Calving 2024

Diarmuid B

had a heifer calve here yesterday evening around 5 o clock. 27 months old and she has heaps of milk. Seems to have a touch of mastitis in two quarters, milking fine but the quarters are a little hard.

Shes bonded with the calf but will not let her suck. Keeps bawling st the calf to get up but then starts headbutting the calf around the place and pushing it away. Anything I can do to get her to let the calf suck other than put her in the calving gate?

tellmeabit

Try distract with meal. Some people used to bring a dog near by so cow becomes distracted/protective.- might drive cow wild thou.

It would be the calving gate and meal for me for the few days eventually lose the gate and just meal and when hormones go off the cow calf normally wears her down

Diarmuid B

Yeah I had her in the crush there, kicked for a the first couple of times the calf went to suck but she then stood still and calf had a good drink. Let the heifer out of the crush and every time the calf moved she throws a headbutt at it. Then she’ll start licking the calf and then another headbutt🤦🏻‍♂️ have the calf separated from her now in the feeding passage so we’ll see how that goes

ABitofsense

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805836#Comment_121805836

I always have one every year, usually a heifer. Worst thing you can do is separate them as drives her even madder to get at the calf and can get dangerous. I did this a few years ago as I thought she was going to kill the calf. But then she nearly went over gates and all to get to the calf and kill me! Put Calf back in and she settled once the calf stood and sucked, can take an hour, but they'll be grand.

patsy_mccabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121704672#Comment_121704672

I have the Tecnall calving jack and get on fine with it.

Tecnall Calving Jack | Liffey Mills

patsy_mccabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805762#Comment_121805762

I'd put her in the calving gate twice a day with some meal. Rub the heifer down along the backbone with a thumb on one side of the bone and the fingers on the other. A trick a vet showed me years ago. She'll stop kicking then. She should calm down after a few days.

Diarmuid B

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813528#Comment_121813528

Yea I’m doing that at the moment. Strange thing is she doesn’t kick at all in the calving gate when the calf is sucking, but she will not let the calf near her out in the pen. She’ll sit right beside the calf and lick it when the calf is sitting down. But the minute the calf is up on its feet and jumping around she starts headbutting it and getting aggressive.

Pie Man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814153#Comment_121814153

We had a heifer do the same, she would lick the calf when it was laying down and when it got up went mad Head butting it. We put it down to hormones after calving. She was fine the next day, did your heifer drop the cleanings?

Diarmuid B

Yup she passed all the cleanings pretty quick. I let her have some of it before taking it off her. Nearly got caught one year with a cow choking on it so we don’t tend to let them have it. She seems a bit calmer this morning, didn’t have to close the calving gate on her when the calf was sucking and she’s licking the calf a good bit today.

tanko

She’ll be grand in another couple of days, she probably didn’t have mastitis either, just a bit of flagging which heifers often do, it leaves the quarters hard and a bit sore.

Diarmuid B

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121815238#Comment_121815238

id say you could be right there, they’re still a bit hard but a lot better compared to Friday and she’s letting the calf suckle on all 4

Dunedin

Finished calving here. 21 calves from 20 cows so happy enough. Had a couple of hard calvings in addition to a couple of sections which is not ideal but such is calving time.

had a bit of scour for a week and was dreading the crypto arrival but got them tested and thankfully nothing. All cleared up and waiting now for the weather to settle to let them out.

SuperTortoise

Off and running today, 19 to go!

golodge

Had three unsuccesfull last calvings, so finally broke the spell it seems.

Fair lump of a bluex heifer out of limx cow. Assisted, 289 days, 57kg. Sired by Jefferson de dessous la ville.

Lime Tree Farm

A fair lump of a calf alright, (you are picking up our lingo). How do you manage water supply during freezing temperatures.

Sorry to hear about your loss of 3 calves.

golodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121823236#Comment_121823236

Water is delivered every second day with the water tank for each group into their water troughs. Also have to break the ice everyday if it's really cold.

Actually it was 4 calves as there was one set of twins. That was the first unsuccesfull calving, bad position of both calves and placenta going first. Twin bluex heifers...Then had a calf probably taking a breath too early as her wholr respiratory tract was full of mucus and couldn't clear it in time. And the last one was cow just dieing during calving. Left her for 30min as she was an experienced cow and found her just freshly dead. Calf was just barely entering her pelvis... It is quite stressful to continue calving season after such row of events.

Lime Tree Farm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121823498#Comment_121823498

We had about 10 days of icy temperatures before Christmas, I thought of you at the time and wondered how you keep cattle supplied with water- they consume a lot of water.

Reggie.

Calving away here at a serious pace.

170 calved since 2nd week of Feb.

Steady 6 to 10 a day. 60 left so at this pace will be over next weekend.

AA are coming very large this year.

20240226_123302.jpg

whelan2

Are the angus ai or stock bull

Reggie.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121827054#Comment_121827054

Both.

giggionstown bulls and I believe the AI bull is TicToc from LIC

That fella up there was from AI

Good loser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121827170#Comment_121827170

Have you synchronised the calving with office hours?

Reggie.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831041#Comment_121831041

Unfortunately they are on a 24hr rota

Most calve between 2am and 8am

Bastards

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831141#Comment_121831141

Give them their bigger feed late at night

Lime Tree Farm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831212#Comment_121831212

And once a day - or minimum during daylight. It works.

alan10

Twin Bulls - Dovea LM5887 (Ivantonov)

SIX Cow - 2nd calver. Popped them out no bother, didn't know she was expecting twins. Shes not that big of a cow. One bit slower than other.

alan10

Week old Ivor bull calf.

alan10

Week old Rocco bull calf.

He was a twin, other 1 dead at birth. This lad not great, bit dopey sucking ok but temp 39.8 to 40C last few days. Had vet out 3 days ago, touch pneumonia, got alot of drugs but temp still up. Endocam, steroids, antibiotics.

funkey_monkey

What pre calving minerals are you all giving your cows?

We are currently using a powder since housing. However, I've been wondering if it works be cheaper and better to switch to a bolus?

Jb1989

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805762#Comment_121805762

How go since

Diarmuid B

Update on this pair, she’s still figuring out the calf and what she’s doing. One minute she’s mad for the calf, the next she’s trying to batter it with her head. In the crush twice a day with a handful of nuts to get the calf to suck. She’s sneaking a drink the odd occasion in the shed before being attacked🤣 tonight was the first time I didn’t lock the head gate and she just stood there and ate the nuts so here’s hoping we’ve turned the corner 🤞🤞