UPDATE: We Have a CALF!!!!...Need Opinions...When will she give birth?

[1MrsMagoo]

Hello All.

My family purchased a Brown Swiss x Jersey heifer (turned into a sweet cow) that is about 4 years old as a cull from a dairy herd in early April. Maybell has one extremely small teat and another that is undersized, but she was being used as a nurse cow when we got her. The seller said she had calved three times before. We milked her for a couple of months after getting her and let her dry off in June due to the uncertainty about her due date.

We were told at that time that she was 4 months bred to a Jersey bull and if that is correct, she would be due sometime in the next 30 days or so. She has been getting bigger and bigger and eating more and more. Her udder is only slightly larger now but her behavior has changed in the past few days. Due to the heat (SE Louisiana) I mounted a mister to the fence for her and the chickens to use a couple weeks ago. The temperature has been constantly oppressive, but she would only go stand in it for a bit here or there.

Three days ago she went from visiting the mister to laying right under it. Even when the mister is off, she has been laying down longer and longer each day. She grazes or visits the hay building during the night or very early morning hours, but hardly at all during the day now and this is a girl who likes her food...lol. Not even my husband starting the lawnmower (have a bagger to mow the duck/goose pasture...give the clippings to the cow, horse, goats) excites her like it used to.

The poor girl has gotten truly huge...I tried to post a photo taken behind her this morning, but since I am new the forum won't let me yet. I have raised goats for years and can call a kid being born the day before, but it has been a long time since I have been around dairy cows: I helped on the dairy farm owned by a boyfriends parents in 1986. Anyway, what do you think? Is she in the home stretch...is their anything I should be watching for in particular for a cow that has calved before?

Thanks a million for any help. We are very excited. Heck even our 23 year-old son who lives in Florida is coming home in early September hoping to be here around the time when she delivers. Maybe if I can get my post count up I'll be allowed to post the picture.

 

[Royd Wood]

If she's calved before then it should be straight forward for her. You got her early April at 4 months pregnant so say 1st Dec service date = 9th Sept birth date
She should start getting softer around the rear soon and as she's had calves before her bag may well only start to fill close to calving
Keep us posted

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Yipee, they let me post the picture!! This was taken this morning. Her udder is still wrinkly and not full but her belly has gotten HUGE.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

If she's calved before then it should be straight forward for her. You got her early April at 4 months pregnant so say 1st Dec service date = 9th Sept birth date
She should start getting softer around the rear soon and as she's had calves before her bag may well only start to fill close to calving
Keep us posted

Thanks: I really appreciate your help. I was wondering if cows got "relaxed" by their tailbone like goats do before giving birth. That is how I can pinpoint when my does are ready...the muscle by their tail sinks and they walk kinda funny the day before.

We picked her up on April 7th, but she had been for sale under the same advertisement for at least three weeks prior...all ads said 4 months bred and never changed. I just wanted to be ready and not be too surprised.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Her tail head will definitely sink in around 24 hours (plus or minus) prior to birth. Not only that but you will also notice that her vulva will get bigger and more swollen-looking than she does in the picture you posted. And of course she'd be getting huge because, during the 3rd trimester, her calf will really start to grow on her. Let us know when she starts showing signs of labour.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Her tail head will definitely sink in around 24 hours (plus or minus) prior to birth. Not only that but you will also notice that her vulva will get bigger and more swollen-looking than she does in the picture you posted. And of course she'd be getting huge because, during the 3rd trimester, her calf will really start to grow on her. Let us know when she starts showing signs of labour.

Thanks....I am watching her like a hawk and will be sure to post progress when it happens. She is eating up all the extra attention and making sure she gets some extra ear scratching time each time I check on her. Gosh, I our cow

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

She's a beautiful color! I hope that her delivery and your experience with her is wonderful! Keep us posted.

 

[Bovinity]

She is a very beautiful cow. She has such a sweet look on her face! I will be watching this thread for news about her calf!

 

[1MrsMagoo]

She is a very beautiful cow. She has such a sweet look on her face! I will be watching this thread for news about her calf!

Thanks to all. She was a good bit darker than I expected from a Brown Swiss cross, but you can see a beautiful brown color to her when she is in the sun. She has turned into a real sweetheart. Although, the day we picked her up my husband thought I had lost my mind and didn't want to take her. She made a rodeo bull look calm and gentle and looked much more crazed than almost any cow I had ever seen.

When we arrived, she had no water or food and began panicking when the trailer was backed up to the gate. I listened to the farmer tell how they'd separated her from the calf she was nursing that morning and chase her to the loading chute with 4-wheelers where they left her for several hours till we arrived. The poor thing developed diarrhea while we were standing there. If I had never been around cows before, I would have thought she was sick rather than stressed. I talked to her and looked her in the eye and just had a feeling about her based on what I saw and heard. Although, my husband called that feeling temporary insanity, he hesitantly went along with the purchase.

Once we got her home I was able to milk her while she was blocked in the stanchion the next morning: Lucky for us she really wanted those oats or we would have never gotten her to go in. We only feed her in the stanchion so now when I head that way with a feed scoop, she runs over and gets in it and I don't even have to block her in anymore. However, for the first couple weeks we had her, she would not allow us within 5 feet of her at any other time. I worked with her every day, mainly by going out to the pasture and hanging out just to get her used to me.

Cows are a whole lot smarter than people give them credit for. After I'd been out there and not made any efforts to get near her, except at milking time, she began to watch every move I made and was keenly interested in everything I was doing. If the goats came to me to be scratched and loved on I'd see her peaking around the corner or past a tree. She would follow me at a distance to the chicken coop, where she would put her face up to the hardware cloth to see what I was doing inside. If I went to the horse paddock, she would stand in the far end of her pasture where she could see me and watch. After around 10 days of this she cautiously came over and sniffed my arm and slobbered on me. A few days later she licked me and let me touch her nose. I was very patient and my husband finally saw she wasn't going to kill us so came and helped too. He was actually the one that made the breakthrough with her.

In those early days, she would block the gate by leaning her head on it so that it could not be opened. She did this to my husband one day so he reached one hand over and began scratching behind her ear. It was funny to watch because after a few seconds of her trying to decide what to do, she started to enjoy it and lowered her head. So, he reached the other hand over and started scratching the base of both ears and moving around her head. For the first week or two, he was the only one she allowed to scratch her. The day she finally let me was awesome and it's been a cake walk since then. She has trusted us more and more every day and she doesn't even stand up when we come over to her when she is lying down now: Our horse doesn't even do that.

She has my husband wrapped around her hoof..lol. He takes her and the horse apple wafer treats every time he visits them. It is funny, all the female animals on the property adore him: My goat Hershey, Starlight our horse and now Maybell. On the other hand all the male and formerly males; my wethers, our tomcat, and our Rouen drakes, prefer me: They follow me anywhere and the cat will literally sit on my feet while I am in the garden.

I am just really happy she turned out so well: It could have easily went the other way. Their was this one cow when I worked at the dairy all those years ago...it was never nice. One night it got loose in the parlor and nearly hospitalized my boss...it was pretty scary. She went to freezer camp the next day and we enjoyed Bunkie-burgers for months to come.

Her being so gentle and well-behaved will be a huge thing when it comes to the calf. It will make life much, much easier and the calf will be friendlier from the beginning. It is time to turn her mister on for the day and inspect her for any changes....thanks again!

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Finally, after waiting for what seemed like FOREVER....we got our calf this past Monday afternoon. I noticed our cow was in labor at 4:20 PM and the calf was born almost exactly two hours later without any help from us. Luckily, it is a little heifer (we had agreed to keep a heifer calf or sell a bull) which our daughter named Bootsie.

Here she is the morning after she was born.....

Her first couple of days were rough; had a hard time nursing and then got a bit of the scours. However, I helped her figure out the nursing thing and slipped her some meds that got the scours cleared up and she is doing great now.

She has begun to turn more of a deep brown as can be seen on this picture from today.

I am pretty sure the farmer we bought the mother from had his wires crossed. Due to all the white markings on mother and calf and the size of mamas udder I would wager their is some Holstein in there. The guy swore she was Brown Swiss x Jersey bred to a Jersey.

Guesses anyone?