Okay, let me begin with the fact that I know that I'm clueless so please bare with me. We bought two 6 month old Dexter heifers the end of October. We are also housing two young dexter steers for a friend. All have been happy and seem to be growing nicely, our plan WAS to one day breed our heifers after they were about two years old. In the mean time, I planned to do more research on birthing and raising calves.
Both heifers, from different breeders, we're still on their mothers when we picked them up. We took them to the vet and had them wormed, shots done, and dehorned ( which btw, I will never have done again! ). We brought them to their new home and within a week both were eating cube from my hand but are still slightly skiddish and won't let me put my hands on them.
From all the dexter cattle I've seen, most are round, plump, little cows so we thought nothing of their round bellies as they have grown. The females are quite different from each other, assuming that has something to do with genetics and the roundest of the two was not quite as round as one of the steers that are here. I HAD NO CLUE that she might be pregnant. It never even dawned on me because of her age! I would never consider breeding at such a young age! And they are so small still!!! Some people breed them at 14-18 months, I know but I just couldn't see them being ready at that age. Anyway....
I walked outside to let my chickens out the day before yesterday at about 7:00 am and heard someone mooing like crazy in the pasture just on the other side of the house, I fed the chickens, cats and pig and then thought I better go check to see what was going on. She was obviously trying to get my attention. When I walked around there she was standing head on, just looking at me mooing. I stood there and talked to her, I checked to water trough to make sure all was in order, everything seemed normal, it wasn't feeding time so I knew that wasn't it, and a few minutes later, she turned ever so slightly and I could see the cord hanging! I knew immediately but was so dumbfounded, I went over to her and sure enough, there, on the ground right in front of her was a brand new, TINY, little calf, clean but still very wet. I was immediately worried because momma is only 14 months old!!
Momma has a small utter, not that I'm familiar, but it just doesn't seem to be as full as I've seen before on other breeds. The calf is absolutely nursing here and there throughout the day and momma is doing a great job with protection, cleaning, and even stimulating the calf to urinate, I haven't actually seen bm but that doesn't mean that it hasn't occurred. My only concern is, that how do I know if momma is producing good enough. Baby has no trouble latching but does seem to feel the need to "punch the bag" with it's nose a lot in frustration. I have increased mom's caloric intake to help enhance her health and milk production and things seem as though they may be normal except baby seems to get up long enough to nurse and then goes back to lay down. Yesterday am it had a bit of energy, kicking up its heels a little and even showed curiosity when my pig came in to say hello, but it sure lays around most of the time.
Dexter cattle are a very small breed, calves usually weighing in at about 45 lbs, she is probably between 35-40 lbs, at day 3 strong when she stands yet still a little wobbly when moving around. Now I have to consider that we live in southeast Texas and temps are well into the 90's already, but is this normal, should I be doing anything to help out or am I being overly concerned?
Both heifers, from different breeders, we're still on their mothers when we picked them up. We took them to the vet and had them wormed, shots done, and dehorned ( which btw, I will never have done again! ). We brought them to their new home and within a week both were eating cube from my hand but are still slightly skiddish and won't let me put my hands on them.
From all the dexter cattle I've seen, most are round, plump, little cows so we thought nothing of their round bellies as they have grown. The females are quite different from each other, assuming that has something to do with genetics and the roundest of the two was not quite as round as one of the steers that are here. I HAD NO CLUE that she might be pregnant. It never even dawned on me because of her age! I would never consider breeding at such a young age! And they are so small still!!! Some people breed them at 14-18 months, I know but I just couldn't see them being ready at that age. Anyway....
I walked outside to let my chickens out the day before yesterday at about 7:00 am and heard someone mooing like crazy in the pasture just on the other side of the house, I fed the chickens, cats and pig and then thought I better go check to see what was going on. She was obviously trying to get my attention. When I walked around there she was standing head on, just looking at me mooing. I stood there and talked to her, I checked to water trough to make sure all was in order, everything seemed normal, it wasn't feeding time so I knew that wasn't it, and a few minutes later, she turned ever so slightly and I could see the cord hanging! I knew immediately but was so dumbfounded, I went over to her and sure enough, there, on the ground right in front of her was a brand new, TINY, little calf, clean but still very wet. I was immediately worried because momma is only 14 months old!!
Momma has a small utter, not that I'm familiar, but it just doesn't seem to be as full as I've seen before on other breeds. The calf is absolutely nursing here and there throughout the day and momma is doing a great job with protection, cleaning, and even stimulating the calf to urinate, I haven't actually seen bm but that doesn't mean that it hasn't occurred. My only concern is, that how do I know if momma is producing good enough. Baby has no trouble latching but does seem to feel the need to "punch the bag" with it's nose a lot in frustration. I have increased mom's caloric intake to help enhance her health and milk production and things seem as though they may be normal except baby seems to get up long enough to nurse and then goes back to lay down. Yesterday am it had a bit of energy, kicking up its heels a little and even showed curiosity when my pig came in to say hello, but it sure lays around most of the time.
Dexter cattle are a very small breed, calves usually weighing in at about 45 lbs, she is probably between 35-40 lbs, at day 3 strong when she stands yet still a little wobbly when moving around. Now I have to consider that we live in southeast Texas and temps are well into the 90's already, but is this normal, should I be doing anything to help out or am I being overly concerned?
yes! This morning she was hopping around acting quite frisky, I'm feeling much better about things today.
