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It's A Bad Day When...

W

WyomingRancher

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Jan 7, 2007
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Location
Wyoming
...You've lost four cows to Larkspur poisoning in the past 48 hours :( :( :( . I've been patrolling to see if more drop. If you can catch them, you can give them an antidote, but the four I've lost have died after dark. Makes a person sick!

Today I'm really reconsidering why I'm trying to raise cattle. I know this wreck shall pass, but it sure is upsetting. Since we've had great rain, I knew better than to move them onto fresh pasture, with fresh weed exposure, and so I kept them where they'd been. As I understand, Larkspur roots are the most toxic, and after good moisture, they are easily pulled up and eaten. The cattle still had a lot of feed, and most of the pasture had been sprayed. In hindsight, I guess moving them wouldn't have been any worse of a choice :? .

Thanks for listening to me complain :? . Now what does a person do with four bum heifer calves? Three of the heifers are nice, and would've been replacements, and so I may consider just keeping them anyhow. They are around 90 days old. I need to see what they'd bring at the sale barn before deciding what to do.

I almost had a really good year going :D . Hope nobody else is going through this wreck :shock: . Better go back out on patrol!
 
Last Winter I lost 2 Angus Bulls and 2 cows that ate Coffee Beans. I had no clue about this plant but the old timers tell me that if a frost occurs it turns the dead leaves very toxic.
Sorry about your loss.
 
We have a area across the tops of two canyons that we call the "death flats". My grand-dad lost a third of his herd one spring from larkspur. Those were the days you could go high on the mountain early in the spring. Nowadays we always start in the foothills and end up high in mid-summer. I sure feel for ya and hope ya know it's gonna happen once in awhile. You can fret and worry until you are sick but nature throws a mean curve ball. Good luck for the rest of the year! Look on the bright side, maybe ya got all the bad stuff outa your system and it's smooth sailin'! Probably not but it's the thought that counts! :wink:
 
Sorry about your loss. That really hurts.

One year back in the early 1980's, we branded on the last Saturday of April. During the following week we lost five cows to grass tetany and six calves to purple gut. Of course none of these were in pair form, so it required a lot of skinning hides of dead calves to graft the orphan calves onto recipient cows. It was a bummer; I sure remember that. :(

Hope the larkspur problem has run its course for you. Good luck.
 
Oh man, I'm so sorry :x I'd get the calves eating grain and they'll be fine. We had three orphan calves two years ago (Annie, Fanny and Danny). They had the run of the place, I'd call them and they come for their grain. The steer went on the truck with the rest of the steers and Annie had her first calf this spring. Hope your luck gets better!
 
Thanks everyone for your posts. I know wrecks happen, and this definately isn't the worst one, it's just that in the 11+ years of being here, I've never had a really great year, and I was hoping this one was going to be it :-) . Maybe I'm getting impatient :lol: . Trust me, I've been dropped on my head a time or two trying to figure out this ranching thing, but who hasn't? The problem is that time is running out for me to turn this place around, and a set-back like today doesn't help.

Sometimes I feel like I'm on a sinking boat, trying to plug numerous holes up, but no matter how hard I work, or how fast I plug holes, the end result is the same... she's gonna sink!

I shouldn't complain though, I've got a lot to be happy about... afterall I survived a tornado recently, and there is a lot of wonderful grass starting to grow! :D Enough of this pity party, afterall tomorrow's a new day :D . Thanks again for listening!
 
No new casualties this morning. I've never been so happy to see a drying wind come in my life :D . Now if they can stay alive until we haul to the forest on the 9th of June, I'll be set! There isn't much Larkspur on the forest.

After a temporary moment of insanity, I believe I will sell the calves. They are worth some money, and there's no sense taking more of a loss than necessary :D . Really, there is only one of the heifers who would've made a good cow, and I've got several other heifers who would gladly take her place. I could keep them around, but I'm terrible at extra projects since I absolutely hate doing them. Besides that, every time I'd see those calves, I'd be reminded of this wreck :D .

Let's just hope this incident has ended :shock: .
 
Sorry for your loss WR. I felt your pain several years ago when a $4000 uninsured bull that I used for six days and 6 first calvers met their maker courtesy of larkspur and a long rainy spell. It seems tough at the time but later it becomes a story to tell the grand kids.
 
WyomingRancher said:
Thanks everyone for your posts. I know wrecks happen, and this definately isn't the worst one, it's just that in the 11+ years of being here, I've never had a really great year, and I was hoping this one was going to be it :-) . Maybe I'm getting impatient :lol: . Trust me, I've been dropped on my head a time or two trying to figure out this ranching thing, but who hasn't? The problem is that time is running out for me to turn this place around, and a set-back like today doesn't help.

Sometimes I feel like I'm on a sinking boat, trying to plug numerous holes up, but no matter how hard I work, or how fast I plug holes, the end result is the same... she's gonna sink!

I shouldn't complain though, I've got a lot to be happy about... afterall I survived a tornado recently, and there is a lot of wonderful grass starting to grow! :D Enough of this pity party, afterall tomorrow's a new day :D . Thanks again for listening!
Click to expand...

Having animals die for any reason can be hard to take but it is a fact of life. An old Norweigan rancher that lived his entire life here in the sticks use to say " He who has, must lose" and remember, no matter how hard we try, we'll never kill them all. :D Keep looking forward, you aren't alone.
 
gcreekrch said:
WyomingRancher said:
Thanks everyone for your posts. I know wrecks happen, and this definately isn't the worst one, it's just that in the 11+ years of being here, I've never had a really great year, and I was hoping this one was going to be it :-) . Maybe I'm getting impatient :lol: . Trust me, I've been dropped on my head a time or two trying to figure out this ranching thing, but who hasn't? The problem is that time is running out for me to turn this place around, and a set-back like today doesn't help.

Sometimes I feel like I'm on a sinking boat, trying to plug numerous holes up, but no matter how hard I work, or how fast I plug holes, the end result is the same... she's gonna sink!

I shouldn't complain though, I've got a lot to be happy about... afterall I survived a tornado recently, and there is a lot of wonderful grass starting to grow! :D Enough of this pity party, afterall tomorrow's a new day :D . Thanks again for listening!
Click to expand...

Having animals die for any reason can be hard to take but it is a fact of life. An old Norweigan rancher that lived his entire life here in the sticks use to say " He who has, must lose" and remember, no matter how hard we try, we'll never kill them all. :D Keep looking forward, you aren't alone.
Click to expand...

You're right :D, I was just hoping for a REALLY good year . I've seen my share of dead animals, and want the year that hits it out of the ballpark! At least this year is shaping up better than the year this happened:

http://beefmagazine.com/mag/beef_needle_nightmare/

Sometimes I need to be reminded of my past to fully appreciate where I'm headed in my future :D .
 
Ah yes, isn't life in the beautiful pine forest full of wonders.
2007 was our bad year jackpine calves, I don't even want to try to remember the wreck... it wasn't good and they are lots of extra work when they come too early. Our problem was red needles on top of the snow from bug killed trees. The cows were full and bored and grazed the needles in their spare time. Here, you cannot escape them.
 
gcreekrch said:
Ah yes, isn't life in the beautiful pine forest full of wonders.
2007 was our bad year jackpine calves, I don't even want to try to remember the wreck... it wasn't good and they are lots of extra work when they come too early. Our problem was red needles on top of the snow from bug killed trees. The cows were full and bored and grazed the needles in their spare time. Here, you cannot escape them.
Click to expand...

YOUCH! I was able to build fence and cut down some trees to eliminate exposure to the trees. I certainly feel for you if you can't get away from the needles :( . Where the cattle winter now during the last trimester isn't great... not much shelter, and the water situation is marginal, but I've been able to make it work.

The year of our wreck, two neighbors to the south lost the same percentage of calves, as well as a friend in South Dakota. The loss was huge! I estimate between the four herds I knew of, ours included, it was a 30% loss out of 1600+ cows. My South Dakota friends could save a lot of their premies since they are at a lower elevation, and underdeveloped lungs could still make it. Up here was a different story!
 
It looks like I'm dealing with something other than Larkspur. I had another dead cow this morning, and the vet highly suspects grass tetanus. He said he's never had to treat for this problem up here in the mountains, on non-improved pastures, but with the strange spring, and strange rainstorms last week, times have changed. I've never seen anything like it either in 11 years of living here. I guess one ranch has lost 14 cows so far. My neighbor just west of here has had zero problems yet???

Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this at this point? I've been trying to feed them a little alfalfa, and will try to mix some magnesium oxide in their mineral when I can find some (feedstores are closed until monday).

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Oh, I'm so sorry you lost another cow. Can you observe your cows? With grass tetnany they will stagger.

I'm thinking you must not have much old grass. In our area, if there is old grass present there generally isn't a problem with grass tetnany.
In fact, we sell very little Hi-Mag mineral because those on our mineral program don't have a problem. Hi-mag mineral needs to be put out 48 hours before turn out. Usually grass tetanany is a problem on tame pastures, not native pasture, because the native pasture doesn't grow fast enough. But heck, we turn out on crested wheat pastures and we've never had a problem.

So, if you have some pastures with old grass, I would recommend you move them there; OR put out some old hay or straw round bales. Doesn't have to even be very good stuff. Cattle on green grass desire dry matter and the old hay or straw will help with that as well. I suspect some on here will snicker at this idea, but believe me, it works. The cows won't eat that hay or straw like they do in the winter time, but you put a big round bale out for them and I guarantee you, it will be gone.

Magnesium is bitter and it's hard to get cattle to eat it. For the bit we sell, it contains the least amount of phos because the phos is bitter too, both reasons why it is hard to get added mag in the cattle. You might try a hi-mag lick tub. I just haven't had experience with them and adding protein in the spring is expensive and generally not-needed because of the high protein content of the grass. But in your case, it might be cheaper than losing cows.

Hope this helps!!
 
Hope this loss quits for you WR. It is always fustrating when you are losing animals and you are not sure why.
Last Febuary we lost 3 bred cows and had 8 abort their calves.
Turned out to be pasturella pnuemonia.

Hope it quits for you soon.
 
Faster horses said:
Oh, I'm so sorry you lost another cow. Can you observe your cows? With grass tetnany they will stagger.

I'm thinking you must not have much old grass. In our area, if there is old grass present there generally isn't a problem with grass tetnany.
In fact, we sell very little Hi-Mag mineral because those on our mineral program don't have a problem. Hi-mag mineral needs to be put out 48 hours before turn out. Usually grass tetanany is a problem on tame pastures, not native pasture, because the native pasture doesn't grow fast enough. But heck, we turn out on crested wheat pastures and we've never had a problem.

So, if you have some pastures with old grass, I would recommend you move them there; OR put out some old hay or straw round bales. Doesn't have to even be very good stuff. Cattle on green grass desire dry matter and the old hay or straw will help with that as well. I suspect some on here will snicker at this idea, but believe me, it works. The cows won't eat that hay or straw like they do in the winter time, but you put a big round bale out for them and I guarantee you, it will be gone.

Magnesium is bitter and it's hard to get cattle to eat it. For the bit we sell, it contains the least amount of phos because the phos is bitter too, both reasons why it is hard to get added mag in the cattle. You might try a hi-mag lick tub. I just haven't had experience with them and adding protein in the spring is expensive and generally not-needed because of the high protein content of the grass. But in your case, it might be cheaper than losing cows.

Hope this helps!!
Click to expand...

Thanks! I set some straw bales out, and so we'll see what happens. The frustrating thing is that they are dying during the night. The last few days I've been patrolling them during the daytime, and haven't seen any down. I'm not exactly sure what I'm dealing with, but according to the vet, I'm not alone. Maybe the aliens are killing them :lol: .

They do have a lot of old grass, and so I can't improve on that situation. Also, my mineral does contain magnesium oxide. I guess all I can do is ride out the storm until this hopefully ends soon.

My boss is thinking of loading them all up and selling out. I figured that was coming since we've had one too many wrecks/problems over the past few years, not all necessarily cattle related. Can't really blame him... I may be looking for a new job soon, like I need more to worry about :o .

Thanks again for all of your advice, I truly appreciate it! :D
 
I think we've figured out part of the problem. It may have something to do with spraying the pasture for weeds. In areas which have been sprayed, the grass has definately had an accelerated growth rate.

Also, due to the cold spring, I haven't been able to move them to their next pasture (about a week behind) since the grass hadn't started very well. I'm betting since we've not seen this problem before, it has to do with the faster growth rate in the sprayed pasture, not being able to move them on time, and this crazy weather we've been having.

I moved the cattle today into a pasture which I was hoping to rest this year. It has enough feed for a week, and not many weeds. While moving them, none went down with "weed symptoms", and so I'm betting I'm dealing with something like grass tetanus.

My boss seems to feel better about the situation, and so he hasn't made plans to sell them :) . I don't think he'd like retirement if he tried it, just look at the fun challenges he'd be missing out on! Things are looking up, and I hope this mess is behind us :D .
 
Instead of all this ' guessing' that it might be this or that.....has your Vet taken any samples of the dead ones?

Just some simple tissue/fluid tests sometimes can stop a train wreck.
 
kolanuraven said:
Instead of all this ' guessing' that it might be this or that.....has your Vet taken any samples of the dead ones?

Just some simple tissue/fluid tests sometimes can stop a train wreck.
Click to expand...

No, we haven't submitted samples. I was told to get an eyeball to test for magnesium concentrations if I could, but the birds have eaten them before I can find them. The coyotes also have them pretty eaten up as well. I still think it would be beneficial to try and get a diagnosis, even if the samples aren't in the best condition. If there is a "next" one, I will sample it.
 

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