Had a fr heifer calf born this morning in cubicle shed. Cow due 15th January. I served a few in early April as I was penalised for not supplying enough milk last January. A sexed mo salah calf. All good. Best of luck for calving 2022
I’ve seen us forced to move calves out of the calving pens after a day if feet are peeping out of another one. As long as you have plenty of straw down and somewhere for the calf to go he should be ok but I do worry about them on slats. We wind up tying up gates or a bar diagonally across a pen and have 3+3 in there or 2+2. For that to work we need to be able to let lighter cattle out or else use the cowshed. March can be manic swapping about along with the calving. If weather plays ball you can get a few out. Last year they had to be brought back in after about 10 days. Trying.
Ask him can you try your way for a week, actually don't ask , tell him. Is it you doing the donkey work or him?
When we were calving January, a few days days indoors on straw, cows and calves then outdoors onto a crag. Calves had access to a straw bedded hut sectioned off from cows with el fence. Cows fed on a concrete hard stand.
I have a young bull here named after a character in the Simpsons. It turned out to be a very apt name as they are similar in character.
The graip and barrow is exactly how it's being done. There was 15 barrows taken out. And it's pure scutter again just a day later.
I only have around 5 spring calvers, have 40 odd summer calvers. One calved last week and I leave her out to the calf from the slat twice a day.
I generally leave the spring calvers out as they typically calf in March but this one calved in Jan.
Its hard to calf cows in Jan especially in this weather
7 cows max, with calves sucking, for them feeding and all any more than 7 and you’re asking for trouble. Cows after calving on slats need looking after.
With the price of straw would it not make more sense to set up a bedded area strictly for calves and then put the cows and calves together morning and evening for a drink?
Calves would be cleaner
6 cows to a bay sounds like too much room couldn’t a bay fit 8 or 9 even biggish cows.
Thanks for all the responses!
I'm trying to work out the best way but I don't have the knowledge but from other things with the old man he'll not give anything else a chance, he'll say the way he's doing it is the best. He has 5 cows with calves in 4 separate pens (small) with straw. One of the calves is 9 weeks old. Far too much manual work, it's pure messin shoving out muck. One of the pens is on one side of a crush and on the other side of the crush is a bay of slats. I said could you not put the cows and calves into the slats and open one of the gates on the crush, tie a bar or stake at the top to stop cows going through, then the calves could come out of the slats into the pen where you'd have straw.
Then he went on about how you can only fit 6 cows in the bay of slats as they'll all be pucking come feeding time and then he went on about how he didn't want calves in where not in calf cows would be bulling.
A cousin of mine who does split calving had only 4 fr bull calves this back end out of about 60 cows. He was very strict on what got a sexed straw and gave aa to the rest.
They have van dijk too
You'd have to wonder what type of breeder would call his bull after a soccer player.
Yeah it’s good taco for a week calf
had one calve in the field on me last year and was able to get it into the calf quickly compared with trying to get beastings in. Gave enough of a boost to get him up And sucking
It’s Hips that always caused me problems when using him
I only use sexed on cows . Just had fr bull and Angus bull with heifers. Conception rates were OK. 60% held to sexed. Used sexed on the first ones served so if they repeated it was OK. Dovea seem to have a good sexed line up for this year. Used fr5860 sexed on autumn calvers, dont think the Conception rates were as good with those
What are the conception rates like on cows if you don't mind all the questions whealn?
On cows. The calf this morning was actually quite big. Other 2 mo salah ones were small
Just on heifers or on cows as well whelan2?
I'm using sexed mo salah, so would be very disappointed if they came bulls
Had a Mo Salah calf this morning. Out of probably my best cow,saw her calving on the camera, nice handy little calf, delighted with myself. Went out to the pen, lifted the leg, a big dirty swinging ball sack in there. Ah well, the cow is healthy and well.
Have both, prefer now as some cows go to out farm and nice to have incalf before going plus can wean in September and a good calf to sell in October. Sadly with AI missed heats can push out calving dates
Yeah on minerals since Xmas
Same 7 cows in pen since they were housed,Aye I have a bully cow-I took him out of pen today
Have lots of Loki calves, have you penned different cows together recently, had an issue due to a bully cow last year
No harm bringing calf to lab
First 3 cows calves and two sets of twins so far.
Usually one week cow goes to slats and calf has access to good clean straw lie back.
About week depending on how tight space is and calf strength & cow. They have creep access to dry straw bed. Had calf last year that always stayed on the slats with her cow. I used to push her back out thru the creep gate at night but by the time Id be out she would be back in stuck to the cow.
I'd start them on the lepto vaccine ASAP. It's 2 shots 2 weeks apart initially. Even while waiting on results. Are they on any minerals?
Depends on size of calf and how tight space is in shed, on average about a week, calf is let on slats and can go in and out via a gate to a bedded lay back area.
When space is tight i've let them work away after a coupe of days without any problems so far.
second cow calved today about month before her time,First one calved about week ago same story only calf died after 10 mins.Vet said could be lepto-going to take blood samples from 2 cows on Monday.Farming 15 years only ever had one before her time before(the cow calved today 3 years ago). I put first one down to getting knock from a bully of a cow! I had stock bull last 3 seasons with no issues and went AI last year but bought young bull to sweep up.The two cows in question we’re both coming to Dovea bull Loki.
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