Walterp
Member
- Location
- Pembrokeshire
Julie only scans cows that haven't calved in the Summer and are not obviously in calf - in effect the herd 'carries' a barren cow for a year, to allow her the chance of calving the following year.
Which she nearly always does.
If so, what's the point of killing them?
Here's a dairy-bred Hereford cow that died this week. Overall, was she a good cow, or a bad one? She has never seen a vet, never had bad feet, and was treated once in her lifetime via antibiotics, for 'injury'.
DOB: 09.07.1997
Served at 2 years old
Number of calves: 12
Skipped calving in 2003, 2007 and 2010. Went on to have four more calves in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
When should she have been culled?
Out of interest, Julie doesn't cull very old cows because of the risk that they come back as bTB identifiers - they can pass a long lifetime of annual TB tests, but prove to have walled up lesions that don't kill her, but kills your business when the abattoir vet puts you on an automatic standstill.
Strange but true, it is more logical to keep them or kill and skip them if they have become age-infertile. (At least they will never fail a TB test).
Which she nearly always does.
If so, what's the point of killing them?
Here's a dairy-bred Hereford cow that died this week. Overall, was she a good cow, or a bad one? She has never seen a vet, never had bad feet, and was treated once in her lifetime via antibiotics, for 'injury'.
DOB: 09.07.1997
Served at 2 years old
Number of calves: 12
Skipped calving in 2003, 2007 and 2010. Went on to have four more calves in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
When should she have been culled?
Out of interest, Julie doesn't cull very old cows because of the risk that they come back as bTB identifiers - they can pass a long lifetime of annual TB tests, but prove to have walled up lesions that don't kill her, but kills your business when the abattoir vet puts you on an automatic standstill.
Strange but true, it is more logical to keep them or kill and skip them if they have become age-infertile. (At least they will never fail a TB test).