Buttons 2023 Calving Thread

[ButtonHerder]

I was referring to the swelling of the vulva area. That is more than I normally see with ours, but ours usually have more udder development when they are 2-4 weeks from calving. I does help to know an "in and out date" for the bull with the heifers as I watch them alot closer too.
I am sorry Baby is from a group that didn't make much milk. The sad thing is that you may have the same problem with her. Let's hope she does better for you.

Yes, I tried to find the paper for the bull loan last year, but couldn’t. But she really could calve any time now.

I really prefer to not buy heifers... open or bred. It has been too much of a gamble for us. I would rather buy an older bred cow and maybe only get a couple calves out of her... because she has "been there, done that" and an older cow is older , mostly because she has done her job.... Especially like to buy at dispersal sales because then you are less likely to wind up with "duds"....

Yeah, we ended up with a bad group. Luckily it was only like 5 of them. All skinny, wild Herefords. They were the craziest cattle I have ever seen in my life. They literally reminded me of the wild elk we have around here, they were that nuts. They were apparently from a breeder who ran purebred Herefords out in the bush, so very little contact with people ever. The owner died, and his son who took care of them either didn’t know sh!t about cattle, or just didn’t care they were so thin. The first one to calve had Baby, the mother would even touch it, we gave her all day and tried different things before I decided to bottle feed her. The second one was another heifer, the mom wouldn’t take her either, but we’d had a cow lose her calf recently and were able to adopt her on, she’s a very quiet heifer now. The last one born was another heifer, and the mother did take her. I was worried she would be crazy like her mom, but me having Baby in with them and going to feed her multiple times a day calmed them down a bit, and the heifer eventually started eating grain from me. She now comes for scratches. The other 2 cows in that bunch had calves that didn’t make it. We had to pull both of them, and I honestly blame it on the condition they were in. Each of them was sold as soon as their calves didn’t need them anymore. The way they were, they were a hazard for us and themselves. They would never have stayed in the kind of fencing we use, they even tried to jump the panels a couple of times.

Do you have much predator problems out on pastures? There are a couple of guys on another cattle forum I frequent, and they are in northern BC and another in another province, not sure which one... and they have trouble with bears and wolves with their cattle .... they run big herds, and calve out a couple hundred and want to have them all on the ground before the first of May so the calves have a little size when they put them out.
Our biggest problem here is coyotes with the young calves.... Not too much problems with the few black bears we have, except getting into the salt on occasion..... we do have to deal with dogs running them on occasion but we are not near as remote as you and most of the pastures we have are within 1/2 to 2 miles of a house in any direction so much more urbanized.

Not really no. It is rare for a bear to bother any cows, and I only know of people having wolf troubles a ways away from us. I don’t think the coyotes would ever be stupid enough to mess with a momma cow, but they do try to steal the afterbirth. Mountain lions are kind of the scariest predator around here for everyone (not just cattle farmers), but it is very rare that anyone sees them. Only ever one passing through that leaves as quickly as they came. We had neighbours (I say neighbours, I mean a few miles away), who had serious problems with a few dogs. Multiple people had animals dead or seriously injured, and not just newborns, even olde calves and some cows were injured. They at first thought it was a small pack of wolves, and many people were hunting them. That was especially scary for me because we had cows pastured up there— especially when we got called to id a calf (wasn’t ours). Somebody eventually laid eyes on them and figured out it was I think 4 big black dogs. And I believe they found out whose they were. I never got a reliable story on what happened to them, but I imagine some farmer either shot them, or had a little chat with the owner which likely didn’t end well for the dogs either.

I was up to Hay Lakes in Alberta Canada nearly 20 years ago... for a funeral for a friend that I was "internet dating" I guess you could say... we had met and after several months, I was planning to go up to spend 2 weeks, go to Calgary Stampede, several other places... and he was killed in a freak work accident... so I went up to his funeral and met some of the friends he wanted to introduce me to.... it was really sad as we had gotten to be as good a friends as was possible long distance....talking the possibility of a future..... what amazed me was the openess of the area and seeing the train so far off in the distance... and that you could sit outside and read a newspaper at 10 or so at night because of the amount of light. He wanted to spend part of the year here in the states and part up there.... It was very pretty up there... I was there in May.

Oh I’m really sorry to hear about that.

We are a little more northern Alberta, and yeah it does stay light pretty late in spring and summer.

 

[ButtonHerder]

She’s had it, and it’s up and trying to suck already.

Another heifer. More of a brownish colour.

 

[Baymule]

Congratulations on the heifer!

 

[Mini Horses]

That's TWO heifers! Hooray! Always easier than bulls. Congrats.

 

[ButtonHerder]

Got another one, a black bull calf out of an Angus cow and Gelbvieh bull

 

[ButtonHerder]

Yesterday afternoon May calved!

This is her first calf, May is a dexter x mini angus/ angus. And she was bred to a Saler. The calf is a heifer.

 

[ButtonHerder]

And this morning:

My dad thinks heifer but didn’t want to bother her yet so we’re not 100% sure. The sire is the Gelbvieh bull.

 

[ButtonHerder]

This is Baby today

Still not super full udder.

And this is Licorice

 

[ButtonHerder]

Yesterday afternoon May calved! View attachment 98453
This is her first calf, May is a dexter x mini angus/ angus. And she was bred to a Saler. The calf is a heifer.

It was really cool because yesterday morning I saw and felt the calf moving around a lot.

 

[Baymule]

Lots of calves! My favorite newborns are a Brahma with those long ears and a Hereford, both are so darn cute.