Bulling heifer dilemma

hillman

Member
Location
Wicklow Ireland
I wonder post Brexit in the land of the free will guys spend all night calving and then get calf up to suckle and hope to top the market still

I used to like a well shaped calf rear end wise , we had one bull always threw 2 double muscles from 2 cows , but you spent an age getting them up to suck etc
The guys born normal got up and went away , nearly always where heavier and at the end of the day weight pays , my normal v muscled 20p a kilo was it with that effort for a rosette!
 
I wonder post Brexit in the land of the free will guys spend all night calving and then get calf up to suckle and hope to top the market still

I used to like a well shaped calf rear end wise , we had one bull always threw 2 double muscles from 2 cows , but you spent an age getting them up to suck etc
The guys born normal got up and went away , nearly always where heavier and at the end of the day weight pays , my normal v muscled 20p a kilo was it with that effort for a rosette!
All will depend where we are on the subfront @hillman . If the subs go , then you can only imagine that cattle will have to look after themselves as far as they can.
 
Slightly off course I would love to know how many of these market toppers end up as U grade cattle or better afterwards on the hook ?

If the guys who are going through difficult calvings in order to get a U grade, they need to get out a bit more, a U isn't a big achievement if you have a reasonable cow, after all when I used to finish cattle pretty much all bulls and the majority of steers were U grades and that's with an old scrappy maternal breed where carcase grade was about the last thing on my priority list when selecting a bull or replacement females.

I'd hope that the real carcase men who are going to any trouble are getting at least a U in the bottom end of their cattle
 

shearerlad

Member
Livestock Farmer
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I know this is completely off on a tangent from my OP but regarding calving easy and getting calves born and reared per 100 cows.
Which bull would be the one of choice?
 
do you think any farmers do just leave them to get on with it ?
My cows are left to get on with it from the moment i go home at night around 6pm to the next morning, our autumn calving cows are checked once a day, the cows work for us not the other way round, i live 40mins each way so going in checking on calving cows in the middle of the night would be my idea of hell! the cows are fit for purpose including the bulls. our cows are very maternal, honest, plain and maybe boring to a lot of folk, but they do everything that their meant too over their long productive working lives, and their calfs sell extremely well at 6 months old. i have never had less than a 97% calving in 8 years running 50 cows! Now would i swap my small shapeless big gutted cows that spit live calfs out and get in calf the same time every year for big arsed limmyx or bbx cows, that if their calfs get out alive might be worth a hundred pound or so more and i can look down on the less shapley calfs because we all know it takes real skill to produce a big arsed calf? Not in a million years!! these kind of cows give me nightmares! the stress at calving time and having to be there 24/7 would push me over the edge! not to mention the fact that these calfs would need to be gold plated for me to want to give up my life and never leave the farm.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
My cows are left to get on with it from the moment i go home at night around 6pm to the next morning, our autumn calving cows are checked once a day, the cows work for us not the other way round, i live 40mins each way so going in checking on calving cows in the middle of the night would be my idea of hell! the cows are fit for purpose including the bulls. our cows are very maternal, honest, plain and maybe boring to a lot of folk, but they do everything that their meant too over their long productive working lives, and their calfs sell extremely well at 6 months old. i have never had less than a 97% calving in 8 years running 50 cows! Now would i swap my small shapeless big gutted cows that spit live calfs out and get in calf the same time every year for big arsed limmyx or bbx cows, that if their calfs get out alive might be worth a hundred pound or so more and i can look down on the less shapley calfs because we all know it takes real skill to produce a big arsed calf? Not in a million years!! these kind of cows give me nightmares! the stress at calving time and having to be there 24/7 would push me over the edge! not to mention the fact that these calfs would need to be gold plated for me to want to give up my life and never leave the farm.
So do you have any dead calves at calving ?
 
very rare infact never had an AA cow hang a calf that was coming the right way, the biggest problem is cliffs bogs ect, i did watch my favourite heifer give birth to a dead calf 1 year ago it was very quick less than 10 mins from feet to calf lying on the ground perfectly formed but was stone dead no idea why, she's got a smashing simm calf at foot this year.

How many do you have on average?
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
very rare infact never had an AA cow hang a calf that was coming the right way, the biggest problem is cliffs bogs ect, i did watch my favourite heifer give birth to a dead calf 1 year ago it was very quick less than 10 mins from feet to calf lying on the ground perfectly formed but was stone dead no idea why, she's got a smashing simm calf at foot this year.

How many do you have on average?
lost one in the last year, that was an angus calf from an angus cross sim/hol heifer, that's from about 45 cows inc the ped blues, the year before we lost two one was a month prem and one was from a cow that slipped over coming out the crush three days before not sure if was related she wouldn't have been in the crush but we didn't know she was that far on
 
very rare infact never had an AA cow hang a calf that was coming the right way, the biggest problem is cliffs bogs ect, i did watch my favourite heifer give birth to a dead calf 1 year ago it was very quick less than 10 mins from feet to calf lying on the ground perfectly formed but was stone dead no idea why, she's got a smashing simm calf at foot this year.

How many do you have on average?
Had the same thing happen here two years ago with the best second calver. Watched her push the calf out without any difficulty in about 10-15 minutes , and it was just the same result as yours @west coast angus - dead as a doornail. damned annoying , but what can you do? Heifer calf too. (n)
 

HillLuing

Member
Wouldn't guarntee it Martin many can feed U/E grade cattle into Rs and the good guys can turn the R grades to U !

I know what your saying Angus x fr cow put to Simm , bull calf always U , easy calving and milk
Funny you say this, we had 18 bullocks/ heifers going to slaughter 3 n a bit weeks ago but due to complications on there end they only went on Monday!

Majority came back at R4H, so not very happy as if they had gone when they were supposed to I reckon over half would of been U's!!!

Tho tbh they are the last of our AAX so not the prime ones!
 
No , she wasn't culled. She reared a twin that was lifted from another cow.

I wouldn't have seen any reason to cull her as the dead calf wasn't due to being oversized or carried for far too many days, it was simply DOA for reasons unknown, plus there was a calf for her to rear.
 

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