jkvikefan said:I trim feet for a living... That being said, I agree have her trimmed . She will be able to move around and forage with much less discomfort .
Based on the limited information , I would say that this cow over ate on grain at some point in time and developed a text book case of lamanitis. This condition is one that is caused by management rather than heredity and therefore she will not pass this on to her offspring.
Circle M said:sounds like when she has her calf and it is weaned she should head to the sale barn, i am going to throw another rookie question out there ,,,when is it time to wean the calf ??
Soapweed said:If we get a long-toed cow, she gets to stay long enough to have a calf. We then rob her calf to put on a good young cow that has lost a calf for one reason or another, and the long-toed cow gets a ride to town.
PureCountry said:don't forget to send the young cow to town for losing her own calf, at the earliest opportunity that is. :wink:
Soapweed said:PureCountry said:don't forget to send the young cow to town for losing her own calf, at the earliest opportunity that is. :wink:
My thought is that often it isn't the young cow's fault if her calf was born dead. For instance, if the rancher was foolish enough to turn the bulls out too early :roll: and a calf was born on a very cold night, it isn't the cow's fault if the calf freezes to death. If she is a good young cow, and I have a live calf out of an old shelly cow, it would seem to be wise to graft that calf onto the nice young cow. Even if a calf is born with the placenta over its nose and it smothers, it isn't necessarily the cow's fault. She could go another ten years with that never happening again.
A cow that has a super calf one year will not necessarily do so the next. A late calving cow won't necessarily have a late calf the next year.
It is just like parents bringing up children. Sometimes the parents do their best to see that the kids turn out alright, and yet a kid can grow up to be a renegade. Sometimes lousy parents have great children. The older I get, the more I realize that there are no completely hard and fast rules on either cows having calves or people having kids.
PureCountry said:Soapweed said:PureCountry said:don't forget to send the young cow to town for losing her own calf, at the earliest opportunity that is. :wink:
My thought is that often it isn't the young cow's fault if her calf was born dead. For instance, if the rancher was foolish enough to turn the bulls out too early :roll: and a calf was born on a very cold night, it isn't the cow's fault if the calf freezes to death. If she is a good young cow, and I have a live calf out of an old shelly cow, it would seem to be wise to graft that calf onto the nice young cow. Even if a calf is born with the placenta over its nose and it smothers, it isn't necessarily the cow's fault. She could go another ten years with that never happening again.
A cow that has a super calf one year will not necessarily do so the next. A late calving cow won't necessarily have a late calf the next year.
It is just like parents bringing up children. Sometimes the parents do their best to see that the kids turn out alright, and yet a kid can grow up to be a renegade. Sometimes lousy parents have great children. The older I get, the more I realize that there are no completely hard and fast rules on either cows having calves or people having kids.
There is a huge rule that I see as being very hard and fast - cows cost money and pay the bills. Kids, well, they just cost. :lol: :lol:
I see your point about a cow calving in cold weather - not her fault, which is why we switched to June calving. Now our cows have no excuses. As far as a calf smothering, to me that's a cows' first instinct is to ensure the calf gets cleaned off. That instinct has been in grazing mammals for centuries, to clean off any smell before predators pick it up. If we've given them a chance, by allowing those cows to stay on, we're taking it another step towards knocking out their instincts.
I don't want to turn my cows into buffalo, but I want them to do the bulk of the work, without me watching all the time. As a wise Galloway breeder, and fine old gentleman cowboy, Fred Noad once told me, "The best tool I have at calving season is my binoculars." :wink: