Mad Heifers

wallycool

I bought Limousin heifers last week with the intention of AI them . When I looked at them they were all quite enough in the pen so I decided to buy them.
I let them out to a field with my cow which are quiet and the heifers are stone wall mad , 2 even leaped out of the field when I was just going down to walk through them . Will they quieten down when they have there first calf or should I just go and resell them ? Were do people get replacement quiet cows?

blue5000

Better off to get rid, safer too. I breed my own replacements, that way they are at least used to me. Use a few milky docile ai bulls on your milkier cows maybe. Have a look on ICBF website for the stats, better not to take docility figures as gospel though:D

http://www.icbf.com/services/evaluations/files/All_Active_Beef_Bulls_List_April_2011.xls

Finno59

they could have be drugged or sedated to keep them quiet .

pakalasa

They will quieten down a bit, but you've got to ask yourself what will they be like when they calve down. Will they turn into complete physchos.

Delber

Same thing happen to me last summer, 2 nice heifers in mart v quiet, got them home and next few days became very agitated, tried to put them in to dose them and one ran me down, spent the night in hospital. Get rid asap nothing as bad as wild animals around especially if there is children or older people around

whelan1

put them on meal... thay are obviously not used to people... walk through them often and talk to them . I bought friesian heifers years ago , they where only used to a dog and would leg it when i went in to the field... so i made it my mission to quieten them down.. i walked through them twice or 3 times a day , took a while but they where grand a while after

mikemac

Had a Charlois, pure loopers and ran through a fence, demolished it and ran down the fields dragging the wire with her :rolleyes:

It was a good fence and the wire wasn't slack but a few hundred kgs at full speed and the fence had no chance.

The meal is a good idea and they may get used to you walking around.
But some will never change and you're best to get rid of

Goes without saying, watch your back when you're with them. Might seem quiet and then you get bowled over with a puck when you're not looking

RobinBanks

You probably wont go down this road but a man I work with tied a lunatic pedigree heifer to jack ass for a week. He was unable to leave a hand on the heifer beforehand. He said she is very easy to work with now.

Don't know how this works or how successful it is. I would assume you would want to be doing this when the heifers are still young and not to powerful.

You might not be even able to get a halter on you're heifers but if you really want to keep them, it might be worth pursuing. Try talking to a few pedigree men for more advice.

49801

1kg of meal for 2/3wks should do the trick.

I would be wild too if i was relocated to the middle of oz and had never seen or heard of a kangaroo before!

doghunter

I worked for a farmer some years ago who bought 30 similar lunatic heifers, but when they calved down you would swear they had being handled all their lives, i'm not saying this is what will happen with yours but it does happen.

moy83

doghunter wrote: »

I worked for a farmer some years ago who bought 30 similar lunatic heifers, but when they calved down you would swear they had being handled all their lives, i'm not saying this is what will happen with yours but it does happen.

Same as that had a heifer that calved last week could hardly get near her before . She is quiet as a lamb now ive even milked a few bottles for another calf off her

kay 9

doghunter wrote: »

I worked for a farmer some years ago who bought 30 similar lunatic heifers, but when they calved down you would swear they had being handled all their lives, i'm not saying this is what will happen with yours but it does happen.

We had a heifer last year that was home stock and was a f**kin headcase. Tore the wire down the mornin of the test. Then calved this year and quitest animal on the land to our surprise. Can pet her now. All animals differ I think as this doesn;t always happen.

mattthetrasher

often bought heifers that took some time to settle but the experience i had was at least they ran the right direction-away it was the quiter ch or aa that made me run:D

blue5000

RobinBanks wrote: »

You probably wont go down this road but a man I work with tied a lunatic pedigree heifer to jack ass for a week. He was unable to leave a hand on the heifer beforehand. He said she is very easy to work with now.

Don't know how this works or how successful it is. I would assume you would want to be doing this when the heifers are still young and not to powerful.

You might not be even able to get a halter on you're heifers but if you really want to keep them, it might be worth pursuing. Try talking to a few pedigree men for more advice.

Thanx, laughed at this one, can picture a bunch of mad heifers tied to jackasses!!:D

what happen

blue5000 wrote: »

Thanx, laughed at this one, can picture a bunch of mad heifers tied to jackasses!!:D

i would not heed that make a bad sitation worse i have a jack ass and he was in the field with the cattle and b**trad was going to eat the leg and neck of a sick calf and was going to eat the ears of the sheep aad ram he drew blood had to get him out quick.

haybob

wallycool wrote: »

I bought Limousin heifers last week with the intention of AI them . When I looked at them they were all quite enough in the pen so I decided to buy them.
I let them out to a field with my cow which are quiet and the heifers are stone wall mad , 2 even leaped out of the field when I was just going down to walk through them . Will they quieten down when they have there first calf or should I just go and resell them ? Were do people get replacement quiet cows?

Usually a few quite cows will settle them down but that didn't work for you, I'd suggest meal or nuts too and go into the field youself and only youself till they get used to you.

Best quite cows are bucket fed whitehead X from a dairy farm but very few want them now

scuggels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYyVDqZxvDM
In relation to tying the heifers to a jackass found this the other day dont know would i be a fan of it the animal wouldnt want to be any stronger!

Kovu

Heh. This thread made me giggle. All I can say is that if you have quiet cattle that can be petted, put them in with those. I bought a fairly mad LMX a month ago and put her with pets of cattle which were seen once a day. I'd spend half an hour fussing over the quiet ones with the wild one watching. For the first two weeks, she used to come over to the cattle as I was leaving and sniffed them all over to try and figure out what the hell I was. Now, I can pet her on the nose. It's all to do with patience (and a bit of meal never hurts!):D

bbam

Bought two replacement sucklers last year with calves at foot, walked through them in a pen of ten for about 30 minutes and no bother...
Brought them home and one, a CHX 4 year old went nuts... Walked through them every day and soon as I would go into field she would head off the opposite way, worse she would round up her calf too and it started getting skittish..
We got rid before she calved as she was a danger, when she was cornered in the yard for test/dosing it was a disaster, trying to jump walls and gates, blind with fear rather than cross..

whelan1

scuggels wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYyVDqZxvDM
In relation to tying the heifers to a jackass found this the other day dont know would i be a fan of it the animal wouldnt want to be any stronger!

i am assuming that is the calves mother bawling in the background... doesnt help when trying to train the calf to have mammy distracting it