Well, I guess I asked for it!

[Shelly]

We're almost done calving heifers, and had never seen one of the calves born.......until last night. I made the BIG mistake of keeping a heifer off my cow that throws large calves, and obviously it's in her genes to do the same thing. All the other heifers spit out a 65-75 lb. red angus calf, she had to have a 95 lb. calf! And it didn't come into the world very easy! It's a big dummie. And no, I didn't go balistic on it, either. It won't get up, and hubby got me up at 3:30 to tubefeed it because it won't suck. The heifer damn near prolapsed on us right after also. Hubby was quick on his feet, and stuffed his arm in till she quit pushing. I imagine she won't breed back, but I'm not too concerned about that. I just hope that when I go out to the barn now, that there'll be a little sign of improvement on the calf's part.

[HAY MAKER]

Those big birthed calves are mighty nice at weaning time,if they make it, I use heifer bulls on all my cows,IM to spread out to be pullin calves,hope your calve does alright Shelly.............good luck

[Mrs.Greg]

I hope your calfs OK Shelly,I love calving time but it does somtimes have its moments.

[Shelly]

It definitely is a lesson learned! That was the only heifer I ever got off that cow, and I figured since the mother does so well raising a great calf, the daughter would, too. Just didn't want to start off this way! The cow gave me a heifer this year, too, and I had decided not to keep it, but hubby wants me to because she is such a pet already and I was leaning in the direction of keeping her. Now, my mind is changed. To the yards with her come fall!

[Northern Rancher]

You better let a certain A.I. guy put some smaller calves in those cows when he makes his annual pilgrimage down to your home town lol.

[Mrs.Greg]

That might be a good idea Shelly,especially if husband bought a simmental bull for next year breeding.

[Northern Rancher]

We could get a certain nutty waitress to help out now wouldn't that be a hoot lol.

[Kato]

A heifer that prolapses on a first time tough calving doesn't necessarily ever do it again. She may surprise you. We once bought a fancy purebred bred heifer that did it, and since we were young and poor, we kept her anyway. She made it into her teens without ever doing it again.

This year we tried a Gelbvieh bull on our heifers. He had the look of a good heifer bull, and boy is he ever! The Char heifers that were bred to him are giving us little tan fireballs that hit the ground running. Lively doesn't even describe it. We had one born yesterday morning, and by evening he was running and bucking like he was a week old.

They're a little smaller than we like for a cow to have, but for heifers they are just the ticket. We'll be keeping that bull for a while.

[Faster horses]

Our theory is that a big dead calf doesn't pay many bills.

We are just pleased that our cows and heifers calve pretty much on their own. It hasn't seemed to affect our weaning weights, either.
I keep track since we have a scale and all calves are weighed when preconditioned and our straightbred Angus calves never fail to
average 3 lbs. gain per head per day over the summer. The heifers
calves are a bit under that, but when you have 100% calf crop, it
kinda makes up for a few pounds lost. Our rebreeding is great
from the cows having smaller calves as well. Fast growth is worth a lot more to us than a big calf at birth.

To each his own, and I guess that is part of the reason there is more
than one or two breeds.

[PPRM]

As a guy that has bought lots of different breeds and looked at bulls, I notice different weaning wieghts come from a lot of different birthwieghts. Not as much of a predictor as you would think. So look for the bulls with moderate to low BW that will still give a good size calf at weaning.

I will say the biggest difference can be where they finish out. With Charlais, I am pushing the 950 pound carcass wieght. With Angus, it is hard to get over 825 without a lot of fat........Weaning wieghts can be the same but where they finish can vary,

Very muchh a generalization, but something I see,


PPRM

[3words]

Sorry to hear about your calf,and your heifer,Shelly.I hope it's up and wanting a drink,when you go check on it.I also hope your luck changes soon to.Calving can be a real pain,when things go wrong.

[George]

I have big cows but I still like calves under 80# - - - 70# is better. They really seem to hit the ground running and talk about growth.

When you have a small herd like me ( 32 cows this year) losing even one calf is a downer.

Hope your calf is doing great by now.