago with the same.

He was up sucking 20 minutes after, there's a fine line between life and death sometimes. She fired another smaller one then, he hasn't got up yet.

frazzledhome

When is the magic 6 wk calving % to be calculated from? Is it the actual start date (which I believe it to be) or from the expected start according to first servre?

This came up at DG the other day. We agreed it from first calf, wondering what ye think.

If its as I believe we're 6 wks today and didn't make 90% which I'm not happy with. 10 cows short. That's our first target if the year missed. Always next year.

Timmaay

Depends if you are coming at it from a labour management point of view (more compact the better regardless of start date), or a grass demand, in which case it would be from expected calving date. Having said that, average calving date probably the better metric in matching grass demand to calving.

Milked out

frazzledhome wrote: »

When is the magic 6 wk calving % to be calculated from? Is it the actual start date (which I believe it to be) or from the expected start according to first servre?

This came up at DG the other day. We agreed it from first calf, wondering what ye think.

If its as I believe we're 6 wks today and didn't make 90% which I'm not happy with. 10 cows short. That's our first target if the year missed. Always next year.

Once the first calf didn't land on its own 2 weeks ahead of the rest id agree with u. My last round of Ai didn't go so well anyway only 3 springing to calve with a good few in April now. My little aa sweeper did better than I thought.

mahoney_j

frazzledhome wrote: »

When is the magic 6 wk calving % to be calculated from? Is it the actual start date (which I believe it to be) or from the expected start according to first servre?

This came up at DG the other day. We agreed it from first calf, wondering what ye think.

If its as I believe we're 6 wks today and didn't make 90% which I'm not happy with. 10 cows short. That's our first target if the year missed. Always next year.

Actual start date for me.92% 6 weeks from date of first calf here.will be down to single figures when cow currently in calving pen calves and I had an April date for her from stock bull,but goingbto get nice blue calf now instead and a few weeks more milk.in fairness frazzeld at ur sort of nos to be only 10 short of making 90% is pretty good.when will u be finished.will be done here around april 10.sold last 2 cows to calve in late April so I'll be cheating a bit!!!

frazzledhome

mahoney_j wrote: »

Actual start date for me.92% 6 weeks from date of first calf here.will be down to single figures when cow currently in calving pen calves and I had an April date for her from stock bull,but goingbto get nice blue calf now instead and a few weeks more milk.in fairness frazzeld at ur sort of nos to be only 10 short of making 90% is pretty good.when will u be finished.will be done here around april 10.sold last 2 cows to calve in late April so I'll be cheating a bit!!!

I'd say finished 20/4 or there abouts. Still springing and calving hard here though not like it was. From springing I can't see any break a slow down certainly but not the usual break from ai to bull. We still on ai here with all bar 6 heifers calved

Despite being repeatedly told to sell stock even as late as last Thurs we won't be selling much this yr with a plan in place for 16

browned

Usually calculate it from the expected start date. Everything early is a bonus. However Id exclude all first calvers and included all cows that didn't go incalf the previous breeding in my 6 week calving calculations.

frazzledhome

browned wrote: »

Usually calculate it from the expected start date. Everything early is a bonus. However Id exclude all first calvers and included all cows that didn't go incalf the previous breeding in my 6 week calving calculations.

The cows that didn't go in calf would be culled. Surely they'd be counted in your empty/incalf rate from previous breeding. We inc heifers as there part of the herd once they calve

browned

frazzledhome wrote: »

The cows that didn't go in calf would be culled. Surely they'd be counted in your empty/incalf rate from previous breeding. We inc heifers as there part of the herd once they calve

Isn't the 6 week calving a method of benchmarking off other farms. Every farm has a different replacement rate and culling rate. Say one farm has a 2% nic rate and 15% replacement rate and breeds for 12 weeks compared to a 15% nic rate and 33% replacement rate who only breeds for 8 weeks. The farm that has a high cull and replacement rate could have a higher 6 week calving. This takes out those variables and gives a truer fertility profile of a herd imo

freedominacup

3 in calving boxes tonight. If they all go we'll be in single figures. Should be finished by 10th of April anyway. Not too bad when you consider we had cows with calving dates from August to May when we started buying back in four years ago. Nothing like as tight a spread as the frazzes, mahoneys, ggs or stans of this world but 8 weeks in the autumn and 11 in the spring is doing ok for now. Going to make a big drive on tightening it up further this season for sanitys sake as much as anything else. First year using any real quantity of sexed semen and while there's a bit of a tradeoff with conception rates vs heifer numbers I think it comes down on the heifer numbers side where you are trying to grow numbers.

Still hoping to add a dozen or fifteen more milkers but prices seem to be skyrocketing. We did fairly well buying six weeks ago so might have to settle for that and hold the remaining cash until the backend.

Timmaay

freedominacup wrote: »

Still hoping to add a dozen or fifteen more milkers but prices seem to be skyrocketing. We did fairly well buying six weeks ago so might have to settle for that and hold the remaining cash until the backend.

Secured abit of grazing and silage ground today which takes the pressure off the SR, straight away had a look on done deal for more calved heifers ha, they seem thin on the ground. I'd probably be better off using the chance to reseed as much as I can though.

Greengrass1

freedominacup wrote: »

3 in calving boxes tonight. If they all go we'll be in single figures. Should be finished by 10th of April anyway. Not too bad when you consider we had cows with calving dates from August to May when we started buying back in four years ago. Nothing like as tight a spread as the frazzes, mahoneys, ggs or stans of this world but 8 weeks in the autumn and 11 in the spring is doing ok for now. Going to make a big drive on tightening it up further this season for sanitys sake as much as anything else. First year using any real quantity of sexed semen and while there's a bit of a tradeoff with conception rates vs heifer numbers I think it comes down on the heifer numbers side where you are trying to grow numbers.

Still hoping to add a dozen or fifteen more milkers but prices seem to be skyrocketing. We did fairly well buying six weeks ago so might have to settle for that and hold the remaining cash until the backend.

Don't worry free I should here kept my mouth shut.
only had 3 empty autumn's jumped to 6 empty from this wk

awaywithyou

tanko wrote: »

A cow just after calving here, very quickly after putting the water bag out. Feckin cleaning was wrapped around the calf's head, suffocating him. Just got it off in time, I'd say a couple more minutes he would have been gone. Seems ok now.

exact same thing just happened here 15 mins ago... thankfully calf ok... but it was close.. too close.. another min or two and calf would be dead... calf now up finding its feet... talk about a fine line between life and death!!

whelan2

ony had 3 calve in the last week all from heifers, aa bull went in to cows on 3rd of june, afraid now calves are going to be massive, 6 cows in pen to calve, thought they would be calved by now

Reggie.

We have around 3 that will calve shortly and the first one is huge. The other lot around a few weeks yet

Timmaay

Used mostly HE on the late calvers, the bull I used alot of has had his calving score rocket to 4 Ughhhhh. Next year I think it will be KYA all the way.