Pulling a Calf

[Soapweed]

Do the same as soap, but with no head catch, just use the side panels and swing them out of the way if she goes down. When they go down and you have pressure on the chains they stay down. (most of the time) :shock: Less messing with the heifer, the better the chance of them taking the calf.

Usually this plan works. Occasionally it doesn't. This story is of an ordeal I went through last year because that docile scenario didn't work as planned.

As this is still very fresh on my mind, having just come from the calving barn, I will tell you my tale. At one a.m., the night man knocked on my bedroom window. This is our secret signal to have a midnight rendezvous. The only trouble is, is that it isn't all the secret. Peach Blossom also awoke, and told me to take the telephone and call her if we needed help.

I always did think that the military should take some lessons from cowboys on wearing apparel, because it sure took me longer to get dressed while helping Uncle Sam than it does to don my cowboy duds. Typical of military clothing is buttons, lots of buttons, that are hard to find in the dark. Then shoe laces and "blousing rubbers" further confugal the situation. With cowboy gear, it is shirts with snaps, britches with a zipper, and pull on boots. You just can't beat this system for speed and efficiency.

The night man was waiting on the porch to inform me that a heifer was calving. It looked to be a humongous calf, judging by the size of its feet which looked like three inch fence posts. He had her already in the head catch. We made our way to the barn facing a thirty mile-per-hour headwind, but no snow was as yet coming down. All I had to do was put on the latex gloves, attach the chain, and help pull the calf. My system of choice is to use a long 60" calving chain. I put a loop around each foot above the ankles, and then make another half-hitch loop between the ankle and the hooves. This allows only half the pressure in two spots instead of all the pressure in one spot on each leg. Even after a hard pull, the calf doesn't walk around for a week with the front ankles bent under him.

I attached the chain and my able assistant had the calf puller in position. It is the old fashioned kind, with a crank winch and ten feet of cable. I prefer this type of puller, as it is what I grew up with, and I like being out on the end of it having plenty of leverage to hold the cow in line. It was a very tight pull, but I knew the heifer was plenty dialated. We had sorted heavies out of the heifer bunch just before dark, and she had the water bag showing then. I was running the winch, and the night man was holding the tail and monitoring the situation. The heifer went down in the back end but was standing on her front legs. She appeared to be tired from her hard labor, and as I've done oodles of time in the past, I told Kenneth to just release the head catch so she could lay down in front. He did, and that is when the fun commenced.

That heifer was not nearly as wore out as I had perceived. She doubled back, up and over, like a rattlesnake in striking postion. Venom was in her eye and on her tongue. All that we pedestrians could do was jump for cover. She took off in a flash, with the firmly attached calf puller swinging wildly from side to side. She headed back through our panel alleyway, and fortunately the panels jammed together to block her forward departure. She made an abrupt U-turn, with the calf puller hammering everything it touched. Blood was in her eye (figuratively), and here she came after us. Fortunately, she charged back into the calving pen where the head catch was located. We were on the gate, which she butted continuosly for quite some time. Kenneth went outside of the barn and came in from the other direction to lure her to the other side of the pen. Finally we got the gate shut. We still had twenty minutes of strategic battle before we got her back into the head catch. Then one hind kicking leg was still tangled up in the back strap of the calf puller. I was finally able to disengage the hook on the cable from the chain on the calf's legs, and we were once again back to square one.

We rejuggled the chains on the calf's feet, re-attached the handy-dandy puller (which fortunately had not got wrecked), and proceeded to pull the calf. The cow went down in the back end, stayed up in the front end like a puppy dog, but I didn't care. We pulled the calf with no further interuptions. He was a big old baldy calf out of this baldy heifer. The hybrid vigor came through, both in his size and his durability. He is in fine shape.

The cow I knew would only cause more trouble, so I opened the barn up all the way through, and opened a couple corral gates so she could go straight out to a pasture. We really don't need her around clogging up the arteries of commerce. I made a trip back to the house and mixed up some powdered colostrum for the calf. I have a new momma in mind for him. A cow had dead twin calves two days ago, but she is gentle and has a nice bag. All is well that ends well. :shock: :wink:

 

[Jake]

I recently attended a seminar put on by the Colorado State University lead vet. he works with a producer where they calve over 5000 heifers every year. this is done in 45 days!!!

was a VERY informational program, and I am changing the way I do several things in hopes of relying on his experiance.

If I recall right ( too lazy to dig out my notes I took) the cow, must ALWAYS be on her left side. this allows for a straighter shot in the bith canal. he said it is very easy to lay the cow down, most pull a calf with the cow standing, because it is easier on us! but the cow wants to lay down.

I also attended this event, was very impressed by Dr. Mortimer. We're changing the way we do a few things also. I do believe it was the right side though because the rumen is on the left, that is just if my late night memory serves me right.

They showed throwing a rope around the heifer's flank to pull her down, claims it doesn't take much persuasion.

What I found interesting about the seminar was the emphasis put on how a producer needs to realize the stress put upon the calf and heifer not the person as it is the animal going through the deliver and the higher the stress level the lower the colostrum absorption is and there for the higher the incidence of scours.

edit: guess if I'd have noticed there were two pages and read on I'd have seen this was already discussed

 

[sandhiller]

Caution, this may not be the best way to do it.
A guy once ask me that since I would be going right by his very small herd, would I check to see if any was calving. I agreed that I would, after all he only had a few head, not likely anything would be going on. WRONG, found a cow with a swollen tounge hanging out. Cow was wild, and I couldn't find his calf puller. Finally got her into his corral. Got a rope on her and tied her up to the side of the corral. Found some plastic small baler twine so doubled one of those over each foot and hooked my log chain to the twine and to the corral fence post. turned the cow loose and away she went at a very high rate of speed. Calf popped right out but it did bust off about 6 corral post which was the entire one side of his corral. Guy was not very impressed with my methods, never ever ask me to check his cows again!

 

[CattleArmy]

I think to have some of ours lay down to assist them calving one of us better go to cow whispering school. :shock: I'm just wondering how they suggested getting the cow to lay down?


Once calves are pulled here (crossing fingers hoping most don't need it) due to smaller stalls here they are put in the corner. Been my experience at first they are turning around trying to get their bearings and watching the person who assisted them calving that one out in the middle would get a foot in the gut.

 

[Kato]

Our cows almost always calve laying down, except if we pull the calf. Go figure!

We tie them up in the barn because we don't have the fancy calving stall. They aren't hard to tie up once they're in the pen. Being tied may be one reason they don't want to lie down. We've found a hiplock easer to deal with if the cow's standing, because lying down they are often in a bad position for the downward pulling maneuver that it takes to get the hips to come.

Another thing to remember when putting the chains on is to make sure both feet belong to the same calf! Sometimes twins line up side by side. :shock: :shock: :shock:

The best thing to do is avoid heifers. We haven't kept heifers for three years because bred cows were so cheap, but it looks like next spring the party will be over. We've been spoiled. :roll: :roll: We haven't pulled a lot of calves in the past years, unless they're twins with a traffic jam, not presenting correctly, or backwards, which we never leave alone to calf.

 

[Jake]

Our cows almost always calve laying down, except if we pull the calf. Go figure!

We tie them up in the barn because we don't have the fancy calving stall. They aren't hard to tie up once they're in the pen. Being tied may be one reason they don't want to lie down. We've found a hiplock easer to deal with if the cow's standing, because lying down they are often in a bad position for the downward pulling maneuver that it takes to get the hips to come.

Another thing to remember when putting the chains on is to make sure both feet belong to the same calf! Sometimes twins line up side by side. :shock: :shock: :shock:

The best thing to do is avoid heifers. We haven't kept heifers for three years because bred cows were so cheap, but it looks like next spring the party will be over. We've been spoiled. :roll: :roll: We haven't pulled a lot of calves in the past years, unless they're twins with a traffic jam, not presenting correctly, or backwards, which we never leave alone to calf.

That was another thing I found interesting that they talked about, they said don't pull down on the calf because they don't work like a board and you can actually cause a hiplock. Instead they said to pull straight out and then once the calf has it's ribcage in the pelvic start to rotate the calf as he comes out so it's hips are coming out up and down as the cow has more top to bottom in the pelvic when compared side to side.