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A month early and backwards!

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Big Swede

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Went out to feed this morning and saw a heifer off by herself which meant one of two things. She was either dead or calving. Luckily she wasn't dead but she was calving, backwards to boot. Got her in after I built a pen in the calving shed, I was supposed to have more time, and got him out OK. It's a month and a day before my due date. I know that no bulls got in early because the heifers were in the lot till I AI'ed them. He looked full term too so I don't know what to think. I didn't expect the first one till about the 10th of April. Oh well I guess I'm back to winter calving after all. :shock:
 
We have nine on the ground now and we don't start till the the 9th of april.. Just love the *&$% neighbor's bulls.... Skanky suckers... I bet I put up hot wire next year on our five wire fence.. :mad:
 
Big Swede said:
Went out to feed this morning and saw a heifer off by herself which meant one of two things. She was either dead or calving. Luckily she wasn't dead but she was calving, backwards to boot. Got her in after I built a pen in the calving shed, I was supposed to have more time, and got him out OK. It's a month and a day before my due date. I know that no bulls got in early because the heifers were in the lot till I AI'ed them. He looked full term too so I don't know what to think. I didn't expect the first one till about the 10th of April. Oh well I guess I'm back to winter calving after all. :shock:
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Like one of our old hired hands used to say, "I feel for you but I just can't reach you." :wink:

Heck, it's going to warm up and you'll be glad you're calving. :)
 
I hope you're right Soapweed. I looked at the rest of the heifers later and I don't see any more surprises but I guess you never know. I like your line, I'm going to use that one.
 
Big Swede said:
I hope you're right Soapweed. I looked at the rest of the heifers later and I don't see any more surprises but I guess you never know. I like your line, I'm going to use that one.
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It is kind of chilly out today for the newborns, but they seem to be getting along quite well anyway. Yesterday was beautiful, 67 degrees, and a stout breeze that acted like a blow-dryer.
 
We had a four year old cow dump out a mummified calf yesterday. A casualty of vaccinating for scours and going through the chute is our guess.
The cow was happily munching on the calf after cleaning up the afterbirth when we found her. I went back to take it to a burnpile an hour later and she had eaten the whole thing. :shock:
We have eight from bought cows now.
 
gcreekrch said:
We had a four year old cow dump out a mummified calf yesterday. A casualty of vaccinating for scours and going through the chute is our guess.
The cow was happily munching on the calf after cleaning up the afterbirth when we found her. I went back to take it to a burnpile an hour later and she had eaten the whole thing. :shock:
We have eight from bought cows now.
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See, now, that's how the whole mad cow thing got started in the first place y'know 8)
 
gcreekrch said:
We had a four year old cow dump out a mummified calf yesterday. A casualty of vaccinating for scours and going through the chute is our guess.
The cow was happily munching on the calf after cleaning up the afterbirth when we found her. I went back to take it to a burnpile an hour later and she had eaten the whole thing. :shock:
We have eight from bought cows now.
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I guess that's a little less hay you had to fill her up on today :? . I've seen one mummified calf before... it was a twin. The cow delivered it first, followed by another live calf. I guess my cow was too busy with the live one to scarf down the mummy :shock: .
 
We are having early calves this year also. We are on our 7th calf and were not suppose to be calving until April 15. We had our bulls semen tested on July 2 and we are calving now. The calves are nice big calves and seem to be healthy. We had the bulls 3 miles away last winter and spring so we know there wasnt any early breeding. And we have had calves from 4 different bulls. We dont know what is going on.
 
mn said:
We are having early calves this year also. We are on our 7th calf and were not suppose to be calving until April 15. We had our bulls semen tested on July 2 and we are calving now. The calves are nice big calves and seem to be healthy. We had the bulls 3 miles away last winter and spring so we know there wasnt any early breeding. And we have had calves from 4 different bulls. We dont know what is going on.
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Ditto here...

We did have bull problems, but I know now these calves we are getting are from our bulls. A differant pasture. We had four last night and we don't start till the 9th of April......
 
katrina said:
mn said:
We are having early calves this year also. We are on our 7th calf and were not suppose to be calving until April 15. We had our bulls semen tested on July 2 and we are calving now. The calves are nice big calves and seem to be healthy. We had the bulls 3 miles away last winter and spring so we know there wasnt any early breeding. And we have had calves from 4 different bulls. We dont know what is going on.
Click to expand...

Ditto here...

We did have bull problems, but I know now these calves we are getting are from our bulls. A differant pasture. We had four last night and we don't start till the 9th of April......
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5 here yesterday and 1 the day before. Not due until April 1. Weather is great though.
 
Grassfarmer said:
That's interesting I thought that cows with mummified calves generally didn't deliver them - rather they remained in the cow and they never bred again. :?
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We have had a few mummified calves in the dairy cattle and they always had to be given dex and usually we had to go in and physically remove the calf once the cervix was open. I only remember one breeding back the others were culled.

One was a flush cow that an embryo was still in after flushing and being estrumated .
 
Personally I expect calves from 2 to 2 1/2 weeks before the due date especially on heifers but I've never seen one a full month early and look to be full term like it is. My Dad suggested looking at the brand and making sure it was mine but I couldn't tell anything without shaving her hip. Her ear tag is missing too so that's not helping me. I'll figure it out eventually, maybe.
 
Big Swede said:
Personally I expect calves from 2 to 2 1/2 weeks before the due date especially on heifers but I've never seen one a full month early and look to be full term like it is. My Dad suggested looking at the brand and making sure it was mine but I couldn't tell anything without shaving her hip. Her ear tag is missing too so that's not helping me. I'll figure it out eventually, maybe.
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Maybe your neighbor ran his over to your place to calve out. :D
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
Big Swede said:
Personally I expect calves from 2 to 2 1/2 weeks before the due date especially on heifers but I've never seen one a full month early and look to be full term like it is. My Dad suggested looking at the brand and making sure it was mine but I couldn't tell anything without shaving her hip. Her ear tag is missing too so that's not helping me. I'll figure it out eventually, maybe.
Click to expand...

Maybe your neighbor ran his over to your place to calve out. :D
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Kenneth, the guy that used to night calve for us and who was a super good fencer, once worked on a big ranch down in the hills. He said one day there was a dead calf in their calving lot, and much effort was put into figuring out which cow had dumped the dead calf. They were plumb perplexed, and coudn't figure it out. About a week later, one of the neighbors asked if they had determined which cow had the dead calf. They hadn't, and the neighbor confessed that he had just dropped off one of his dead calves to see what would happen. I guess thy finally forgave him but it took awhile. :wink:
 

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