Calving... not cancelled due to Coronavirus...

[unclebilly]

^^^ that’s really cool. Our operation is no where near that big. We are fairly new to cattle (Neither my wife not I grew up on farms) and are trying to grow our herd organically. We only have 300 acres.

[LakeCleElum]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

Looks "Essential" to me.......Consider it Authorized..........

[93nav]

Looks cute to me.

Originally Posted by LakeCleElum

Looks "Essential" to me.......Consider it Authorized..........

[93nav]

unclebillly, hope your friend heals up fast.

How is the weather for you? Things still muddy? On the calf in the tub, what does the tag mean?

[WPOZZZ]

I like the ginger.

[93nav]

Careful, sounds like she came from a broken home with a violent mother.

Originally Posted by WPOZZZ

I like the ginger.

[unclebilly]

Originally Posted by 93nav

unclebillly, hope your friend heals up fast.

How is the weather for you? Things still muddy? On the calf in the tub, what does the tag mean?

The one in the tub is the one that came from my friend. 2020 is an 'H' year and 11 was the next sequential number in our calves for the year.

2013 = A 2027 = R
2014 = B 2028 = S
2015 = C 2029 = T
2016 = D 2030 = U
2017 = E 2031 = W
2018 = F 2032 = X
2019 = G 2033 = Y
2020 = H 2034 = Z
2021 = J 2035 = A
2022 = K 2036 = B
2023 = L 2037 = C
2024 = M 2038 = D
2025 = N 2039 = E
2026 = P 2040 = F

We have to track our calves in terms of meds, etc. This calf will be a Freemartin calf (female twin of a male / female pair) so she will most likely be sterile. She won't make the grade for breeding stock so she will be just sold in the fall to a feedlot. We have 2 other Freemartin heifer calves that will have the same fate this year. If we were keeping her to breed, we would have put the numbers of the sire and dame on the tag as well. We also need to put a CCIA RFID tag in her before we sell her or slaughter her to tie her carcass to our farm.

[Reiver]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

^^^ that’s really cool. Our operation is no where near that big. We are fairly new to cattle (Neither my wife not I grew up on farms) and are trying to grow our herd organically. We only have 300 acres.

That's more property than I have....and looks like you are using it just right.

Roger (Slippery Moon) sent me out to bring in two bulls on one pasture...that 'pasture' was about 15,000 acres...of rolling hills so it took me all day horseback with one good cow dog. There was no cross fencing but one and the Bulls would take off while I opened a loose stretch wire gate.....'Away to me' to the Aussie Shepard and that booger would get those Bulls thru the gate before you know it.....what a hand that dog was. Their ranch is about 78,000 acres.
It's like being back in time.

Heather does beautiful ranch photography...Roger, am old pard and her hubby, was killed by lightning horseback some years ago...miss him greatly....

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=cn%2B1zOBv&id=451B112F4AE8A8ACC7825376947C027871FDBA30&thid=OIP.cn-1zOBvsKFmynbIIjCXpQHaDh&mediaurl=http%3A%2F%2Fslipperymoon.ca%2Fimages%2Fs plash-1.jpg&exph=286&expw=600&q=slippery+moon+ranch&simid=608047242824256398&selectedindex=0&qpvt=slippery+moon+ranch&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&sim=11

[unclebilly]

Our latest calf. This one is a purebred shorthorn. If this was a bull, she would be worth a bit of money...

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

^^^ that’s really cool. Our operation is no where near that big. We are fairly new to cattle (Neither my wife not I grew up on farms) and are trying to grow our herd organically. We only have 300 acres.

300 sounds like a lot. I grew up on a 250 acre dairy farm. It's a crazy idea, but I would love to come up and learn about range farming.

[unclebilly]

Any time.

[Sooner or later]

Calves are cute.

Thanks for the pics.

[unclebilly]

Bad couple days here... on Saturday we had 2 calves. The first was a nice little Hereford heifer and I had to help momma as it was 1/2 out for 3-5 minutes and no progress was being made. Momma is an old cow and this will be her last year with us.

2 hours later, another cow (another daughter of cow #1) gave birth unassisted to a 111 lb calf. This is 30 lbs bigger than a good sized bull calf. Her nipples were about 2.5” in diameter and we could not get any milk out. A trip to the vet last night at 10:00 for some hormones and still no luck. This morning I followed up with another hormone shot and still nothing. I poked some 3D printer filament you into mommas nipples and got the milk moving. Tits are too big for babe’s mouth but we milked her and got it feeding. This calf is the same size as our orphans that are 4-6 weeks old.

Then we noticed our future bull (calf I bought) was bloated. I went to the drug store and got him some pepto bismol and gave him 35 ml and a shot of metacam and checked on him at 11:30... still bloated, probably worse. Tried to tube him (stick 3/8” PCR tubing down onto his stomach) and got nothing for gas release.

Called vet. Unloaded fencing supplies from my truck. Hooked up stock trailer. Went to get him and he was down on his side dying. Got him up, tubed him again and nothing. Lead him towards my truck, he went down again so we tubed him again and got some pretty stinky gas out. Tried again and got nothing. Carried him to stock trailer and put him in. Drove 85 MPH to vet. When I got there he was standing up in the trailer. Still bloated but at least not dead or still down.

Vet palpated him, we tubed him again and got more stinky gas out. We gave him bloat ease and some other large bolus. Lead him around to the infirmary and put him in a pen on IV for the night... fingers crossed he makes it and doesn’t need surgery in the morning.

[wdfifteen]

Your thread keeps bringing up memories of the days on the farm.
I remember "doctoring" the animals, shoving pills down their throats with a long steel syringe, drenching them with one concoction or another. And the visits from the AI guy!
We had a calf that dad suspected had hardware disease. Had to go through the whole loafing shed and paddock looking for spilled nails or something. We never found anything. The calf was a holstein bull (on a dairy farm) so dad didn't even call the vet. The calf lived somehow.

[Wetwork]

Our season has been fairly easy this year not a single calf pulled out of 120 head. Lost a couple of calves to unknown causes but other than that pretty easy.

Right now with the way cattle prices are down here we are sitting on our drys and culls. Starting to get worrisome.-WW

[unclebilly]

So it was stomach ulcers. We haven’t had to deal with this before but I guess it’s pretty common. He is back with his momma as of this afternoon and will be ok. We need to give him 4 pills a day for 3-5 days.

It won’t be a cheap vet bill this month but at least we saved him.

[unclebilly]

My daughter feeding her bottle calf...



My son bringing in the herd with his dirt bike...

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Great thread!

Hereford's were all around me where I grew up as I lived only 15 miles from Hereford

[Gretch]

do they like the dandelions?

[unclebilly]

^^^ they will eat dandelions but they aren't first choice.