Calving 2024

Dunedin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121660094#Comment_121660094

Any chance there’s another calf getting in to suck her?

whelan2

Heifer calving in cubicles this morning. Had 5 other calves born since 5pm yesterday. Big calf. Got him out alive. Pulled her out of the cubicle with a halter and the concrete is grooved in the passageway. She got up herself a bit later but one of the legs is dodgy. No grip to get up on the mat

Picking Dasies

Hi lads,

Recommendation for a good calving JACK please?

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121704672#Comment_121704672

We have one like the one in the link and thankfully it's seldom used. We have a mixed suckler herd of SH, SHx, AAx, HEx and various continental breeds along with the odd bought in FR/FRx cull cow that turns up in calf. The square shaft jacks don't slip like the round ones do.

https://www.agridirect.ie/product/technal-calving-jack-with-moorepark-head

endainoz

First one arrived last week, pic taken a day and a half old so hopefully no dairy oligarchs give me sh1t for not having her tagged yet. Serious colours though, poly hfr out of a Droimeann cow and shorthorn bull.

whelan2

That's a lovely calf

Base price

Had a AAx second calver calf the other day our first calf for 2024. She had a SHx bull calf, unassisted and thankfully the calf got up and sucked on his own accord cause she is a bitch. I bought her as a yearling heifer amongst a bunch of feeder heifers and decided to keep her as she was long and growthy. Last year she was a pet after calving but this year she's a pure cnut. I presume she will settle down as the calf gets older but once the calf is weaned I will head her to the finishing shed.

My second calver PBR Shorthorn calved a few hours ago - heifer calf, unassisted and like last year she is chilled out when I was handling the calf. The one downside of traditional breeds is that their two front teats can get very large which is something that the dairy breeds have managed to breed out over time. This lady has a big dug on her near side and her offside one isn't far behind. Anyway I got the calf sucking outta both front teats.

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121780249#Comment_121780249

Do you sell the SHX bulls as weanlings or bring to finish

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121781687#Comment_121781687

We finish the heifers and bulls. Occasionally sell the odd pbnr bull/heifer to farmers around the area.

kollegeknight

Forgot about the thread- first photo is BB8238 heifer off a LM cow.

second I think a LM bull calf off a LMxSpeckle park cow. Not certain of straw used as AI man forgot to log it. I had texted asking for a LM- think it might be LM4184

Diarmuid B

had a heifer calve here yesterday evening around 5 o clock. 27 months old and she has heaps of milk. Seems to have a touch of mastitis in two quarters, milking fine but the quarters are a little hard.

Shes bonded with the calf but will not let her suck. Keeps bawling st the calf to get up but then starts headbutting the calf around the place and pushing it away. Anything I can do to get her to let the calf suck other than put her in the calving gate?

tellmeabit

Try distract with meal. Some people used to bring a dog near by so cow becomes distracted/protective.- might drive cow wild thou.

It would be the calving gate and meal for me for the few days eventually lose the gate and just meal and when hormones go off the cow calf normally wears her down

Diarmuid B

Yeah I had her in the crush there, kicked for a the first couple of times the calf went to suck but she then stood still and calf had a good drink. Let the heifer out of the crush and every time the calf moved she throws a headbutt at it. Then she’ll start licking the calf and then another headbutt🤦🏻‍♂️ have the calf separated from her now in the feeding passage so we’ll see how that goes

ABitofsense

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805836#Comment_121805836

I always have one every year, usually a heifer. Worst thing you can do is separate them as drives her even madder to get at the calf and can get dangerous. I did this a few years ago as I thought she was going to kill the calf. But then she nearly went over gates and all to get to the calf and kill me! Put Calf back in and she settled once the calf stood and sucked, can take an hour, but they'll be grand.

patsy_mccabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121704672#Comment_121704672

I have the Tecnall calving jack and get on fine with it.

Tecnall Calving Jack | Liffey Mills

patsy_mccabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805762#Comment_121805762

I'd put her in the calving gate twice a day with some meal. Rub the heifer down along the backbone with a thumb on one side of the bone and the fingers on the other. A trick a vet showed me years ago. She'll stop kicking then. She should calm down after a few days.

Diarmuid B

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121813528#Comment_121813528

Yea I’m doing that at the moment. Strange thing is she doesn’t kick at all in the calving gate when the calf is sucking, but she will not let the calf near her out in the pen. She’ll sit right beside the calf and lick it when the calf is sitting down. But the minute the calf is up on its feet and jumping around she starts headbutting it and getting aggressive.

Pie Man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814153#Comment_121814153

We had a heifer do the same, she would lick the calf when it was laying down and when it got up went mad Head butting it. We put it down to hormones after calving. She was fine the next day, did your heifer drop the cleanings?

Diarmuid B

Yup she passed all the cleanings pretty quick. I let her have some of it before taking it off her. Nearly got caught one year with a cow choking on it so we don’t tend to let them have it. She seems a bit calmer this morning, didn’t have to close the calving gate on her when the calf was sucking and she’s licking the calf a good bit today.

tanko

She’ll be grand in another couple of days, she probably didn’t have mastitis either, just a bit of flagging which heifers often do, it leaves the quarters hard and a bit sore.

Diarmuid B

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121815238#Comment_121815238

id say you could be right there, they’re still a bit hard but a lot better compared to Friday and she’s letting the calf suckle on all 4

Dunedin

Finished calving here. 21 calves from 20 cows so happy enough. Had a couple of hard calvings in addition to a couple of sections which is not ideal but such is calving time.

had a bit of scour for a week and was dreading the crypto arrival but got them tested and thankfully nothing. All cleared up and waiting now for the weather to settle to let them out.

SuperTortoise

Off and running today, 19 to go!

golodge

Had three unsuccesfull last calvings, so finally broke the spell it seems.

Fair lump of a bluex heifer out of limx cow. Assisted, 289 days, 57kg. Sired by Jefferson de dessous la ville.

Lime Tree Farm

A fair lump of a calf alright, (you are picking up our lingo). How do you manage water supply during freezing temperatures.

Sorry to hear about your loss of 3 calves.

golodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121823236#Comment_121823236

Water is delivered every second day with the water tank for each group into their water troughs. Also have to break the ice everyday if it's really cold.

Actually it was 4 calves as there was one set of twins. That was the first unsuccesfull calving, bad position of both calves and placenta going first. Twin bluex heifers...Then had a calf probably taking a breath too early as her wholr respiratory tract was full of mucus and couldn't clear it in time. And the last one was cow just dieing during calving. Left her for 30min as she was an experienced cow and found her just freshly dead. Calf was just barely entering her pelvis... It is quite stressful to continue calving season after such row of events.

Lime Tree Farm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121823498#Comment_121823498

We had about 10 days of icy temperatures before Christmas, I thought of you at the time and wondered how you keep cattle supplied with water- they consume a lot of water.

Reggie.

Calving away here at a serious pace.

170 calved since 2nd week of Feb.

Steady 6 to 10 a day. 60 left so at this pace will be over next weekend.

AA are coming very large this year.

20240226_123302.jpg

whelan2

Are the angus ai or stock bull

Reggie.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121827054#Comment_121827054

Both.

giggionstown bulls and I believe the AI bull is TicToc from LIC

That fella up there was from AI

Good loser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121827170#Comment_121827170

Have you synchronised the calving with office hours?

Reggie.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831041#Comment_121831041

Unfortunately they are on a 24hr rota

Most calve between 2am and 8am

Bastards

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831141#Comment_121831141

Give them their bigger feed late at night

Lime Tree Farm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831212#Comment_121831212

And once a day - or minimum during daylight. It works.

alan10

Twin Bulls - Dovea LM5887 (Ivantonov)

SIX Cow - 2nd calver. Popped them out no bother, didn't know she was expecting twins. Shes not that big of a cow. One bit slower than other.

alan10

Week old Ivor bull calf.

alan10

Week old Rocco bull calf.

He was a twin, other 1 dead at birth. This lad not great, bit dopey sucking ok but temp 39.8 to 40C last few days. Had vet out 3 days ago, touch pneumonia, got alot of drugs but temp still up. Endocam, steroids, antibiotics.

funkey_monkey

What pre calving minerals are you all giving your cows?

We are currently using a powder since housing. However, I've been wondering if it works be cheaper and better to switch to a bolus?

Jb1989

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805762#Comment_121805762

How go since

Diarmuid B

Update on this pair, she’s still figuring out the calf and what she’s doing. One minute she’s mad for the calf, the next she’s trying to batter it with her head. In the crush twice a day with a handful of nuts to get the calf to suck. She’s sneaking a drink the odd occasion in the shed before being attacked🤣 tonight was the first time I didn’t lock the head gate and she just stood there and ate the nuts so here’s hoping we’ve turned the corner 🤞🤞

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838909#Comment_121838909

Use the calsea precalver blocks here. They've changed the name this year, can't remember the new name. Using them years and aquadyne tablets in drinker

whelan2

We've had a few heifers here this year go mental after calving. You'd get the calf out of her and just run out of the shed. Bawling and going mad everytime the calf moves. They settle down after a while but had a fair few at it this year

Diarmuid B

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839201#Comment_121839201

Must be something in the air this year with them!

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839313#Comment_121839313

Hormones...

Dunedin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839143#Comment_121839143

It’ll just take a bit of time and patience but she will come good.

limo_100

proper powerful bull calf calved before xmas off a fsz first calving heifer

She will be due for AI soon was thinking of putting a red blue what do people think. will be only using progressive genetics bulls

Gudstock

Do you know her myostatin status? If she brought the Q gene from FSZ I'd be very slow crossing her with a double Nt bull, eg the blues

tanko

Yeah Fiston is as much of a blue bull as he is a Charolais, i wouldn’t be putting a blue bull on her, think i’d stick with the Lims for her.

patsy_mccabe

Fiston from 2019/2020 catalogue. Single carrier of Q204X.

limo_100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841925#Comment_121841925

I just checked her on ICBF and I can't find her myostatin but she is DNA tested where is this displayed?