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Calving results so far.

W

Whitewing

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 4, 2009
Messages
5,855
Location
Venezuela
6 live, 1 dead. :cry: I agonize over evey one that we lose. What could we have done better?

Well, I know what I'm going to do better. I'm going to sprig with bermuda a 10 acre pasture right next to my corrals and every cow that even looks like she's ready to calf will stay there where we can keep a close eye on her.

We've got about 30 more calfs to go for this year.
 
Unfortunately it is part of the deal no matter how hard we try. You don't need to worry as long as you still worry. Some places lose calves and don't seem to care...
 
I appreciate your dilligence. However, you can live with them 24/7 and
one will be born dead. They aren't all meant to live. I like what gcreek
says, "regardless of how hard we try, we can't kill 'em all."

If it was a mistake on your part, fix that so that doesn't happen again,
but please don't think you aren't gonna lose any, ever. That's setting
your self up for a big disappointment.

However, good luck with the rest of them. We usually figure we will
lose one out of 25.
 
We know its gonna happen, but the day it don't hurt a little, is the day we might ought to look at something else. You must be in the right occupation. My grandma always reminded me that if we can keep that sort of stuff in the corral, we are doing alright.
 
I'm 2000 miles away but in touch with what's going on at the ranch on a daily basis. I don't know all the details yet but suspect the cow was turned out in the morning with the rest of them and not checked on carefully enough during the day.

Now, if there's not a cowboy on hand with animals, someone is making 3 or 4 trips a day AMONGST the animals to look for someone in trouble. My place just isn't that big that we can't watch those animals more closely, espeically at this time of year.

I've also given orders that any cow/s that even look like they're close to birthing are to kept close at hand and watched 24 hours per day.

I still feel sick about it.....just hate it when it happens.

We had a hog birth 15 the other day, 4 dead but they were really tiny and probably weren't meant to live. I don't think I can say that with the calf I lost.
 
Whitewing said:
I'm 2000 miles away but in touch with what's going on at the ranch on a daily basis. I don't know all the details yet but suspect the cow was turned out in the morning with the rest of them and not checked on carefully enough during the day.

Now, if there's not a cowboy on hand with animals, someone is making 3 or 4 trips a day AMONGST the animals to look for someone in trouble. My place just isn't that big that we can't watch those animals more closely, espeically at this time of year.

I've also given orders that any cow/s that even look like they're close to birthing are to kept close at hand and watched 24 hours per day.

I still feel sick about it.....just hate it when it happens.

We had a hog birth 15 the other day, 4 dead but they were really tiny and probably weren't meant to live. I don't think I can say that with the calf I lost.
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the hog that gave birth prolly had 12 good milking teats.its to bad a cow can't have 3 or more calves every time,then losing a small one wouldn't seem as bad.
if my runts got colostrum,they did better on fresh green alfalfa then they did powdered milk.saved alot that way.
good luck with the future whitewing.
 
I take every one I loose personal - - - I was very lucky again this year as I finished yesterday and had 21 live calves out of 21 cows. No pulling but I have had my share of problems in the past.

I'm thrilled to be done for the year - - - I have walked thru them 3 times already today - - - it is such a stress reliever to just take the dogs and walk thru - - - I love that the calves chase the dogs - - - I guess they have found out I make the dogs back off and so they are a play thing. I think if a stray came thru they would get a rude awakening as I feel the whole herd would chase the dog not the other way around!

Having live calves now still does not mean I won't lose one - - - about 3 years ago I lost one that got a burr caught on his sheath and urinated inside himself - - - I thought the vet was nuts but he ran his finger up the sleath and pulled 3 burrs out.

No matter how carfull we are some will find a way to die.
 
Losses always hurt, and you're not the first person who's kicked themselves, and rethought what they could do to prevent them. Like FH said however, you can't prevent them all.

I calve these cows out by myself, and I've learned it's impossible to monitor them 24/7. I've also learned you shouldn't have to :wink: . Honestly, if I had extra help calving, I wouldn't watch the cows any closer than I do now... and I shouldn't have to as long as I didn't mess up in my bull selection, or am getting a bunch of odd presentations :shock: . Like NR likes to say, "they don't all get to be cows"... and there's a lot of truth to that statement.

I've found that cows which screw up once, go on to keep screwing up, so selling them isn't always a bad thing. As I get older, my tolerance for any extra work ANY cow requires is drastically reduced. If I have to catch a cow for any reason, she gets her tag notched, and onto the cull list. After the initial fallout, you end up with better cows. This herd certainly isn't perfect, but it's improving all of the time.

As long as you're providing reasonable care, I'd just let them be cows, and the good ones will surface to the top :wink: :D . Afterall, you don't want to select for cows which need babysat 24/7 :wink: :D . I hope the rest of your calving goes well!
 
Whitewing said:
I'm 2000 miles away but in touch with what's going on at the ranch on a daily basis. I don't know all the details yet but suspect the cow was turned out in the morning with the rest of them and not checked on carefully enough during the day.
Now, if there's not a cowboy on hand with animals, someone is making 3 or 4 trips a day AMONGST the animals to look for someone in trouble. My place just isn't that big that we can't watch those animals more closely, espeically at this time of year.

I've also given orders that any cow/s that even look like they're close to birthing are to kept close at hand and watched 24 hours per day.

I still feel sick about it.....just hate it when it happens.

We had a hog birth 15 the other day, 4 dead but they were really tiny and probably weren't meant to live. I don't think I can say that with the calf I lost.
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Sorry for your loss, Whitewing. We lost a nice big month old calf today, and that hurts even worse. He may have been eating sand.

Don't be too hard on your crew if you are 2000 miles away. Sometimes if a boss is that far away and does too much chewing, it is pretty easy for the help to develop a don't give a darn attitude. Find the best help you can, tell them what is expected, and stay out of their way.
 
So very true, Soapweed. And that reminds me of an old boy in
Wyoming who was a real good hand, though he was in his later
years at the point this happened. Some wealthy folks from back
east bought a nice ranch at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains
and they hired Buster to take care of and over see it. Things
went along quite well, until one night they called Buster in the
middle of the night and woke him up to complain about some thing.
Buster waited til they were finished and he said just two
little words."I Quit", he said. And then he hung up.

No amount of sweet-talking could make him take the job back.
He said he didn't need to be called in the middle of the night
to be chewed out and he was making sure it didn't happen twice!
 
The difference between life & death is eyelash thin . One night I watched a heifer calving , Calf was born didnt breath I hit him in the ribs once & there he was . A person seems to dwell on the bad & not see all good running circles in the pasture .
 
lefty said:
The difference between life & death is eyelash thin . One night I watched a heifer calving , Calf was born didnt breath I hit him in the ribs once & there he was . A person seems to dwell on the bad & not see all good running circles in the pasture .
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I had one like that this spring I could see it's heart beating but It would'nt breathe I tried mouth to nose for 15 minutes I bet and to no avail. I'd rather have those type's than death from scours.
 
It gets real personal here when we loose a calf... And we do.. My cows are family.. I know who their moms and grandmoms and have stories on all of them.
Someone said if ya have em, you're gonna loose em... And them that don't are damn liars..
 
Be real carefull M Fing your help ther broken wing. me and the boss's son left the boss with a close hfr to move pairs, we had been losing plenty of calves, he was gonna fire us both and get somebody that could calve them hfrs, when we got back he had a dead calf and a down hfr, and all the prick could say was, damn they die easy
 

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