How many calf deaths per year - Sucklers

None this year (1 left) or last & 1 each year '21 and '20. One of these where the cow lay on the calf in a big field and the other unknown sickness at couple weeks old.

I only use easy calving LM bulls 3-5% difficulty which saves issues at birth for me. I see a neighbour who has 60 sucklers loses about at least 10% every year, mostly at calving using big charloais bull. He's serious calves but some headache with cows & calves down

When there was 1 million suckers, there was 200 thousand with no calf registered.

If half these were due to calf losses 10%

I say it runs at around those figures. The 0.8 calves reared to a Suckler cow has remained consistent over the last 20+ years.

Make that 2 this year now.

Whenever I loose a calf, I always feel that it's something I've done wrong myself. Either used the wrong AI bull on a cow, not restricting feed before calving, not keeping calf bedding clean etc etc. I didn't loose any this year, but lost a heifer after a prolapse. I usually loose about maybe 8% to 10%.

Yea, didn't restrict or didn't feed enough, always sumit to think.

When i had sucklers I used to give a few fist full of oats to the cows 3 weeks before calving. The calves were unreal lively at birth. I cant say it helped but I did notice a change.

We give rolled oats to cows for a few weeks before calving and dry cow minerals as well.

Have been thinking about this thread over the past few days. Had a good year this year all cows calved and live calves are at foot. Had a bad year about 8 years ago where I lost 7 calves out of 25 in a week due to cryto and rotavirus. There will always be a loss or 2. Last year a cow penned a week old calf to a wall and he was gone in a matter of minutes. Another year was a random one with a gut blockage, another year a set of still born twins. This list could go on

The suckler herd is very different to the dairy herd.

1. Mostly part timers. This cuts the amount to time that can be given to watch cows calving. Even with technology of cameras, moo calls and collars, being able to intervene to a problem quickly is hard if you are at work

2. Lack of a breeding focus. With many having a focus on the weanling sales and trying to achieve top dollar for weanlings this ups the calving difficulty. Having a number of monster calves but losing even 2-3 of these in a small herd knocks the bottom line huge, with the build up of hidden costs that these loses bring. The focus has to be on the total kg that is produced across the herd/ by cows in calf

3. A large spread on breeding, leading to a large calving spread. Most of the time problems happen towards the end of calving. You are more focused at the beginning of calving. Imagine what way you would be after 12 weeks of calving and still watching 2 or 3 to calve. They won't get the same attention

4. Calving at the end of a long housing period. If you were penned up in a room of 15ft x14ft for nearly 6 months this has you in some state of fitness. Compare this maybe to a dairy cow with cubicles, they have more room to move and moop about. This helps greatly

5. Passengers. They have to be moved on, simples. They are a passenger for reason. They just cost to much to hang around for a year. No point wasting time in this

6. Hygiene in sheds. Be that calving pens and that is easy sort, loads for straw. But the big hidden is spring calving cows calving with heaps of muck caked to them especially around the udder, it's a recipe for a disaster for a young calf in the 1st week

7. The calving jack and sections. Hard calvings really limit a cows ability to go back in calf quickly let alone the potential vet bills. Only one vet call out this year and that was a prolapse. If you have to use the jack more than 5-10% of the time you need to have the auld head examined

After the cryto loses it was a game changer. The focus then switched to how can I get as many calves to weaning out of the cows. A switch to maternal traits helped with BDGP, this also helped the calving spread. This year it was 40 days over 25 cows. But the 3 biggest have been. April calving outdoors, cows getting some excerise in a sacrafice paddock. Even only for a few hours daily. It really helps cows get fit for calving. Finally forgetting about calving difficulty with bull of 10%. This has lead to more calves on the ground and cows going back in calf quicker.

We all have losses, and blame ourselves for a few days after it, but it's what action can we take improve it

It's a very simple to answer. It's going to be at least 18 months before this cow will leave any money back on the table if she is kept. And if you factor in the costs she has to cover 2 winters before that calf will have any cash on the table

If she was mine, she would have 2 options. Inject and fatten or scan and sell as in calf. It issue was with the calf and pneumonia not with the cow

Would a dairy farmer carry an empty cow for a year

She’ll be fat in a month six weeks off good grass. Send her to mart then if u want her gone If u want to keep her , Selling a good young cow for 2000 then to pay more than that for a springer in 3/4 months. I’m not so sure is it worthwhile