Mike CHS
Herd Master
Congratulations on what looks like some healthy critters. 
Wehner Homestead 2018 Calving: Done
- Thread starter Wehner Homestead
- Start date
Hens and Roos
Herd Master
- Thread starter
- #73
Wehner Homestead
Herd Master
I’m thinking it’s “cow code.” I just walked out there and she’s letting another cow lay up there too and no definitive sign of imminent delivery other than an udder and swelling. Her udder typically gets bigger and the calf hasn’t moved up yet. She’s grazing...she could progress in seconds or go a couple more days...
Dolly
Dolly
BoboFarm
Loving the herd life
CntryBoy777
Herd Master
Ya just have things happening all around ya there....at least with your back problems ya are there to tend to and keep an eye on things.....
- Thread starter
- #76
Wehner Homestead
Herd Master
While checking on Dolly (I forgot to mention that she had twin bull calves a couple years ago) I got some snapshots of some of our other cows that I hadn’t introduced yet.
First off, Georgia. She came from a close family friend and is distantly related to Scarlett. She’s also a SimmSolution. Georgia slipped her calf after three months of being bred. She’s a great mom so we let her stick around and didn’t try to get her covered so she didn’t end up on the wrong timing. We’ve retained two of her daughters, Sydney and Gatlin.
Georgia
Sydney (she was born during a polar freeze and despite our efforts, got frostbite to her tail and ears) She belongs to DD2 and is a sweetheart. This will be her second calf.
Gatlin was also bred and slipped her calf about 3 months later. (She and her mother were on separate farms and slipped their calves about a month apart. Due to her size, we opted to let her grow a year and breed again.)
Bailey is due 3/5 and had also had twin bull calves in the past. She’s the one that her mother was struck by lightning and killed. Her surrogate was our beloved Abigail. Bailey is tame enough to sniff our hands but don’t go in the pasture for a month after she calves!!
Elsa is a half sister to Gatlin, as they have the same sire. Elsa is the calf of my first anniversary gift, Chesney. Unfortunately, we had to cull Chesney after she foundered during a lapse of judgement by my Papaw when he fed 5 cows that were summering at his house, five truck bed loads of corn stalks from sweet corn! Anyway, DH’s niece showed Elsa and won the crossbred heifer division and showmanship with her. Elsa had a bull calf last year that will be at the fair this year. She was our third cow to slip a calf at 3 months. She was on the same farm as Gatlin.
Due to my back injury and so many time constraints, the show heifers have been turned out with the cows. We can always bring them back in later but it makes their care less stressful for now.
Front: Josie, Back: Ember (introduced prev) Josie is the descendant of one of my dad’s heifers, Jolie, that I showed back in the day. My dad gifted me a heifer, Jovie, from her and she was a big pet. Unfortunately she stepped on a roofing nail and it was stuck in a rear foot between the actual hoof and the dewclaws. (Our farm had a lot of scrap that we’ve been cleaning up for years, along with what the prior owner had cleaned up. Somewhere along the line the HUGE nail was missed or was washed onto our property by the creek.) Either way, we doctored her for that whole winter and she had her calf. It wasn’t what we wanted so we didn’t retain her but Jovie seemed to be doing well all summer so we bred her again. Winter was too hard on her and we think she had arthritis so she was culled and Josie retained.
The last introduction for today is Daisy. This was our leap of faith purchase and we are just praying that she isn’t too damaged to breed again. Daisy has “clubby” breeding and had her first calf on another farm. The previous owners used the neighbor’s bull that hadn’t produced any calves that had trouble arriving. Daisy ended up having a huge bull calf cut out of her. We’ve worked with her and she now trusts us. Unfortunately, she’s been with two different bulls and didn’t seem to “stick.” We will give her a trial run this spring but may have to cut our losses. Her fuzzy, huge ears are adorable!
First off, Georgia. She came from a close family friend and is distantly related to Scarlett. She’s also a SimmSolution. Georgia slipped her calf after three months of being bred. She’s a great mom so we let her stick around and didn’t try to get her covered so she didn’t end up on the wrong timing. We’ve retained two of her daughters, Sydney and Gatlin.
Georgia
Sydney (she was born during a polar freeze and despite our efforts, got frostbite to her tail and ears) She belongs to DD2 and is a sweetheart. This will be her second calf.
Gatlin was also bred and slipped her calf about 3 months later. (She and her mother were on separate farms and slipped their calves about a month apart. Due to her size, we opted to let her grow a year and breed again.)
Bailey is due 3/5 and had also had twin bull calves in the past. She’s the one that her mother was struck by lightning and killed. Her surrogate was our beloved Abigail. Bailey is tame enough to sniff our hands but don’t go in the pasture for a month after she calves!!
Elsa is a half sister to Gatlin, as they have the same sire. Elsa is the calf of my first anniversary gift, Chesney. Unfortunately, we had to cull Chesney after she foundered during a lapse of judgement by my Papaw when he fed 5 cows that were summering at his house, five truck bed loads of corn stalks from sweet corn! Anyway, DH’s niece showed Elsa and won the crossbred heifer division and showmanship with her. Elsa had a bull calf last year that will be at the fair this year. She was our third cow to slip a calf at 3 months. She was on the same farm as Gatlin.
Due to my back injury and so many time constraints, the show heifers have been turned out with the cows. We can always bring them back in later but it makes their care less stressful for now.
Front: Josie, Back: Ember (introduced prev) Josie is the descendant of one of my dad’s heifers, Jolie, that I showed back in the day. My dad gifted me a heifer, Jovie, from her and she was a big pet. Unfortunately she stepped on a roofing nail and it was stuck in a rear foot between the actual hoof and the dewclaws. (Our farm had a lot of scrap that we’ve been cleaning up for years, along with what the prior owner had cleaned up. Somewhere along the line the HUGE nail was missed or was washed onto our property by the creek.) Either way, we doctored her for that whole winter and she had her calf. It wasn’t what we wanted so we didn’t retain her but Jovie seemed to be doing well all summer so we bred her again. Winter was too hard on her and we think she had arthritis so she was culled and Josie retained.
The last introduction for today is Daisy. This was our leap of faith purchase and we are just praying that she isn’t too damaged to breed again. Daisy has “clubby” breeding and had her first calf on another farm. The previous owners used the neighbor’s bull that hadn’t produced any calves that had trouble arriving. Daisy ended up having a huge bull calf cut out of her. We’ve worked with her and she now trusts us. Unfortunately, she’s been with two different bulls and didn’t seem to “stick.” We will give her a trial run this spring but may have to cut our losses. Her fuzzy, huge ears are adorable!
greybeard
Herd Master
Saw this posted on a cattle board today.
215 lb calf delivered of course by Cesarean.
http://www.cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=114054
frustratedearthmother
Herd Master
- Joined
- May 7, 2013
- Messages
- 8,245
- Reaction score
- 15,555
- Points
- 673
Holy COW! (Maybe shoulda said "POOR COW") That's a huge calf!
- Thread starter
- #79
Wehner Homestead
Herd Master
I saw that too! I can’t even imagine!!! I wanna know what they were feeding her!!!
farmerjan
Herd Master
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2016
- Messages
- 11,878
- Reaction score
- 47,490
- Points
- 758
- Location
- Shenandoah Valley Virginia
Do you vaccinate for Lepto? It seems that you had way too many abortions and even on different farms, lepto would be my guess. It is way too prevalent here and we would be seeing many more slipped calves if we didin't vaccinate. Had 4 slipped pregnacies out of 82 a couple of years ago and that was 4 too many.
Most dairies in this area vaccinate every 6 months for it. Since it is carried by dogs, foxes, coyotes etc., and can be found in the water, it is a no brainer for us. We do it at preg check with a killed virus.
Most dairies in this area vaccinate every 6 months for it. Since it is carried by dogs, foxes, coyotes etc., and can be found in the water, it is a no brainer for us. We do it at preg check with a killed virus.
