When's calving starting 2023

Just putthe 1st one under the camera. I'd say she's going to calve tonight but with heifers you never know do you?

2 done. 2 friesian heifers. Both from sexed semen.

Both actually calved after 267 and 269 days.

First Due here 30th of Jan, spent the morning cleaning the cameras. Cameras over the slats were completely unviewable with grime on the lenses.

Sometimes it is quicker to just go for the stomach tube at the start. It can be sore on the poor feckers though.

You could try the "Madigan squeeze". I think you are supposed to do it within the first 24 hours though for it to work. It seems a bit mad the first time you do it though. The animal just conks out. Edit to add: See video below

I think they did it first on foals but some say they have success with it on calves. It kind of "reboots" them. That is the theory anyway

In most cases though it's just a matter of feeding them manually until they start sucking. Could be a day or could be a week

Done both. No joy.

Jasis

I purposely didn't let the bull out with the sucklers until the last week in May 2022. I found (last year) with the cows/heifers that calved outside that the calves were far healthier with less setbacks - scour, navel infections etc than their comrades that were born indoors. Also the work load was considerably less as it's generally a busy time of year for us with the other cattle. I'm not expecting to see any calves before the first week of March this year although there is always a possibility of a bought in cull/feeding cow calving before then.

Thats mad! never seen or heard tell of that before!

Wonder if it works?

At the moment they are on the stand off pad with access to the slatted unit where they are fed silage at the moment. I will start giving them oats & minerals in a couple of weeks time. If the weather is good enough cows go out with their calves. Later on the ones that haven't calved go on a sacrifice paddock beside the yard until they calve.

Yes it's collected into a smaller underground tank that then runs into the slatted unit. There are drainage pipes underneath the stone and it's covered with woodchip that we get locally.

As far as I know, it's not as effective when the animal is a bit older. Vet told us first 24 hours. But it was new to him at the time as well. Probably not going to cause any issues giving it a go though on one a few days old. It might be just less likely to have any effect

I was going to head up to the out farm to check the heifers but noticed a cow going to calf. Hooves were just about to make an appearance (10.20am) I decided I'd go down and have a cup of tea and wait around. By the time I had the tea drank the calf was out and standing. Hopefully most of them will be like this 😁

Nice to come home for lunch to find this lady out on the ground and up sucking, lot to be said for a handy calf that needs no minding