Calving 2018 - Advise and Help thread

antrimite

20min naps are the ticket. Any longer and you'll never get up! Take a couple throughout the day and night. Make sure to set your alarm plenty though!

whelan2

antrimite wrote: »

20min naps are the ticket. Any longer and you'll never get up! Take a couple throughout the day and night. Make sure to set your alarm plenty though!

I do this. Great job.

Angus2018

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Any advice on how to stay functioning with no sleep? Be glad when the burst is over.

It can be rough when a bunch of cows or complications come at once on top of your Spring workload.

If you don't have calving cameras then invest in them, being able to get a few hours sleep or even watch a cow calving and calf suckling from your phone or laptop in bed is a welcome change to marching out to the yard in the middle of the night. I set the alarm at 4 every morning, quick check and then back to sleep. If a cow is doing something then I'll head to bed and set alarms for regular intervals. Much better than staying up watching a film.

I can't recommend enough how important your own diet is. Nothing worse than coming in from a 16 hour day to find the fridge empty and the local shops closed. Do a huge shop and freeze most of it so you have a steady supply of food for weeks. buy foods that you can cook quick or eat straight away. Oven foods are ideal since you can head back out to the yard if needed while it's cooking.

From my experience a few weeks ago sleep as soon as you have the chance, put away the phone or remote and just head to bed regardless of the time, you'll have no problem sleeping till morning if you're that exhausted.

Limestone Cowboy

tanko wrote: »

Have you a friend or neighbour that could keep an eye on things while you catch up on sleep even if its only for one night.

I'm watching a few for a neighbour aswell, his elderly parents are both in hospital at the moment. Another fortnight and the most of them will be out of the way anyway. Everything's an effort when your tired.

tanko

I dont have one but would a Moocall be any use to you. Reports about them seem to be good but i suppose if you have a lot of cows calving close together you wouldnt know which one to put it on.

Who2

Twenty minute naps are a disaster for me, I wake up worse than when I went to sleep. If you haven’t a camera it’s a god send. I take a stroll around each animal and set alarm for three hours, my reckoning is if they haven’t started I have an hour or two and I’d usually give them an hour calving themselves before I intervene. Pointless sitting looking at them constantly.

squinn2912

Who2 wrote: »

Twenty minute naps are a disaster for me, I wake up worse than when I went to sleep. If you haven’t a camera it’s a god send. I take a stroll around each animal and set alarm for three hours, my reckoning is if they haven’t started I have an hour or two and I’d usually give them an hour calving themselves before I intervene. Pointless sitting looking at them constantly.

With you on that. We’ve no camera but that’s the next thing. I look at the cows in the evening and if I think there’ll be a night calving I check her before bed and gauge that if she looks a minimum of 2-3 hours before she’ll start calving then I have at least another hour on top of that which takes you on by morning anyhow.
There’s nothing worse than throwing away a nights sleep when you could’ve had it.
Also, I feed them and give a pinch of meal late on. There might be nothing to it but I’m convinced it puts them back a couple of hours at least.

SuperTortoise

+1 on the calving cameras, don't know myself this year with them in, would'nt go back to not having them now.

The man in red and black

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

I'm watching a few for a neighbour aswell, his elderly parents are both in hospital at the moment. Another fortnight and the most of them will be out of the way anyway. Everything's an effort when your tired.

It might seem rash but if under severe pressure and you have dates for them could discuss inducing labour with your vet. Might be a way out of a hole. Many vets not keen on it but could help you time a few of them and take a bit of pressure off of the system. Must have proper service dates though and could have a very marginal increase in complications such as held cleanings but may help you if under desperate pressure.

squinn2912

Number 25 calved today unaided to a lovely big Hereford heifer calf. Only our 5th heifer and she’s a beauty out of a milky char x lim with Monty back breeding. The site is solpoll Kentucky our first calf from him. Very pleased.

charolais0153

squinn2912 wrote: »

Number 25 calved today unaided to a lovely big Hereford heifer calf. Only our 5th heifer and she’s a beauty out of a milky char x lim with Monty back breeding. The site is solpoll Kentucky our first calf from him. Very pleased.

5 heifers out of 25?

squinn2912

Yea crazy year! Good thing I timed it now with the wee sim/fr girls to replace.

Audioslaven

SuperTortoise wrote: »

+1 on the calving cameras, don't know myself this year with them in, would'nt go back to not having them now.

deffo, I set these up for my bro who is a dairy farmer and it has been great for him as he is 0.5 km away from the farm.

Angus2018

Second half of calving starting here. Had an Angus bull calf, cow had no trouble pushing the calf out, up on its feet in 15 mins and suckling in 30. Always delighted to have such an easy evening calving. The in-calf heifers are with the same bull so hopefully they are all just as easy.

Second one was a monster Hereford bull calf, needed a decent pull to get the head out and got stuck on the hips, if the cows lying down I've gotten good enough at it to just do some twisting and get the calf out in a minute or so. To big to stand so left it for an hour, bottled it with 1L of colostart and then lifted it up myself, got the front legs working but the back were very shaky, distracted the cow with some meal and got the calf to suckle while I held its back legs. I'm broken today that's for sure. I think every cow on this bull will be on hay for the full winter next year.

Both calves are from similar aged cows so it will be interesting to see the final result at the factory. Wether the big calf at birth was worth it.

squinn2912

I often wonder the same thing. If you’re heading to finish them very often the angus fat at 13/14 months is hard to beat vrs charolais or lim that take every minute of the 16 or 20-22 mths vrs 24-26 as steers. Then there’s the sub fir angus and no horns to worry about either! A lot to consider

squinn2912

Very happy this evening as my cow I was concerned if she’d be in calf a few weeks ago fired out a nice tight lim heifer calf. Her 4th heifer in a row after one lovely bull but the first that wasn’t an unmerciful pull. 370 days as well. That’s 26 now and up to 6 heifers. 9 more to go

Lady Haywire

Wasn't it you that had the premmie calf Angus? How's it doing now?

whelan2

Have a pb Angus calf born on st Patrick's day. He will suck the cows neck, leg everywhere except her teat. Have to run her down the crush each day for him to drink. Any hints what to do with him. Takes a good bit of time each day

john mayo 10

whelan2 wrote: »

Have a pb Angus calf born on st Patrick's day. He will suck the cows neck, leg everywhere except her teat. Have to run her down the crush each day for him to drink. Any hints what to do with him. Takes a good bit of time each day

Had the same problem last week. Ch bull calf. Got him sucking on a bottle with a soft teat under her and finally fooled him with her teat. A bit of hunger is no harm either. Leave him till this evening. Dont feed him during the day.

antrimite

antrimite wrote: »

antrimite wrote: »

First post on here, great reading all the stories.

Had our first casualty at the weekend, first calver had a lovely APZ heifer calf which needed a slight pull, nothing major, calf never got up and died shortly after it came out at 282 days gestation. Was no airways problems or long labour. A mystery to us. Disappointing as she would have been a lovely replacment down the line. Batch of 3 heifers more calving any day to APZ so hoping for incident free labours!

Have seen a plenty of posts on here re: calves not wanting to suck, must definitely be a Simmental thing as we would have plenty every year who get up and nose around the teats but never latch on, have had plenty of kicks for my troubles! Seems to be the bigger calves that always have issues with

2 more APZ bull calves on the ground from first Calvers. First one calves at 288 days on her own inside an hour, calf came out as easy as I ever seen. She’s our best heifer so would have liked a heifer but he’s thriving well. The next calf came with aid of the calving jack. Feet came but no progress iber an hour so we gave her help. Big lump of a bull calf. 290days! One last heifer to go. A month ago we questioned whether she was still in  Calf and now at 294 days!!

On a worse note our stock bull (the afore mentioned heifers sire), has went down with TB. Disaster

All the heifers have calved, unfortunately the final calf came yesterday morning at 300 days and died last night. It was a small heifer, the mother never really showed any interest and the calf had breathing problems from the out set. We put a litre of colostrum into it a couple of hrs after it hit the ground to see if it would get going but never happened. 

We suspect the heifer may have not held to AI and was served by her father. Unfortunate as she is a super heifer but will now get fattened and up the shoot with her mate whos calf also died.
Positively, the 2 APZ bull calfs are smashers. Not the biggest but are thick and have good shape!

patsy_mccabe

whelan2 wrote: »

Have a pb Angus calf born on st Patrick's day. He will suck the cows neck, leg everywhere except her teat. Have to run her down the crush each day for him to drink. Any hints what to do with him. Takes a good bit of time each day

Hunger is your best bet I'd say. Seperate them so you'll know for sure if he drank.

whelan2

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Hunger is your best bet I'd say. Seperate them so you'll know for sure if he drank.

He gets fed once a day by us, has to be the stupidest calf I ever saw, he will drink no problem when we put the cow in the crush, spends the rest of the day bawling at the gate of the shed :cool: We let him drink the cow and then give him the bottle .

john mayo 10

whelan2 wrote: »

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Hunger is your best bet I'd say. Seperate them so you'll know for sure if he drank.

He gets fed once a day by us, has to be the stupidest calf I ever saw, he will drink no problem when we put the cow in the crush, spends the rest of the day bawling at the gate of the shed :cool: We let him drink the cow and then give him the bottle .

Put him and cow in a pen and keep an eye on them. He will suck her. He probably has got used to only sucking her in the crush and stop bottle feeding him. Hes gotten used to it

whelan2

john mayo 10 wrote: »

Put him and cow in a pen and keep an eye on them. He will suck her. He probably has got used to only sucking her in the crush and stop bottle feeding him. Hes gotten used to it

They are together in a shed, she's wicked enough but doesnt kick the calf when drinking

squinn2912

Now and again you get ones like that. After a few days he should be working ok and soon you'll have a brand new problem to annoy you! I'm very surprised for an angus calf though. When we used to have the Charolais that would be a regular problem but the lims are great to get going. Suits as me and dad both have other work. If he will work in the crush it would be worth giving her meal in the pen and closing a gate round on them both. Next night try that without the gate or as he's sucking her move it back a bit and try to train him that way.

john mayo 10

whelan2 wrote: »

john mayo 10 wrote: »

Put him and cow in a pen and keep an eye on them. He will suck her. He probably has got used to only sucking her in the crush and stop bottle feeding him. Hes gotten used to it

They are together in a shed, she's wicked enough but doesnt kick the calf when drinking

It sure isnt easy. Stick with it. Hunger should promp him

Angus2018

Nothing gets a calf to suck more than hunger. Many times I've just had to walk away and leave them too it, they usually figure it out. occasionally you get a real dumb calf that needs more than the usual assistance and that can drive you mad.

Had the biggest calf we've ever had here this morning. No idea how the cow pushed it out herself, it was her fourth calf, little trouble on the hips but she had the sense to stand up which got it out. Up and sucking by the time my alarm went off to head out.

squinn2912

Just in the door from a side door job. Calf bed twisted. We both handled the cow and agreed vet time as the calf felt about 200 miles away yet she was well ready to calve all evening. Got a neat little red lim heifer calf alive. Couldn’t believe it. Great to win one of those. Makes me think; beGod the vets really earn their money. What is it 7 years uni then years of up all night craic. Our man can get thick but he’s a top fella. That’s the last 3 heifers 7/27 and 8 yo go.
Another one to calve now before morning sure isn’t it great!

Lady Haywire

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Wasn't it you that had the premmie calf Angus? How's it doing now?

patsy_mccabe

squinn2912 wrote: »

Just in the door from a side door job. Calf bed twisted. We both handled the cow and agreed vet time as the calf felt about 200 miles away yet she was well ready to calve all evening. Got a neat little red lim heifer calf alive. Couldn’t believe it. Great to win one of those. Makes me think; beGod the vets really earn their money. What is it 7 years uni then years of up all night craic. Our man can get thick but he’s a top fella. That’s the last 3 heifers 7/27 and 8 yo go.
Another one to calve now before morning sure isn’t it great!

When you see the vets do a c-section at 4 in the morning in a cold dirty shed, you appreciate the work they do alright.