Hello from Eastern Europe
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Hay season should start pretty soon. Finally got rain and warmth, so it really is noticable in grass growth.
Yesterday's photo of one of the first fields, which will be cut soon.
Been quite busy for the past couple days. Three calves in two days. Two calves by Tomschoice Onslow from limx cows, bull and heifer, 285 and 283 days gestations. One heifer calf sired by Tweeddale Lennox, 282 days gestation, out of bluexlimx heifer.
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Abit of some new blood in the herd. The first Inra95 cross heifer just calved this evening. Small Lennox sired bull calf, 278 days gestation. Have three bulling heifers from the same sire, but have to decide first which will be kept. Second photo is with calved heifer, when she was weanling. She was raised by her adoptive mother. Her own dam didn't have enough of milk to raise her. Possibly some hormonal inbalance as she did a good job with two calves before this one and again raised a very good calf following year.
To my surprise heifer and her adoptive mother met almost two weeks ago and kept each others company since then. The cow herself has two biological daughters in the herd, but no such relationship with them. The third photo is heifer with her adoptive mother this morning.
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Main calving is in March-May here, but we always have some calves born before that from early calvers or late calvers which were left empty until March to catch up with the rest of the herd.
The start was rough. Our only pure lim cow had dead twin bull calves. Second calving to her. The worst part is that we lost her previous heifer due to bloat two weeks before her second calving...
Then had a first calver abort her second calf, which would have been due in less than two months.
Next had two cows calving at the same time. First was born charolais sired heifer from 3/4 lim cow, 290 days gestation, 41kg. Next was bull calf sired by blue bull Newman du blanc dos, out of limxcharolaisx 3rd calver. 64,5kg, 298 days gestation.
Next calf was sired by Whinfellpark Garnish, out of mainly Angus cow. 294 days gestation, 50kg.
The following calf was a challenge. Crows had injured his leg. He lost quite a lot of blood and in couple hours his rectal temperature dropped below 32°C. Brought him home, iv fluids, warming him. Finally before midnight his temperature was abit over 37°. On the second day reunited him with his dam in the shed. It's been four days since his birth. He is nursing by himself, but still quite unstable on his feet. Weighed him yesterday 42kg, 286 days gestation. Sired by parthenaise bull Lamparo, dam is 3/4 lim.
The last calf was born two days ago. Sired by blonde bull Gazou, out of limxbluexdairy cow, 300 days gestation, 64,5 kg.
The next cow is due on the 28th of February. There will be 11 cows due in March. So far only AI calves until April. Then will have the first calves born from the new lim bull. The end of April will be the start of heifers calving. Almost all AI bred.
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9 days old already. So far lovely natured calf and shaping up well. His dam isn't particularly milky though, so I have some thoughts about using simmental for her next calf to increase milk abit if she will have a heifer.
Will do an update on last year's calves too. Had some real nice heifers.
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1st- simmental sired heifer from limx hereford x dairy cow.
2nd- parthenaise heifer from limx cow.
3rd- VRB heifer from angusx cow.
4th- parthenaise sired heifer from blondexlimx heifer.
5th- blonde heifer from limx cow. Dam incalf again to blonde and due in March.
6th- Tomschoice Onslow sired heifer from mainly lim cow.
7th- bluex angusx heifer.
8th- VRB heifer from 3/4 lim, 1/4 dairy cow. Dam is turning 14 this year. Should be incalf to the blue Langoureux.
9th- piedmontese sired heifer with limxbluexdairy dam. Had 4 calves from her sire in total. She was the only normal size calf, other three were 60-64kg. From these 4 only two survived until weaning. Other two died on the 3rd day after birth.
10th- blonde from limx cow. The blondex first calver from the 4th photo is from the same dam.
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1st- Tweeddale Lennox sired bull calf from heifer. Heifer herself didn't have milk, so she was culled and her calf adopted by the cow, which lost her calf.
2nd- Tomschoice Onslow heifer from simmentalxlimx heifer. Really like Onslow calves. All calved unassisted, great growth and good shape.
3rd- a pair of calves by homebred crossbred bull. Had a herdbull injuring his working "equipment" and several cows weren't showing noticable heats, so decided to use our own bull to cover those instead of loosing a whole year with them.
4th- piedmontese sired bull calf. 64kg birth weight, but he was very lively calf for his weight.
5th- piedmontese sired heifer. This one unfortunately was one from those two, which hadn't lived for long despite all the care. 63,5kg birth weight and almost 300 days gestation.
6th- bull calf by the limousine herd bull, out of limx second calver.
7th- VRB sired bull calf. Dam has angus, lim, charolais and dairy.
Last year had way more heifers. This year so far from 8 only one heifer.
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Now a group of heifers, which will calve this year. All except one were AI'ed on natural heats. From 12 10 held on the first serving. Two were repeated once more, but at the end were bred by the lim bull. The first one will be due on the 20th of April, the last one incalf to AI is due on the 26th of May.
First two were bred by the bull, so will be the latest ones to calve. I believe they will be due in July. One charolaisxlimx, another piedmontese xlimx.
3rd is blondex from limxcharolaisxdairy cow. Her own birth weight was 58kg, but was born unassisted. Incalf to easy calving blonde bull. Due on the 16th of May.
4th is simmental sired from limxcharolaisx cow. Incalf to easy calving charolais. Due at the end of April.
5th- 75% lim, abit of blue from the granddam. Incalf to blonde and was the only synchronized as she had a very silent heat. Due on the 26th of May.
6th- parthenaise from limx first calver. Incalf to easy calving parthenaise. Due at the end of April or the first days of May.
7th- gasconne sired out of limxcharolaisxdairy cow. Will be the first due to calve. Incalf to easy calving charolais.
8th- inra95 sired heifer. Incalf to limousine. Due date is pretty much almost thr same as the others.
9th- shorthorn sired, incalf to limousine. Also the first due to calve.
10th- simmental sired from angusxbluex dairy cow. Incalf to simmental.
11th- limousine sired from angusxbluexdairy heifer. Bought from a neighbour as a weanling. Incalf to easy calving parthenaise. Due on the 22nd of April.
Also had "pure" angus heifer, which was AI'ed to angus and sold as an incalf heifer with other 10 heifers, which were served by the lim bull.
A couple of incalf heifers we sold to one farmer last year. Can't keep them all, but there were some, which we regret selling, especially the one with white muzzle. She was one of the sweetest heifers we have ever had. Mom made a decision to not keep her in spring, but later in fall regretted that decision. Her dam is due with charolais in March, so hopefully will get another lovely heifer from her.
So that's the whole lineup of incalf heifers. Will be an interesting calving season. Almost all used bulls are new. Tried to make the best possible decisions to have a good alive calf on the ground. In March will start AI on a couple empty cows and early calvers.
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Finally getting back to calving. Unfortunatelly with not the nicest news. Had a heifer born three days ago,sired by culard charolais Grisy, 274days gestation, 38kg. Her dam managed to lay down on her on the first day, but thankfully we came in time. However, the calf went downhill the following day. She also appeares to have persistent urachus. Today made a decision to end her suffering and this morning she was in an extremely bad shape and still getting worse. We brought her home two days ago and she was on intensive care since then, however there was nothing to help her. Post mortem showed jaundice, some adhesions in the abdominal cavity and inflamation in the bladder. That was the last calf for her dam, so she will gain more weight now and will be sold later.
Onto the better news. Another cow calved last night. 296 days gestation bull calf, 49kg, sired by parthenaise bull Ilus. Dam is 50%lim, 12,5% blue, 12,5% angus, 12,5% salers.
Now should move with calvings abit faster. 9 more cows due this month, then over 15 for the next month.
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Three new calves in the past couple days. Also had 6 cows for AI in 4 days.
All bull calves... Seems to be bulls year. First charolais sired out of limxcharx cow, 286 days gestation, 41,5kg. Second VRB Bandito sired, out of mainly lim cow, 285 days gestation, 41kg. The third is sired by Culard charolais bull Nippon, out of limxcharx cow, 287days gestation, 57kg.
A group of others are preparing to calve soon too. Only AI calves yet, but April will bring the first calves by the new lim bull, so it's going to be real interesting to see.
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Another charolais sired bull calf, 289 days gestation, 59,5kg. That was a pretty hard pull with a jack for the first half and way too big build calf for the cow. It was surprising as we already had three calves from the same bull, all around 41-45kg. Cow herself has some angus, hereford, charolais.
Waiting for a couple more calves soon. This year they tend to be carried for longer and fairly big.
Not too bad for 13 days old calf. Sired by parthenaise, out of limx cow.
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