When's calving starting 2020

Seanhorse91

Think I figured out what caused the swelling with my calf’s eyelid. When I was calving the cow I used lube to help her out, just thinking maybe I put some in the calf’s eye when I was rubbing it in there

Mooooo

Just had a tiny calf land here. Cow was due yday. Handled her fearing twins or triplets but nothing. Calf is even small if it was one. Alive and trying to stand. May check ai book that I didn't serve her later and not record it but the calf born a month early back in Jan was bigger than this. Strange one

Parishlad

Fine big heifer calf landed this morning. I had been watching her on the camera all night and she calved this morning while I was getting my crew out to school! Didn't even see her calving after all of it. Luckily my nephew is on mid-term this week so he has taken care of things for me. Took a while to get the calf up so he gave her a bottle of beastings to get her going. She's up now and looking lively so hopefully will suck the mother soon herself.
That's 12 calved now since 20th January. Only 8 more to go and a couple of those will be April or even May.

farming93

Lovely fifty cent simmental heifer calf out of a hurracaine gonzo cow. Checked last night at three with no signs and she had it landed in the yard for 8 30 this morning. Calf had to be stomach tubed as it had no interest in sucking which is the first I've ever seen that way here.

Gudstock

2yr old Maiden heifer calved unbeknownst to us early this morning. Calf was AA and lively bull. Seen at 10.30am all great. Seen again at 2.30pm calf dead, heifer lied on him. Heifer had been in that pen by herself for the past few days.
11 calved so far, 2 losses - the above and calf off a 3 yr old fat heifer that was too long calving, that calf got type of palsy and wouldn't drink or walk.

Lime Tree Farm

Gudstock wrote: »

2yr old Maiden heifer calved unbeknownst to us early this morning. Calf was AA and lively bull. Seen at 10.30am all great. Seen again at 2.30pm calf dead, heifer lied on him. Heifer had been in that pen by herself for the past few days.
11 calved so far, 2 losses - the above and calf off a 3 yr old fat heifer that was too long calving, that calf got type of palsy and wouldn't drink or walk.

Bummer, sorry to hear that. You got to put it behind you -

High bike

Spent the last 3 days trying to get a calf to suck; thank fcuk the penny finally dropped this evening he can’t get enough of it now

squinn2912

Mixed fortunes overnight here. Maiden bb heifer I watched her lying out but making little headway in an hour so rang my da and we went to check her out. I handled her and didn’t think her open enough to calve but he thought we’d take him out. Calf dead by the time the head was out. After an hour of jacking we could get no further than the hinches. Had to ring vet anyway and cut him out. Another hour and a half. Very annoyed we put that wee heifer through all that I should have been firmer I knew she wasn’t fit. She might be fit to get up in a few days.
At about 5 this morning another one started to sick. Big lim cow. Got a couple of hours then handled her and the calf was on his side. Vet came and we popped out a nice lim heifer calf. Just pumped a drop of milk into her. One calf saved the other I suppose.
12 calved 10 calves on the ground.

tanko

That's unfortunate, what was the BB heifer in-calf to, was it a Lim?

squinn2912

tanko wrote: »

That's unfortunate, what was the BB heifer in-calf to, was it a Lim?

It is. Lovely quiet heifer with a great bag of milk. I’ll need to check weights because she’s only around 500kgs today so maybe we bulled her too early. But it wasn’t a big calf her opening was far too tight. She was AI’d at least once so I need to check what bulls we used. My suspicion is ivor. We have very few bb maybe not the best to keep?

Gods Gift

Done something stupid here.

Got turf mull and put some incalf heifers on it for a night to make space. They had a great time on it. The craic was mighty.
But 2 threw calves a couple of days later. Weren’t due to calve for another month.

tanko

I know some farmers like BBX cows but i wouldn't be a fan of them.
They're grand if they're a good square wide R grade but if they're more of a shapey U grade animal they can give plenty of bother calving, especially if crossed with a Lim or a CH bull.
Purebred BB cows don't calve naturally so crossbreed ones often don't have great calving ability and with the double muscle gene in the mix you can end up with calves with big ends even off easy calved Lims like Ivor.
An easy calving Saler would have been the job for that heifer but it sounds like she wouldn't have calved much by herself.

Lady Haywire

I think with blues you need them to be matured & aim for a live first calf, whatever breed it is! Only ever had one here & she had 2 sections......have a weanling blue kept on to try next year, but she's more square than round & her mother, grandmother & great grandmother were all great calvers! She's absolutely, completely, totally head over heels in love with me too, follows me about like a lamb, so that helped her cause for staying :pac:

charolais0153

A limousin bull on a belgian blue heifer thats is only 500kgs, come on like, your only asking for trouble and you put the pair through undue suffering , shed be too light to have any calf imo,

patsy_mccabe

Belgian blues are just not right inside to calf naturally. A lot of people think it's the muscle that's the problem, but there's no muscle in the pelvic opening. Plenty of very muscular limousin cows out there that can calf away no problem.

squinn2912

charolais0153 wrote: »

A limousin bull on a belgian blue heifer thats is only 500kgs, come on like, your only asking for trouble and you put the pair through undue suffering , shed be too light to have any calf imo,

Had to calve two more since I haven’t had time to check all out. I was sure she was Angus ai the calf was tiny she just didn’t open at all. She was around 400 kgs bulling just grew very little since it can happen. Have calved blues to lim over the years no issues. Blue cow down there spat out 3 Charolais calves.
Anyhow. You’re not telling me anything I’m not saying to myself all day. But on this one what’s annoying me is the handling of things last night should have been vet straight away so it’s a tough lesson.

squinn2912

tanko wrote: »

I know some farmers like BBX cows but i wouldn't be a fan of them.
They're grand if they're a good square wide R grade but if they're more of a shapey U grade animal they can give plenty of bother calving, especially if crossed with a Lim or a CH bull.
Purebred BB cows don't calve naturally so crossbreed ones often don't have great calving ability and with the double muscle gene in the mix you can end up with calves with big ends even off easy calved Lims like Ivor.
An easy calving Saler would have been the job for that heifer but it sounds like she wouldn't have calved much by herself.

Yea that’s it. She didn’t open up enough. I’m mad coz I’ve been fretting about her for a few weeks but anyhow I have 22 more to worry about now just hope she gets up

greysides

squinn2912 wrote: »

Anyhow. You’re not telling me anything I’m not saying to myself all day. But on this one what’s annoying me is the handling of things last night should have been vet straight away so it’s a tough lesson.

There's nothing simple about making those decisions. We all make the wrong call at some point. Learn what you can from it and move on.

squinn2912

greysides wrote: »

There's nothing simple about making those decisions. We all make the wrong call at some point. Learn what you can from it and move on.

Yea that’s it and very often they work out better. Just supervised a bb cow spit out a nice black calf. Think it’s a bull I wouldn’t send a grizzly bear into this one around calving! She’s 700 kgs plus though so a different kettle of fish. Calf number 2 from yesterday just got a feed his legs are still a bit weak but he’s getting up himself so should suck soon. 11 calves now so I’m a bit more bearable than I was yesterday. Caught up on some sleep last night and there’ll be no calves tonight. Just as well my arms are in bits today. Reading tb test this afternoon all looks fine so luck is turning

Limestone Cowboy

squinn2912 wrote: »

Had to calve two more since I haven’t had time to check all out. I was sure she was Angus ai the calf was tiny she just didn’t open at all. She was around 400 kgs bulling just grew very little since it can happen. Have calved blues to lim over the years no issues. Blue cow down there spat out 3 Charolais calves.
Anyhow. You’re not telling me anything I’m not saying to myself all day. But on this one what’s annoying me is the handling of things last night should have been vet straight away so it’s a tough lesson.

The one I did the section on a fortnight ago was the same. Felt like there should have been enough room in the pelvis but she wouldn't open enough either.

50HX

High bike wrote: »

Spent the last 3 days trying to get a calf to suck; thank fcuk the penny finally dropped this evening he can’t get enough of it now

Kind of same story here

Lm bull last night, stomach tubed him as it was 3am and 2 sick kids at home

No way will she stand for him,can just about get her milked and bottle him

Probably still has a bit of sickness so hopefully it'll pass soon

She wasn't as bad last year but calf was a speckled park and some boyo to make out:D

squinn2912

Just done my checking my wee blue girl was served to AA and she calved on 280 days. We were careful enough in may. Didn’t get up yet but I think she will. Two new calves since getting it very hard to suck despite one calving unassisted without any abuse. Space is getting very tight. All clear on tb test though so that’s something to cling on to

Seanhorse91

Can’t take a good enough picture of this fella to do him justice. Born 2 nights ago. 65kg:rolleyes: 3rd calver lim and New Charolais stock bull. Thank god he’s lively!

Lady Haywire

Seanhorse91 wrote: »

Can’t take a good enough picture of this fella to do him justice. Born 2 nights ago. 65kg:rolleyes: 3rd calver lim and New Charolais stock bull. Thank god he’s lively!

If we could all have 20 like that!!!

Nout on home farm yet, though a heifer not due til first week of Feb (9 months from AI) is making a serious bag. Same happened last year & it was twins.....:pac:
Though don't first calvers always go a bit early? She's incalf to CH.

squinn2912

Seanhorse91 wrote: »

Can’t take a good enough picture of this fella to do him justice. Born 2 nights ago. 65kg:rolleyes: 3rd calver lim and New Charolais stock bull. Thank god he’s lively!

Yon lad’s ready to bull cows she did great work to get him going. My nobbly kneed torturer took a good suck this evening with some help. Thank Christ she’s a lovely quiet cow God love her. Oul grizzly is calmed a bit but her calf didn’t straighten yet neither so he got a liter into him tonight that he might do a hands turn himself overnight. Eye in the sky job

Lady Haywire

squinn2912 wrote: »

Yon lad’s ready to bull cows she did great work to get him going. My nobbly kneed torturer took a good suck this evening with some help. Thank Christ she’s a lovely quiet cow God love her. Oul grizzly is calmed a bit but her calf didn’t straighten yet neither so he got a liter into him tonight that he might do a hands turn himself overnight. Eye in the sky job

Minerals pre calving?

squinn2912

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Minerals pre calving?

Tick! And loads of them. I got going early on that this year. The earliest calves had no bother at all that way but for the wee twin

Hard Knocks

squinn2912 wrote: »

Tick! And loads of them. I got going early on that this year. The earliest calves had no bother at all that way but for the wee twin

Hardly lacking iodine?
I gave all trace to cows going into shed & they’re lacking iodine now

sonnybill

First one !

squinn2912

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Hardly lacking iodine?
I gave all trace to cows going into shed & they’re lacking iodine now

I don’t think so lad I need to check the bolus but I think they got it. Anyhow just caught the wee frigger sucking her on the camera so life is good again