How much calving ease, if you please

[Big Muddy rancher]

Got a question along the lines of this thread.

The old folks that I have known in this country (all but 1 or 2 are gone now, with their wealth of information ) used to say that you had shorter or longer gestations depending on how many growing moons were in the gestation period. The less growing moons, the shorter gestation.
Has anyone else ever heard this?

My friends wife, Three Horses swears by it. :wink:

What have you and Soap been into? You're both kind of cheeky the last couple of days. :roll:

I don't pay much attention the moon stuff either, when a calf falls out the gestation's over. Just wondered if any others out there had heard of it.
Have to say though if it wasn't for the old folks we wouldn't be where we are today.
Did you know that after birthing, a cow is decaffinated? 8)

Decaffinated is fine but I hat when they become ground beef after calving. :roll:

 

[greybeard]

On the question of small birth weights, I have a bull with a 66 lb birth weight that I used on heifers. He is double bred small birth weight as his father was Venture Forward and his dams sire was PFred. He doesn't look like a heifer bull as he has good bone and I think exceptional thickness. His calves come small but not frail looking.
He's too big to use on heifers, but I like him. I'm thinking of using him on cows but don't really want to breed in that small birth into my cows. Is 66 pounds extreme?

 

[Faster horses]

You will probably get more BW from your cows than you did with your first calf heifers, out of the same bull.

Bruce Ketchum, Red Angus breeder and ABS AI tech has told me this more than once. He says you will get at least a 10 lb. heavier calf out of the cows vs. heifers. Bruce is a very austute cattleman.

I've observed this added birthweight on calves out of cows and I believe it to be true.

 

[codymccue]

Well we don't have bears around hear, and like Clint Eastwood once said, "Worms gotta eat too!".


If I was around and saw one that needed help, I'd help, but I don't make a habit of midnight runs to the calving pastures to check on cows/heifers all night.

what Clint said was"Hell with them boys...buzzards gotta eat,same as worms"

I help when I need...save the calf,cull the problem...

 

[RobertMac]

I help when I need...save the calf,cull the problem...

That's the best solution...but if you continue to bring in outside genetics, you continue to bring in possible problems.

FH, I agree and you can add 5-10 lbs. from out-cross/cross breeding!

 

[Silver]

On the question of small birth weights, I have a bull with a 66 lb birth weight that I used on heifers. He is double bred small birth weight as his father was Venture Forward and his dams sire was PFred. He doesn't look like a heifer bull as he has good bone and I think exceptional thickness. His calves come small but not frail looking.
He's too big to use on heifers, but I like him. I'm thinking of using him on cows but don't really want to breed in that small birth into my cows. Is 66 pounds extreme?

I don't believe the birthweight means anything at all unless you know what the rest of the calves in his group weighed at birth. I'm not afraid of using a 100 lb birth wieght bull on heifers if he was in the middle of his group. However, if the rest of his birthclass was 70-90 lbs I wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole, I would want his BW to be 80 lbs. This is another reason I think it's important to really know the operation you buy your bulls from.

 

[Faster horses]

:agree: :agree:

 

[ANGUS327]

Well we don't have bears around hear, and like Clint Eastwood once said, "Worms gotta eat too!".


If I was around and saw one that needed help, I'd help, but I don't make a habit of midnight runs to the calving pastures to check on cows/heifers all night.

what Clint said was"Hell with them boys...buzzards gotta eat,same as worms"

I help when I need...save the calf,cull the problem...

One of my favorite movies........along with '' dieing aint much of a living boy''