When's calving starting 2023

Same here. All but 2 calved in a month long window. Only 3 calves in the shed. Jacked one big calf out in the field and one in the shed that came backwards. dint lay a hand On the rest.

Was dreading this season because we had a new baby at the end of January and the calving being so compact but actually turned out to be a dream

Not really. Very heavy ground for Meath ground but the weather was exceptional and the calves came before the weather turned.

I've my few that's calved (8 now) in a sacrificial paddock. I'd have heavy land. I'm giving hay out to them to keep them tipping over. Pure balls weather at the moment.

As said above too, seems to be easy calving this year too with nearly all calve 40-50kg range.

Left them out. Benefit of good high hedges. Beef cattle are still in the shed

We haven't let the cows with young calves out yet due to the incessant heavy rain that we've got in the last week or so. The shed they are in we set up for cow&calves and they would normally have direct access to two fields depending on which way we swing the gates. The back pen behind the large timber frame is where the feed barrier and water trough are located. We find it works well and helps to keep the bedding dry. There are nine cows and ten calves (set of twins - blue roan heifer and red bull in the front of the picture) in it at the moment.

The first of the heifers calved yesterday morning (a BBx that I bought in and reared as a calf) we gave her a bit of help with the jack but it wasn't a hard pull. I was slightly worried because this year the calves from the stock bull are coming a lot bigger outta the same cows than last year.

It’s definitely possible alrite.

Yep. Had an AI zag to first timer last year at 277 or 278. Mind you she's done similar to my own limousine stock bull this year, Calved around 7 weeks earlier than she calved last year.

No a bull calf to Loyal actually which was nice. Calved herself. Loyal doesn’t seem to carry too long either I suppose. She had 2 SA heifers previously. I was getting hints of a Saler off him again. Reddish in colour. have another couple who were AI’d around the same time and nothing happening with them yet. Could be down to the cow too.

Forecast not looking good for second half of next week at the moment.

The few sucklers are here for me as aside to whatever else goes on. We feed/finish cow & heifers and I was tired of not having any permanent stock about the place. This is only the bulls full second crop of calves so its early days yet. I sold some weanling heifers last year privately and got really good money for roan ones. Bulls are more difficult to sell judging by what I see in the marts but we were always going to keep them to finish anyway. The one thing about shorthorns is that they are very easy to manage/maintain and most importantly for me they are very docile and I like the look of them. We also buy and rear calves and sell off milk or as weanlings. And deal in hay and straw.

Agree with you about the cows been vocal. The majority of ours will stand at the feed barrier moaning at you looking for better silage. The closer they are to purebred the more difficult I find to keep condition off them in Winter. In autumn/winter they come in pig fat and if they get a sniff of good silage they tend to stay too fat for calving.

No I've handled plenty with twists and she definitely doesn't have one. There's no hope of pulling him the way she is at the moment anyway, I wouldn't even attempt it. You wouldn't have a calf or a cow.

Ended up doing a section at 12 o clock, big charolais bull calf alive, didn't want to risk leaving her any longer. Definitely 100% wasn't a twist, I came across 3 of them last year alone and would come across one most years between mine or a neighbours, it's easy tell once you stick a hand in. Her cervix just wasn't opening for some reason. She definitely started to act a bit sicker about a half hour after giving her the oxytocin but never went about trying to do much either. Weird one though, always something new with them.

Don't know what I'd do without the drone 🙈

@Limestone Cowboy - the last pic with the white cow and redish calf is class. That cow sure knew where to go for shelter to calve.

A heifer calved here yesterday during the day, but without assistance thankfully.

I only copped she was in calf a little over month ago and have been watching her closely since, she's a good big heifer but very very young @ 419 days old (13 months). All is well with her and the calf, the only issue is with trying to register the calf the software is telling me she is too young to have calved (Damn computers 😁)

She must have been under 5 months old when she was served, the bull and any cows with male calves were separated from those with females last June. Her birthdate is accurate too, all calves here are tagged / registered as they hit the ground.

What breed is she? Didn't know they could go in calf that young. I'd have bull calves with heifers till they are hitting 8-9months