Today at work

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
3:15am Vet arrived for a heifer cesarean :(:poop:

IMG_0862.JPG


Update: vet left at 4am, dead calf delivered by Jack. :(

The day can only get better from here on.

Not worth going to bed now, the birds have started singing and that always stops me nodding off :cry:
 
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holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
OhWellBuggerItAll :(:(:(

Sorry to hear that mate
Shite happens mate, especially with livestock. :rolleyes:

It rounds off my worst ever business decision. I bought 3 in calf heifers and 2 bulling ones from a friend 14 months ago to help build the herd up for £4200. The 3 in calf ones calved while I was down your way and just after: 2 cesareans both huge dead calves & 1 dead huge calf by Jack, lost 2 of the heifers afterwards as well. The 2 bulling heifers have now calved to our own bull: 1 huge live calf by Jack with heifer down for 2 days & today's calf dead with a vet bill.

Final tally: 3 heifers survive and 1 calf. :facepalm:

At least We live to fight another day (y)
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Far out.... hard to know a single way to add cheer to that

:(

Any ideas why the massive calves?
I wish I knew mate. 3 calving in the last 3 days, all to the same bull, all feed the same, the other 2 were sensible sized and born unaided.

I can only conclude that something was wrong with the maternal lines of those 5 I bought in.

Oh well, we're planning to private kill the one that survived her calving last June and eat her. At least we'll get value from her that way. I wouldn't feel right selling her on as once bred.
 

yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
3:15am Vet arrived for a heifer cesarean :(:poop:

View attachment 644948

Update: vet left at 4am, dead calf delivered by Jack. :(

The day can only get better from here on.

Not worth going to bed now, the birds have started singing and that always stops me nodding off :cry:
I'm not going to 'like' that:(

It won't make you're job any better but I suppose we've all 'been there and done that' one way or another.

No point 'beating yourself up about it', there's no way you could have known. Wishing you better luck from now on(y)
 
Shite happens mate, especially with livestock. :rolleyes:

It rounds off my worst ever business decision. I bought 3 in calf heifers and 2 bulling ones from a friend 14 months ago to help build the herd up for £4200. The 3 in calf ones calved while I was down your way and just after: 2 cesareans both huge dead calves & 1 dead huge calf by Jack, lost 2 of the heifers afterwards as well. The 2 bulling heifers have now calved to our own bull: 1 huge live calf by Jack with heifer down for 2 days & today's calf dead with a vet bill.

Final tally: 3 heifers survive and 1 calf. :facepalm:

At least We live to fight another day (y)


Calving a cow with a jack really makes me cringe, I used to hate it when Dad had the dairy herd.

One year was horrendous. He had done very well selling Simmental X calves in Rugby market for a couple of years, almost always winning the best calf rosette and getting the top price, so when Avoncroft Sires bought a new batch of Simmental semen on stream he went for Simms again.

The bull was called Hockenhull Magnum. It was 35 years ago but I still remember it. He only had about 30 cows in calf to that bull but I should think we lost 20 calves and maybe 10 cows after vet visits, Jack assists and cesaerean births. Horrible time for Dad and as a young lad it upset me a bit.

But, as you say, live to fight another day.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Calving a cow with a jack really makes me cringe, I used to hate it when Dad had the dairy herd.

One year was horrendous. He had done very well selling Simmental X calves in Rugby market for a couple of years, almost always winning the best calf rosette and getting the top price, so when Avoncroft Sires bought a new batch of Simmental semen on stream he went for Simms again.

The bull was called Hockenhull Magnum. It was 35 years ago but I still remember it. He only had about 30 cows in calf to that bull but I should think we lost 20 calves and maybe 10 cows after vet visits, Jack assists and cesaerean births. Horrible time for Dad and as a young lad it upset me a bit.

But, as you say, live to fight another day.
Our jack is here as a last resort, not the first.

In "normal" years it gets used maybe once or twice (on 80+ cattle).
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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