When's calving starting 2023

Jb1989

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120494605#Comment_120494605

Well your happy enough to ship her off with no hassle so go with that. At least you've the line still with last year's heifer

squinn2912

There are times when it’s nice to be at work and in a doctor’s waiting room and miss all the fun

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120457429#Comment_120457429

A update on the heifer and her adopted bull calf. The calf got an awful scour with bloody flecks through it within a three or four days so I treated him with electrolytes four times daily and a half a sachet of suplha no.2 powders once daily. It was touch and go with him for a couple of days as he was too weak to suck the heifer but we also bottled fed/syringed a litre or so of milk from her trice daily - I also put a calf rug on him to help him maintain his temperature. I brought him to the Vet to get an IV drip and the Vet added bread soda to the drip (never seen it done before) and it made a huge difference - because I was treating him with sulpha powders the Vet didn't do a scour test. Thankfully he has turned the corner, is bouncing around the pen and sucking freely from the heifer. I'm going to leave them in the shed for a few more days until the weather settles before letting them out into the small paddock behind the house to keep an eye on them.

Had a 3rd calving pbnr LM cow by ZAG calve yesterday morning. We bought her incalf to a LM as a heifer and she was tight calving with the jack. Last year she calved a bull calf unassisted to the stock bull. We had to jack the bull calf out as she wasn't making any progress. Unfortunately she put her calf bed out about five hours later and we had to get the Vet for her. Cow and calf are fine but unfortunately she is another one for feeding.

Lime Tree Farm

@Base price The Vet treating the calf may have included treatment for accidiodis.

GNWoodd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120511869#Comment_120511869

Would you always cull for putting the calf bed out ? Or has anyone ever tried putting them in calf again ?

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120512827#Comment_120512827

Better get rid of them imo.

squinn2912

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120512827#Comment_120512827

Well lad, I have a cow at note now about to have her third calf. AS a heifer she calved on slats and put the calf bed out overnight so it had come away out by the time we got to her and got the vet. She calved no bother herself last year and had a heifer calf. I'll update you about how she gets on this year so it's fingers crossed. She always has a lovely muscly calf but not overly growy and now a bit late so ill see what she has this time and if it's not a great calf she will be let on too but for another reason. Older cows if they put the calf bed out were culled I can think of 2 off the top of my head going back about 5 years I think.

squinn2912

Kept an eye on this girl from the pub as I was watching Armagh beat Cavan. Some calf

golodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120512827#Comment_120512827

Had one having an uterine prolapse as a heifer. She turned 11 years old this year, no repeated issue and her calves are always on a bigger side. She actually had a lovely heifer calf a couple days ago. We do not cull cows for this reason. None reapeated prolapse yet.

minerleague

squinn2912 Just a quick question on the size of your calving pens, Mostly try to calve outside but last few years calve more indoors in pens 15' x 15' and still some end up calving up against wall or gate. Your pens look smaller than that so do you end up with this problem at all?

Limestone Cowboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120512827#Comment_120512827

Have kept a few of them after, never had a problem with them.

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120512827#Comment_120512827

Not necessarily, we have a heifer that put out her calf bed a few years ago and she has had three calves since. However she does try to put it out after calving each time so when she is near calving I get an injection of oxytocin and a bottle of oral drench (I cant remember the name of it) from the Vet and both are given as soon as she calves. It helps but when she lies down she starts to push. To overcome the problem as soon as the calf has sucked we put her out into the yard away from the calf that way she is preoccupied with trying to get back into the calf rather than lying down iykwim.

Edit to add - the cow that put it out on Saturday is actually a 4th calver, I thought she was a 3rd calver. She has got more wicked after each calving so it's a good reason to remove the threat of possible human injury.

GNWoodd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120512827#Comment_120512827

Many Thanks for all the replies on this

ABitofsense

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120514111#Comment_120514111

My pins would be on the small side (father used to be dairy) so around 11ft x 11ft each. TBH i thought the same with the bigger sucklers i have now, so used to open the gate between pins so 11ft x 22ft and they still calved against the gates and walls! They will lie where their comfortable i find.

squinn2912

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120515903#Comment_120515903

@minerleague Sorry lad I just noticed this question. That used to be a milking parlour so yea it is a touch more narrow than would be ideal. The middle pen is small but cows can calve it in dead on, just there’s a wee slope going towards the back pen and calves can slip a bit on it. The back pen is roomy but not enough to divide even in it sometimes they lie right into the wall. I agree with above they pick their spot regardless. One time I had a small cow and she calved out through a gate into another one with a young calf. I had to chance in and get her own calf back to her and both were agitated. I went over the lane to feed a group and when I came back 45 mins later she had calved another calf out the other gate and into another cow with a calf. Same Job to do but all were fine. Since then any new cow for calving goes into an end pen!

squinn2912

Meant to say those two pens are just 9ft wide. Tighter than you’d like but the cows work grand in them

Sugarbowl

I have a cow that’s 301 days in calf to a LM today. She’s not making much of a spring. Her udder is very slack. I never got her scanned but presumably she’s in calf. Can she go much longer than this?

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120518054#Comment_120518054

I think 306 was the longest here. Lim cows incalf to lim bulls are notorious for it. The year i used KJB here was a joke, ten months wasn’t unusual. Is she softening behind?

emaherx

The 13 month old heifer that calved 2 weeks ago,

Calf is very small but lively, think it may have found a flaw in the fencing.

The very last one calved today at lunch time. (Will be the very last one as I will sell the cows at weaning and buy in calves from next year.)

squinn2912

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120520525#Comment_120520525

That looks a good cow pity she’s on the lateish side. What kinda breeding do you have? And numbers? Will you go completely out of the cows? We are talking about cutting back a bit on them. It’s a ludicrous situation having to buy fodder every year in March and then in the summer its a fight with the fence every day in life to give them enough.

Sugarbowl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120520442#Comment_120520442

301 is the longest here. Yeah she is softening alright around the rear end, the pin bones are staying up for now. She is never much of a milker so prob won’t spring all that much coming to think of it. Hopefully she doesn’t have a monster inside her, that’s my biggest concern. I’ll post here what happens

SuperTortoise

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120518054#Comment_120518054

303 is my best if i remember correct, LM bulls are notorious for bringing time, 2 weeks would be standard with a LM bull.

Any chance she broke?

charolais0153

Big Pps heifer last night. Will be the last one to calf here . Cows will be going this autumn

squinn2912

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120520816#Comment_120520816

That’s some calf

Sugarbowl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120520787#Comment_120520787

No bull here, all AI so dates are fairly accurate

James2022

I had what I would describe the ideal calving season this year. 1-2 calves everyday for 4-5 weeks before it calmed down to 1 every 2 days. Lots of really nice replacement heifers from AI. Only had to use the jack once and provide considerable assistance to 3 other animals. Calves all born in the correct position, mostly during the day, up and suckling quickly. The wet weather was annoying but I just made pens within pens to house all the calves. Heifers all calving easily and taking to their calves straight away. Then I go to let out some cows and calves last week and while in the pen one of my best calves has a seizure and dies. Gutted. I've had some very bad years but never nice to end on a downer despite all the luck throughout the season.

What really helped me this year was double and often triple checking the stock bulls to get dates, cutting feed way back to keep cows from gaining weight, feeding meal+mineral powder every few days starting 2-3 weeks beforehand, this brings on colostrum and gives mother+calf energy during labour, lick buckets 2 months before calving and one of the most important things was to have the cow in the calving pen 24-48 hours before calving. Moving a cow from one shed to another usually delays calving by an hour, often more so I found this helps a lot. Cows are much calmer since they know their surrounding and aren't trying to get into the calf in the next pen thinking its theirs.

One thing I started doing when I was around the sheds was feeding most calves a bottle 20-25 mins after its calved. This is before they've stood and every time the calf would take it. I just use milk replacer and feed 200-500ml depending on the calf. This really kicks them into gear, they'll really make the effort to stand and will latch on to the udder first time. I'm also a believer in lifting up a calf and getting it standing if it's having any trouble. It's relieving to have calves standing, full and laying down to be cleaned off by the cow before they are an hour old.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120520739#Comment_120520739

She's a second calver, 81%AA with some HO/MO. By lateish, you mean in the season? I always put the bull to the heifers last, she was a bit later last year. She's a big hungry cow so she'll probably fatten well.

Mostly AAX, HEX and SIX cows, always kept an AA bull. Only 12 cows this year been getting progressively smaller the past few years. Cost of good bulls is a factor too, I'd considered AI this year but the farm is just too fragmented to be practical. Kids want to be more and more involved in the farm too and I think calf rearing will suite tha too. The house is a few KM from the yard too, so watching cows from a far by camera.

I've had a big career change and opted for a WFH part time job, to cut out on the child minding and probably have a good opportunity now to concentrate better on the profitability of the farm while still having more family time.

squinn2912

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120521696#Comment_120521696

Yea that’s what I meant. Wouldn’t mind April though but May calvers are very late. We would try to pull them back or let them into autumn girls once. You might do well selling with calf at foot but mayne you wanna keep weanlings and let them run on?

You seem well thought through anyhow. Good luck with whatever way you go, be interesting to see how it goes for you.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120521857#Comment_120521857

Yea I'd agree, normally try to be finished before mid April, this one ended up a little later last year. I always tried to avoid Autumn calving altogether.

Plan is to keep the weanlings, I've bred very quite stock that are used to trailers and paddocks, so at least I know where I'll stand with them as yearlings. Sell cows at weaning and start buying in calves in spring and increase numbers. At least I won't need to worry about grass over the next 2 years, probably have to bale and sell surplus.

Hope it's well thought out, but really only one way to find out.

minerleague

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120521590#Comment_120521590

Don't think I'd agree with your last paragraph, would it not dilute colostrum or even curdle it? Think it better to have calf hungry to take in maximum from cow.