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
First 3 cows calves and two sets of twins so far.
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
Same 7 cows in pen since they were housed,Aye I have a bully cow-I took him out of pen today
Yeah on minerals since Xmas
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
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.
I'm using sexed mo salah, so would be very disappointed if they came bulls
Just on heifers or on cows as well whelan2?
On cows. The calf this morning was actually quite big. Other 2 mo salah ones were small
What are the conception rates like on cows if you don't mind all the questions whealn?
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
It’s Hips that always caused me problems when using him
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
You'd have to wonder what type of breeder would call his bull after a soccer player.
They have van dijk too
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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.
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?
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.
Hardly Smithers!?
Has he tried it before and learned? He is not wrong on what he is saying. Calf’s on slats are increased risk of getting hurt. We have always been lucky but have seen a calf go flying and get knocked with cattle fighting (cow that calved been reintroduced as an example) or bulling. Touch wood.
But 9 weeks is mental.
Had the first calf of the year yesterday morning. A heifer had just calved when I went to check her at 7, I had checked her at 4 and she was lying down chewing the cud. She had a heifer calf which is the first by the weanling pbr Shorthorn bull I bought in 2020. The calf was up in 10 or 15 mins, the heifer is fierce quiet (the only reason that I kept her as she had repeated many times to AI) and I just helped the calf find the teat. A nice red roan heifer calf. I'll fire up a pic in the next few days when it's daylight to take one.
8 calves born now 7 sexed Friesian heifers and 1 not sexed fr bull
My wife is always a fan of me telling her “I checked her 2 hours ago and she is calved and all now, how come woman make such a big job if it”.
Really goes down a treat.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w7.vanillicon.com/v2/73a050bf46afce149fa8c6da703ec9d2.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w7.vanillicon.com/v2/75b34dced3d0cbcff090228687435d54.svg)
