Suckler scanning

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Did anyone read Frank Newman turner's fertility farming? He bought in barren cows, changed their diets to organic, some of the best Calver's and milkers he had (jersey they were) and calved until 15 years old, some of them. There are ofc those who have to be culled due to other reasons like bad feet or mastitis/calving issues too. Always talk to breeder before buying, even if the cow looks good. I find buying privately as being best, less chance of picking up stuff from others animals then. Their farm to your farm, minimises risk

 

[unlacedgecko]

Did anyone read Frank Newman turner's fertility farming? He bought in barren cows, changed their diets to organic, some of the best Calver's and milkers he had (jersey they were) and calved until 15 years old, some of them. There are ofc those who have to be culled due to other reasons like bad feet or mastitis/calving issues too. Always talk to breeder before buying, even if the cow looks good. I find buying privately as being best, less chance of picking up stuff from others animals then. Their farm to your farm, minimises risk

I haven't read it, but I sounds very interesting!

Do you have a link please?

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I haven't read it, but I sounds very interesting!

Do you have a link please?

Sadly not I can't link via my phone for some weird reason . However I think Amazon or eBay sell the books. He published them in the 1940s, revolutionised farming he did. I have both fertility farming and fertility pastures.

 

[hendrebc]

Sadly not I can't link via my phone for some weird reason . However I think Amazon or eBay sell the books. He published them in the 1940s, revolutionised farming he did. I have both fertility farming and fertility pastures.

Thanks @waterbuffalofarmer 2 books ordered . Sounds very interesting. From the synopsis i read nothing is new now just recycled ideas from years ago. I buy qyite a lot of old farming books and the theme is tha same. Ideas we think are new now are mostly recycled from the past

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Thanks @waterbuffalofarmer 2 books ordered . Sounds very interesting. From the synopsis i read nothing is new now just recycled ideas from years ago. I buy qyite a lot of old farming books and the theme is tha same. Ideas we think are new now are mostly recycled from the past

Your most welcome fascinating reads too and very informative. He made great breakthroughs in livestock and land management.

 

[Doc]

PD of your cows is fundamental to profitability. Why would you feed and house an empty cow? Surely it's like ploughing half a field or not milking some of your dairy herd.
In terms of PD errors. The accuracy of PD in cattle is very good, particularly with ultrasound for early pregnancy. You really want the cows to be at least 6 weeks from last service opportunity. The NCPD scheme in Aust has been running since the early 1990's. It's a system of registered tail tags, colour coded for - empty, less than 4 moths, over 4 months. The Vets need to pass a competency test to get a registration number, which is on the tags and performance is constantly monitored. Registration is withdrawn for poor performance. The error rate is extremely low.

 

[topground]

I calve in the spring usng Kamars for heat detection and AI. and used to have cows PD around this time of the year. Rather than send non assured cows off to Sedgemoor when there is a glut in the autumn I ran them through to sell fat in June when remarkably farm assurance doesnt matter to buyers because cows are in short supply ( funny that!) and they top the market.
Now I dont go to the expense of PD and know what is barren anyway by the end of May regardless.

 

[Jonny B88]

One cow scanned the vet requested a re scan down the line, but day after seen standing heat and a bit of slime on her so pretty sure she isn't in calf.

 

[Woolless]

Why?

It's legal to shoot heavily pregnant female deer. Indeed, official advise for muntjac culling is to specifically target obviously pregnant females.

The offence would be committed by transporting the cow in the final 10% of pregnancy, rather than the actual act of slaughter. Difficult to enforce however. If a large calf is discovered at slaughter, unless the cow is showing very obvious signs of late pregnancy/calving on arrival, then the defence is, "If the vet didn't notice it, how was a simple farmer/haulier meant to?" In fairness, the really big calves I have seen recently are from cows supplied by a finisher, who presumably bought the cow assuming she was empty, or the very odd vet blunder as highlighted by @Wendy10.

 

[Wishful Thinker]

44/45 cows 9/10 heifers. Happy enough but the heifer not in calf was my favourite in the batch always the way.

 

[beefandsleep]

I've sent a heifer this year I would have sworn had slipped its calf, turned out to be very heavy in calf and I was very sad about that. I don't think many people would send something close deliberately. That said I had an 18 month old store calf last night, unfortunately she also pushed her uterus out and died, along with the calf, perhaps I should of sent her off as soon as I suspected? But I never would, I always like to give them a chance however much a pain in the arse it is.

 

[hendrebc]

I've sent a heifer this year I would have sworn had slipped its calf, turned out to be very heavy in calf and I was very sad about that. I don't think many people would send something close deliberately. That said I had an 18 month old store calf last night, unfortunately she also pushed her uterus out and died, along with the calf, perhaps I should of sent her off as soon as I suspected? But I never would, I always like to give them a chance however much a pain in the arse it is.

You do your best as we all do, or should. You cant win them all.

 

[Forever Fendt]

44/45 cows 9/10 heifers. Happy enough but the heifer not in calf was my favourite in the batch always the way.

How long has the bull been out perhaps it could be 30days - if bull still in

 

[dannewhouse]

does every one have complete trust in there scanner?

vet did some few years ago and put dates to them (days in calf) I thought the bull had been real lazy turns out vet was wrong with dates they basically said cows would calve then heifers and it was opposite way around. also scanned one not in calf (but couldn't see a reason no cysts etc) and it calved about 4 month after

had a scan woman this spring, she labelled one as imminent in the next few days the other 5 which were in calf calved long before it!


I don't trust the scanner 100% so I sometimes use them to reinforce my own opinion but always estrumate before I put in finishing pen. if I did trust scanner its a no brainer but I feel they've had too many errors for my trust

 

[Henarar]

does every one have complete trust in there scanner?

vet did some few years ago and put dates to them (days in calf) I thought the bull had been real lazy turns out vet was wrong with dates they basically said cows would calve then heifers and it was opposite way around. also scanned one not in calf (but couldn't see a reason no cysts etc) and it calved about 4 month after

had a scan woman this spring, she labelled one as imminent in the next few days the other 5 which were in calf calved long before it!


I don't trust the scanner 100% so I sometimes use them to reinforce my own opinion but always estrumate before I put in finishing pen. if I did trust scanner its a no brainer but I feel they've had too many errors for my trust

were most of the mistakes on cows that were a fare way on in calf eg 5 months plus ?

 

[Beames]

The guy who scanned my heifers was pretty much bang on with how far along each one was so I trust his judgement and will be having him again this year.

 

[Chae1]

We scanned ours on Wednesday. Only 8-9 out of about 40 animals it's terrible tbh. Dunno why they never got in calf. All are starting to get in calf now, due to days shortening and stuff (cycle very similar to sheep) there are 2 however which have been empty in over a year, they calved once, no problems at all and milked well, should have gotten back in calf again. They've been AI'd run with the stock bulls more times than I can say. Kept coming back bulling bull is not at fault he's working. Found out other bull wasn't working, so abbatoir for him just one of those years I guess. Means we have to start production asap to survive, as won't have much milk until end of next year.....

Any idea what went wrong?

Was it in the book?

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Any idea what went wrong?

Was it in the book?

Some years it just happens. Weather is a massive factor and pasture too. We will be reseeding it and adding stuff to it, have to do some soil testing first tho. How do you mean in the book? Do you mean frank newman turners books, like was there any indications from those what may have happened with ours?

 

[Chae1]

Some years it just happens. Weather is a massive factor and pasture too. We will be reseeding it and adding stuff to it, have to do some soil testing first tho. How do you mean in the book? Do you mean frank newman turners books, like was there any indications from those what may have happened with ours?

Are waterbuffalo harder to get back in calf than cow's?

Yes I meant was there anything in books you quoted that pointed you towards why so many not in calf?

We've a good scanning but a long calving! Start end February and still calving in May. Something we need to tighten up on. Latest tactic is put saler bull in for first 2 weeks so it catches most fertile cows. Then put charolais in. Keep saler heifers as replacements.

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Yes they generally are harder to get into calf than cattle. They cycle similar to sheep, so as days get shorter. Otherwise we have to run programmes on them. But that works only about 50% of the time. Success rate, when successful, is 3/5