Calving 2019 - Advice and Help thread

patsy_mccabe

charolais0153 wrote: »

Are the calves in the top 33%

You mean the top 1/3 of my own ones?

charolais0153

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

You mean the top 1/3 of my own ones?

Well both. Never found anything with aa blood to be too useful

patsy_mccabe

charolais0153 wrote: »

Well both. Never found anything with aa blood to be too useful

They'd be average enough, to be honest. ICBF say she is Lim x Hol.

Limestone Cowboy

Bought a vink calving jack this year hoping I'd never have to use it but I have to say it's a godsend compared to the old technall. The head just seems to lock onto the cow and doesnt slide up the rump or down to her hocks like the old one used to do if a cow goes down while you're pulling. You'd think they are all the same principal but the head is shaped a small bit different and it makes an awful difference.

patsy_mccabe

Have a cow gone 298 days to AI. She'd well softened and bagged up about 3/4 full, but still a few days off, I'd say. She went 290 days last year.

Limestone Cowboy

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Have a cow gone 298 days to AI. She'd well softened and bagged up about 3/4 full, but still a few days off, I'd say. She went 290 days last year.

Have one 300 to the charolais here aswell....nervous.

patsy_mccabe

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Have one 300 to the charolais here aswell....nervous.

Not worried about mine as she's huge and always has little rats of calves. Only worry is she didn't hold to AI and was bulled by something here 3 weeks later.

Anto_Meath

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Have one 300 to the charolais here aswell....nervous.

I have a Lmx cow who would always bring around 300 days anyway time she was having a bull calf, in fairness to her though she always calf's within the 365 days though...

patsy_mccabe

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Have a cow gone 298 days to AI. She'd well softened and bagged up about 3/4 full, but still a few days off, I'd say. She went 290 days last year.

Well she calved exactly at midnight last night, so 300 days. Big bull but she spat him out. Spent 2 hours then looking at them on the camera and the calf couln't stand. Out to the shed, seperated the cow after a bit of a battle. Turned around and there is the calf standing looking at me. Cow was going beswerk so let her back in. Back home , looked at camera and there he was drinking away, 3 hours after being born.
She's the only cow that gets excited at calving.

Dozer1

Nice when it works out like that.
Currently bottling a calf born last Thursday...no interest in sucking at all...pain

anthony500_1

There the ones that make you think "what in the hell am I at, I should just get rid of the cows and the hassle"

Dozer1

jackpot....

patsy_mccabe

Goldies Jackpot?

Dozer1

Nope calf is LZF, but after 3 days of bottling you can call her what you like no that he drank himself.
Heifer is just 2 years probably even too much milk

charolais0153

Dozer1 wrote: »

Nope calf is LZF, but after 3 days of bottling you can call her what you like no that he drank himself.
Heifer is just 2 years probably even too much milk

Lzf on a 2yr old ?

Limestone Cowboy

First heifer calf out of the charolais last night. Calved and sucked herself. Long may it continue.

Dozer1

being using LZF on heifers for a few years, no big issues calving difficulty 5.70%

Irish Beef

I have a few calves out in this weather, there only a little over three weeks old, wondering should I put them back in the shed. They're out over a week now. What are people's taughts.

High bike

I've been putting mine out since mid Feb and they'r staying out unless it gets an awful lot worse, they have shelter and seem happy out

tanko

As long as they have some shelter i'd leave them out at this stage, should be warmer and drier from Friday on.
Just keep an eye on them to make sure they're sucking and in good form.

Irish Beef

Thanks for that lads, had them out again last night and they don't seem any the worse for wear, they have fairly good shelter. Pretty rough night too.

Angus2018

^Calves a few days old are already quite tough. Just check them twice a day for any signs of being sick.

I haven't been on boards in a long time but I'll make more of an attempt to get back on and keep an eye on this thread.

Calving season is going well so far here. Weather WAS great so I was getting calves out quick after calving and got a bunch of older bullocks and yearlings out which reduced the workload. Cows have been kind of enough to calve during working hours mostly.

I finally had an upside down calf. The cow was pushing laying down but no waterbag so I knew something was wrong after 2 hours. Up the crush and I could feel the dew claws on top with the head a little pushed to the left underneath. No idea how to correct it and it was during the day so rang the Vet. He had a bit of trouble cause the calf is big but once he corrected it we jacked it out. Needed a bottle of Maverick after 2 hours of not being able to stand, once it got a few gulps of milk it jumped up finished it and then went under the mother. Works nearly every time.

High bike

Angus2018 wrote: »

^Calves a few days old are already quite tough. Just check them twice a day for any signs of being sick.

I haven't been on boards in a long time but I'll make more of an attempt to get back on and keep an eye on this thread.

Calving season is going well so far here. Weather WAS great so I was getting calves out quick after calving and got a bunch of older bullocks and yearlings out which reduced the workload. Cows have been kind of enough to calve during working hours mostly.

I finally had an upside down calf. The cow was pushing laying down but no waterbag so I knew something was wrong after 2 hours. Up the crush and I could feel the dew claws on top with the head a little pushed to the left underneath. No idea how to correct it and it was during the day so rang the Vet. He had a bit of trouble cause the calf is big but once he corrected it we jacked it out. Needed a bottle of Maverick after 2 hours of not being able to stand, once it got a few gulps of milk it jumped up finished it and then went under the mother. Works nearly every time.

Maverick?.

Lady Haywire

High bike wrote: »

Maverick?.

Milk replacer. I tend to milk the cow & do the same, if they're a lazy sort, give them about 50ml. Sometimes it's a fight to even get that much into them but if you go back about an hour after that there'll be a hunger on the calf.

High bike

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Milk replacer. I tend to milk the cow & do the same, if they're a lazy sort, give them about 50ml. Sometimes it's a fight to even get that much into them but if you go back about an hour after that there'll be a hunger on the calf.

every day is a school day, never heard of it.Would it not be better to give 3 lots of beastings?

Lady Haywire

High bike wrote: »

every day is a school day, never heard of it.Would it not be better to give 3 lots of beastings?

I'd not give Maverick myself but anything is better than nout! If it's just to get he calf going & a small bit to whet his appetite it's fine.
My own preference is to milk the cow herself & feed/tempt calf, then get calf going.
^If that doesn't work, beestings from freezer.
Maverick or any other milk replacer is not a colostrum substitute, as long as we all know that!

patsy_mccabe

Would someone explain how ye manage to turn a calf? Fair play to ye, if ye can. I'd have trouble turning a calf if he was out and on the ground.:D
I always find it tough working inside a cow. My hand goes numb after a while.

Angus2018

Sorry I meant to say Colostart. Its a 1 litre bottle with powder in it, just add hot water and shake. Perfect for when its late and you need to get something quick into the calf. Once I get that into a lazy calf they usually jump up and start suckling. i have beestings but it takes a while to thaw out and most calves just need a nudge. Maverick is just a general powdered milk replacer although I've used that when stuck. Its only to get something into the calf and trigger them to suck the cow.

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Would someone explain how ye manage to turn a calf? Fair play to ye, if ye can. I'd have trouble turning a calf if he was out and on the ground.:D
I always find it tough working inside a cow. My hand goes numb after a while.

Turning the calf looked difficult! Needed ropes on the legs and a rope around the head. Thankfully it was an oldish cow.

SuperTortoise

Expecting the first calf of 2019 tonight.. i think!
LM heifer and she's wobbling fat, hard to find the bones at all. Restricted her diet in the shed as best as i could but she's one of those that is naturally fleshy, she's big for her age and not carrying awful heavy so fingers crossed time.

einn32

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Would someone explain how ye manage to turn a calf? Fair play to ye, if ye can. I'd have trouble turning a calf if he was out and on the ground.:D
I always find it tough working inside a cow. My hand goes numb after a while.

There is a tool you can get to turn the calf inside the cow. I forget the name of it but vet used it here successfully. Serious power still needed and a two person job

whelan2

einn32 wrote: »

There is a tool you can get to turn the calf inside the cow. I forget the name of it but vet used it here successfully. Serious power still needed and a two person job

Ye we used it here a few weeks ago and someone linked it on YouTube

Lady Haywire

GYNstick.

patsy_mccabe

https://www.quidee.de/media/products/GYNStick/GYNstick_descr_en.pdf

Might be worth a thread of it's own.

Angus2018

Thats a mad looking yoke.

3 more calves here. Heifer just went this morning. Had them out on grass the past 6 weeks to get their strength up. Calf was big so she couldn't get anywhere with the head. Hard enough pull with ropes and it came out. Angus so minimal chance of getting stuck on the hips. The heifer jumped up when it was done, amazing what a few weeks on grass will do.

Limestone Cowboy

Pulled this fella for a neighbour last night. Never seen anything like him. Size 10 wellie for scale. Still does him no justice.

squinn2912

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Pulled this fella for a neighbour last night. Never seen anything like him. Size 10 wellie for scale. Still does him no justice.

Jesus he’s massive! He looks a couple of weeks old. I’d say he took his time getting up?

tanko

Is it off your own bull?!!!

Limestone Cowboy

squinn2912 wrote: »

Jesus he’s massive! He looks a couple of weeks old. I’d say he took his time getting up?

Running around the shed this evening!

Limestone Cowboy

tanko wrote: »

Is it off your own bull?!!!

No. A fairly old bull the neighbour has.
Enfield Newlook x cf52. Serious breeding bull but you get the odd whopper off him.

High bike

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Pulled this fella for a neighbour last night. Never seen anything like him. Size 10 wellie for scale. Still does him no justice.

took some cow to push that lad out

Dunedin

To be fair, it’s been a great spring to get cows and calves out early. The bull will be out a lot earlier too in lots of places

whelan2

Dunedin wrote: »

To be fair, it’s been a great spring to get cows and calves out early. The bull will be out a lot earlier too in lots of places

Ai man was saying that a few lads who held off serving until later last year have started ai already this year.

tellmeabit

1 cow to calf here and suspect something is up. Bull was with cows 6 weeks and all scanned incalf. This girl with twins. Previous cow calved a week ago. She Showing no sign of springing and don't see any movement inside of her. Put her in crush today and can't feel any movement from outside. She doesn't seem as big as a month ago either. While in crush another cow mounted her a couple times. Calving started a month ago. Wait on a couple more weeks and observer? Eating away.

patsy_mccabe

Dunedin wrote: »

To be fair, it’s been a great spring to get cows and calves out early. The bull will be out a lot earlier too in lots of places

Got a bad doing with scour this year (not me now, the calves). First few were fine then 4 or 5 in a row got scour, so I calved the rest outside. None of them got scour. Have one cow that acts up a bit when calving so decided to calve her inside. She went 10 days over and had a big calf that was slow to get going. Left them in for just 2 days and yep he got bad scour.

Had to tube everything for 2 or 3 days, but they all pulled tru. What kind of scour could it be? It struck at around a week old, no blood or mucous and came out like pure water. Scour never really a problem here. Hope it isn't here to stay.

tanko

Could be Crypto, was it green in colour.
Had it here a few years ago, started disinfecting calving pens with Kilcox and lime before calving starts, made a big difference.
Also used Rotavec Corona this year, well worth doing i think.

patsy_mccabe

tanko wrote: »

Could be Crypto, was it green in colour.
Had it here a few years ago, started disinfecting calving pens with Kilcox and lime before calving starts, made a big difference.
Also used Rotavec Corona this year, well worth doing i think.

Not green. Had one case of Crypto before so I think I recognise it.
I do powerwash and disenfect (Jeyes fluid) the calving area before calving starts.

greysides

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Not green. Had one case of Crypto before so I think I recognise it.
I do powerwash and disenfect (Jeyes fluid) the calving area before calving starts.

I wouldn't be depending on colour to identify cause. Age would better but still not foolproof. Your vet may have a test kit that's cheapish and accurate. Sample would need to be from a sick calf and fresh.
I'd suggest using disinfectants certified for the causal agent. I wouldn't be sure Jeyes Fluid would be adequate.
Have the cows as clean as possible before calving. They are part of the calf's 'environment '.

anthony500_1

Lads I have a cow calved 4 days ago, she still not cleaned, let her out to a wall of ivy, vet recommend waiting 10 days before giving injection is there anything else lad can do in the mean time???

tanko

My vet would reccomend giving her somerhing like Betamox LA every second day and getting her examined after a week or so if she hadn't cleaned.
Was it a hard calving?

Albert Johnson

anthony500_1 wrote: »

Lads I have a cow calved 4 days ago, she still not cleaned, let her out to a wall of ivy, vet recommend waiting 10 days before giving injection is there anything else lad can do in the mean time???

The ivy may be a help, I've often been told that grass from a graveyard is a renowned cure. I know of a few lads lately that found it successful but have no personal experience of it working. Is there any cleanings showing? If it was a hard calving / dead calf it often takes them near a week to clean in my experience