When's calving starting 2021

ABitofsense · 06-04-2021 6:37pm

Suprise cow today with a grand knell bull. All herself. A month "early", she was one of my repeat cows so wasn't due til next month. She held the 1st time. Down to last 2 which are definitely next month.

squinn2912 · 06-04-2021 10:31pm

tellmeabit wrote: »

This year, I fed the bunch coming bear calving for 2 weeks prior close to midnight. As much as they wanted, pushed in a bit in morning and nothing around midday till midnight again. All calved (9)from early moringin so far. One was calved by 7 am, nothing after midnight. I know numbers are small but the late feeding is said to help.

Ah yea I’d be a believer in the evening feed. Doing it at midnight is pretty late on you though but if it means you get your sleep. Waiting on 2 wee heifers but I think they’ll go to morning. Here’s hoping.

squinn2912 · 06-04-2021 10:32pm

ABitofsense wrote: »

Suprise cow today with a grand knell bull. All herself. A month "early", she was one of my repeat cows so wasn't due til next month. She held the 1st time. Down to last 2 which are definitely next month.

That was a great wee bonus!! What is the calf like? I’ve been pretty pleased with the knell calves we got from the autumn heifers. Great, solid chunks.

minerleague · 06-04-2021 10:40pm

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Pulled a calf with a friend out of a springer last night, tight enough pull and she went down when he came to the hips and was caught for a minute while we were trying to get her over on her side. Calf appeared to be stone dead when we got him out. No breathing, eye sank, no movement. He started giving him mouth to mouth and after a good minute he took a breath, neither of us could believe it. Was still very weak but he's sitting up properly this morning and a lot livelier looking in general. Think we will be calling him lazarus for the year

Good result. Anyone find it hard to keep the cradle of the jack on a cow thats down ? was with a neighbour this morning ( first calver , calf half way out and stuck ) and the jack kept slipping. got him out but i had to hold cradle up while he jacked.

Who2 · 06-04-2021 10:44pm

Just had my first Firefox calf of a lm heifer here today, cracking calf and seriously well marked and no balls.

Limestone Cowboy · 07-04-2021 12:44am

minerleague wrote: »

Good result. Anyone find it hard to keep the cradle of the jack on a cow thats down ? was with a neighbour this morning ( first calver , calf half way out and stuck ) and the jack kept slipping. got him out but i had to hold cradle up while he jacked.

I bought a vink jack a few years back and the cradle is shaped slightly different on it. It won't slip down the cows legs if she is out on her side while you are pulling. Expensive though. The old Jack was a disaster for it, you'd want a second person trying to keep the jack up high enough.

squinn2912 · 07-04-2021 1:16am

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

I bought a vink jack a few years back and the cradle is shaped slightly different on it. It won't slip down the cows legs if she is out on her side while you are pulling. Expensive though. The old Jack was a disaster for it, you'd want a second person trying to keep the jack up high enough.

https://josephwallsonline.com/product/calving-aid-1800mm-vink-dairy/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpPPJ_Ozq7wIVEL_tCh3APg3aEAQYASABEgLusfD_BwE

This is the one we have. I’ve used it on my own but normally my da holds it up and I pull. The one the vet has is more cylindrical and has more power but this is a great one too

Sami23 · 07-04-2021 1:32pm

Anyone planning to let out any freshly calved cows and calves this week with the cold weather and wintery showers forecast for next while.

squinn2912 · 07-04-2021 4:00pm

Sami23 wrote: »

Anyone planning to let out any freshly calved cows and calves this week with the cold weather and wintery showers forecast for next while.

No I think we’ll keep them in until it’s a bit more nature. Have 14 out and 3 in the shed

Irish Beef · 07-04-2021 4:19pm

Have a calf out since last Friday, he seems to be doing okay but there was some very cold nights over the last few days and his nose is quite red, also his mother's bag and teats are also red and chapped, he doesn't seem to be empting her out as well as he was but she probably has twice the milk now. Just wondering would this be common for such cold weather or could he be coming down with something?

SuperTortoise · 07-04-2021 5:58pm

Sami23 wrote: »

Anyone planning to let out any freshly calved cows and calves this week with the cold weather and wintery showers forecast for next while.

I'll be holding them in for another week, weekend promised very cold with showers of sleet. Was going to chance letting out those already calved last week, glad now i did'nt.

Who2 · 07-04-2021 8:17pm

I’ve around half out and found one standing frothing and twitching last week. It was the first time I’d ever had tetany but thankfully got her in time and she seems to be coming right.

Lady Haywire · 07-04-2021 8:33pm

All out here (well, 4 cows & calves) with one in. She'd be out too but she leaps out through the barrier & beds herself so no issue with letting her do her thing.

Lots of shelter in the fields they're in though.

Base price · 07-04-2021 8:47pm

Who2 wrote: »

Just had my first Firefox calf of a lm heifer here today, cracking calf and seriously well marked and no balls.

Any pics.
I had a lovely marked Chapleton Kingsley (SH4473) calf born out of a red white head 2nd calver last week but it had dangly bits. I shouldn't complain as it she delivered a live healthy calf but....

tanko · 07-04-2021 9:16pm

Who2 wrote: »

I’ve around half out and found one standing frothing and twitching last week. It was the first time I’d ever had tetany but thankfully got her in time and she seems to be coming right.

You were lucky, rigor mortis is often the first symptom seen.
Are they getting silage or hay?

Sugarbowl · 07-04-2021 11:07pm

Any remedy to get a young calf bowel moving? I’ve a ch heifer less than a week old and he has a fullness in the stomach. Not passing dung after sucking and reduced appetite.

DukeCaboom · 07-04-2021 11:14pm

Sugarbowl wrote: »

Any remedy to get a young calf bowel moving? I’ve a ch heifer less than a week old and he has a fullness in the stomach. Not passing dung after sucking and reduced appetite.

Olive oil in a syringe back the throat.

whelan2 · 08-04-2021 6:17am

Has she passed any dung at all?

Who2 · 08-04-2021 6:29am

tanko wrote: »

You were lucky, rigor mortis is often the first symptom seen.
Are they getting silage or hay?

Hay in a ring feeder.

Sugarbowl · 08-04-2021 6:35am

whelan2 wrote: »

Has she passed any dung at all?

Yeah she has. This has just come on the last day or 2. It has happened to me before too and eventually resolved itself out. Just wondering was there anything I could do to help her out.

Green&Red · 08-04-2021 6:39am

Sugarbowl wrote: »

Yeah she has. This has just come on the last day or 2. It has happened to me before too and eventually resolved itself out. Just wondering was there anything I could do to help her out.

He’ll need bread soda too to deal with acid building up in the stomach

Sugarbowl · 08-04-2021 6:42am

What quantities of olive oil and bread soda would ye recommend? Thanks for suggestions

Green&Red · 08-04-2021 6:44am

Sugarbowl wrote: »

What quantities of olive oil and bread soda would ye recommend? Thanks for suggestions

Not a lot, couple of spoons. Make sure it’s bread and not baking soda

Irish Beef · 08-04-2021 8:30am

Sugarbowl wrote: »

Any remedy to get a young calf bowel moving? I’ve a ch heifer less than a week old and he has a fullness in the stomach. Not passing dung after sucking and reduced appetite.

Have you tried giving him an enema, you can get them over counter in most chemists for a few euro and they work in a matter of minutes.

Lady Haywire · 08-04-2021 8:57am

Had one do that - going around with tail up for a day in the pen, couldn't find any dung passed in the pen- so just gave it a drenching gun of liquid paraffin & that was that. Thought that would have been the usual remedy!

bogman_bass · 08-04-2021 9:29am

Sugarbowl wrote: »

Yeah she has. This has just come on the last day or 2. It has happened to me before too and eventually resolved itself out. Just wondering was there anything I could do to help her out.

A shot of metacam to relax the bowel. And a good shot of liquid parafin. If that doesn’t work. Make a really strong solution of coffee. Let it cool and down the hatch.

funkey_monkey · 08-04-2021 10:40am

Stabiliser heifer calf from Stan the Man. Up and skipping through pen.

Irish Beef · 08-04-2021 10:53am

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Stabiliser heifer calf from Stan the Man. Up and skipping through pen.

How are you finding the stabilisers, they're a breed id be interested in. nice healthy calf isn't he.

funkey_monkey · 08-04-2021 11:46am

Irish Beef wrote: »

How are you finding the stabilisers, they're a breed id be interested in. nice healthy calf isn't he.

They suit us. Normally (non-covid times) we both work so they are great in that regards. That calf is only a few hours old and is up skipping about the pen. The calves so far really hit the ground running. Since we got a bull we have no losses nor had to assist a calving - apart from a set of twins which we were aware of and kept a close eye on - but cow would have been fine on her own. However, I'm putting in a calving camera and I expect that it will result in us being present at most of them.

As a caveat most of our cows would have a few years on them - so should calf down relatively easily to most bulls across the spectrum. Although we have had heifers calf too unassisted. We haven't had any real issues with dopey calves doing anything but suck.

The mothers hold condition well and they are easily handled. However, we do be with the cows a lot so they are well used to us which makes handling easier. Calves are easily worked with too - sometimes have to push them out of the way when in pen.

There are a few which can be a bit sharp just after calving. However, that seems to go off after a few hours. Just seems to be a few lines in the breed with it. On The Farming Forum there is the same said.
They seem to be marmite, but the breed approach is something I like. They focus on feed efficiency, weights and milk. They measure this and are now progressing to genetic EBV's.
People compare them unfavourably to Lim & Ch. However, if someone is doing this then they don't know the difference between maternal and terminal breeds. As we are only a small herd any losses are magnified in percentage terms so for us it is more important to get a living calf than maybe a larger scale full-time farmer would can afford to lose a calf and/or spend time nursing them.
They don't sell as well in marts as Ch & Lim - but few other breeds do. For us we get less hassle at calving, no de-horning, easily handled stock compared with the lims we had. The lim bull was okay, but the offspring were mad and were not shaped any better than these Stabilisers we have.

Only got a few bullocks which we might finish. Castrated late and a couple had bad bouts of pneumonia, but averaging 1.3kg/day from birth at 330 days and not being forced - all from our own bull, but as said they are designed as a maternal breed.

Irish Beef · 08-04-2021 12:23pm

funkey_monkey wrote: »

They suit us. Normally (non-covid times) we both work so they are great in that regards. That calf is only a few hours old and is up skipping about the pen. The calves so far really hit the ground running. Since we got a bull we have no losses nor had to assist a calving - apart from a set of twins which we were aware of and kept a close eye on - but cow would have been fine on her own. However, I'm putting in a calving camera and I expect that it will result in us being present at most of them.

As a caveat most of our cows would have a few years on them - so should calf down relatively easily to most bulls across the spectrum. Although we have had heifers calf too unassisted. We haven't had any real issues with dopey calves doing anything but suck.

The mothers hold condition well and they are easily handled. However, we do be with the cows a lot so they are well used to us which makes handling easier. Calves are easily worked with too - sometimes have to push them out of the way when in pen.

There are a few which can be a bit sharp just after calving. However, that seems to go off after a few hours. Just seems to be a few lines in the breed with it. On The Farming Forum there is the same said.
They seem to be marmite, but the breed approach is something I like. They focus on feed efficiency, weights and milk. They measure this and are now progressing to genetic EBV's.
People compare them unfavourably to Lim & Ch. However, if someone is doing this then they don't know the difference between maternal and terminal breeds. As we are only a small herd any losses are magnified in percentage terms so for us it is more important to get a living calf than maybe a larger scale full-time farmer would can afford to lose a calf and/or spend time nursing them.
They don't sell as well in marts as Ch & Lim - but few other breeds do. For us we get less hassle at calving, no de-horning, easily handled stock compared with the lims we had. The lim bull was okay, but the offspring were mad and were not shaped any better than these Stabilisers we have.

Only got a few bullocks which we might finish. Castrated late and a couple had bad bouts of pneumonia, but averaging 1.3kg/day from birth at 330 days and not being forced - all from our own bull, but as said they are designed as a maternal breed.

Similar to yourself here in that we also run a small outfit and calving ease is high up priority list. I would be interested in maybe to see how a few stabilizer or saler cows go and still continue to use the Charolais bull as I sell most as weanlings and the Ch always seem to sell best, taught I could get best of both worlds. They're scares in my neck of the woods, mostly seem to be popular up north.

When's calving starting 2021

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