Sucklers anyone miss them ?

S J H

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Once in anyone partnership as I understand, so flog em bring in another partner (spouse, son/daughter etc) then go again. But I’m not an accountant so not sure really.
Someone told me that you used to be able to sell 3/4 of the herd every few years, but I can’t find anything to confirm it now.
 
I would seriously miss my cows if they went. Only a small herd of 8 breeding cows, Hereford X British Friesian, live out all year, heifers and cows bulled to a Hereford for 6 weeks max, heifers to calve at 24 months, eat forage only and are placid and easy to handle. Calfs sold at 9 months.
Out in the field now, 5 have calved and waiting for the last three to get on with it. Rotate them round the fields with the ewes and lambs.

Found if i breed them any older as heifers you end up with big cows that produce same sized calfs as smaller cows but eat and trample much more.
But should calf a big calf easier?
 

Whitepeak

Member
Livestock Farmer
Chatting to one of our vets last week about pelvic scoring heifers. I asked her about aiming to calve our heifers at 2yrs and she said not and to calve at 3yrs! Think it was to allow heifers of late maturing breeds time to develop.
She was also encouraging us to feed creep earlier, ie from now, to maximise feed conversion, and potentially be able to rear them cheaper once weaned.
 

S J H

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Chatting to one of our vets last week about pelvic scoring heifers. I asked her about aiming to calve our heifers at 2yrs and she said not and to calve at 3yrs! Think it was to allow heifers of late maturing breeds time to develop.
She was also encouraging us to feed creep earlier, ie from now, to maximise feed conversion, and potentially be able to rear them cheaper once weaned.
A horse vet told me that racing horses had gone through recommending 2 year foaling and then back to 3, because they couldn’t keep the mature size.
 
Chatting to one of our vets last week about pelvic scoring heifers. I asked her about aiming to calve our heifers at 2yrs and she said not and to calve at 3yrs! Think it was to allow heifers of late maturing breeds time to develop.
She was also encouraging us to feed creep earlier, ie from now, to maximise feed conversion, and potentially be able to rear them cheaper once weaned.
There was a survey done in Ireland, heifers that calve at two stay in the herd significantly longer on average than those calving at three.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
Been very different down here, no rain for months and very warm.
Just come back from searching the woods for the last three to calve, in rain!, everytime I see my first calf heifer it breaks my heart as I had to pull a stillborn from her. On a serious guilt trip as I should have spotted her earlier, beautiful calf out of the best heifer I've ever bred.
Out door calving is great but there is a downside, I've learnt a bitter lesson.

If she can't calve on her own, she's not the best heifer.
 

Jonp

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Gwent
If she can't calve on her own, she's not the best heifer.
I'd have to agree....she looks good, had a good pelvic measurement, lovely udder, cleansed tidy etc ticked all the boxes. Have to decide what to do, sell or give her another go. Last year a second calver slipped her scanned twins somewhere along the line and she went to the hook.....mmm
 

JMTHORNLEY

Member
Location
Glossop
I'd have to agree....she looks good, had a good pelvic measurement, lovely udder, cleansed tidy etc ticked all the boxes. Have to decide what to do, sell or give her another go. Last year a second calver slipped her scanned twins somewhere along the line and she went to the hook.....mmm
Jon, don't take things to hard. I lost my first calf in a long time last year and it devastated me. Story goes... went down the shed early morning and there was my best heifer stood balling over her dead calf. I felt terrible because on inspection it was a beautiful well put together heifer that would have made a smashing thing. On further inspection it looked to have been trodden on which in turn makes you feel even worse because you should have spotted it earlier and made sure she was penned up from the rest to avoid such things. When I calmed the cow down enough to get it out things just didn't look right so I called the vet, no explanation for it it was a still born and that then kicked off the calving year from absolute hell, I had to assist easily a 1/4 of the heard to calve and they were great calves but hell it made me sick, just like your year it would seem.

Fast forward to this year, same bull, same management, same fodder same system and up to now I'm having a great year of it and really enjoying things. Won't forget last year in a hurry but each year is different and sometimes we need to have some reset time and get away from the problems. Finish calving and have a few days to yourself, my few days are on farm away from my other work I do and looking at everything.

It's not always your fault
 

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
I calve down at 2 with limousins and have done for the last 10 years, very little issue with them unless you decide to breed one to a shorthorn!

The cows milk better when calved down at that age. I have very high maternal traits in the herd too by design.
We have had problems in the past calving limousins at 2 yrs to a lim bull but since changing to an Angus for the heifers life is a whole lot easier & far less stressful, would recommend to anyone!
 

hendrebc

Member
Livestock Farmer
A horse vet told me that racing horses had gone through recommending 2 year foaling and then back to 3, because they couldn’t keep the mature size.
Horses are a bit different to cows though. Keeping the same cows genetics but a bit smaller size means she can be kept cheaper as she will eat less.
There's probably a reason they want big horses but they are hardly a commercial enterprise are they.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
Horses are a bit different to cows though. Keeping the same cows genetics but a bit smaller size means she can be kept cheaper as she will eat less.
There's probably a reason they want big horses but they are hardly a commercial enterprise are they.
Especially racing horses. Their metric of value is very different to that of beef cows.
 

Jonp

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Gwent
Jon, don't take things to hard. I lost my first calf in a long time last year and it devastated me. Story goes... went down the shed early morning and there was my best heifer stood balling over her dead calf. I felt terrible because on inspection it was a beautiful well put together heifer that would have made a smashing thing. On further inspection it looked to have been trodden on which in turn makes you feel even worse because you should have spotted it earlier and made sure she was penned up from the rest to avoid such things. When I calmed the cow down enough to get it out things just didn't look right so I called the vet, no explanation for it it was a still born and that then kicked off the calving year from absolute hell, I had to assist easily a 1/4 of the heard to calve and they were great calves but hell it made me sick, just like your year it would seem.

Fast forward to this year, same bull, same management, same fodder same system and up to now I'm having a great year of it and really enjoying things. Won't forget last year in a hurry but each year is different and sometimes we need to have some reset time and get away from the problems. Finish calving and have a few days to yourself, my few days are on farm away from my other work I do and looking at everything.

It's not always your fault
Thanks for that.👍
 

serri

Member
Location
leicestershire
We have just calved 12 out of a group of 20, BBX and Limx heifers at 2yrs old to an Angus bull, all heifers pelvic scored, fed tmr as recommended, look in perfect condition for calving but its been hell.
So far 1 calved unassisted, 2 needed a bit of help, 5 were really hard pull and 4 needed C-Section.
The calves not that big but just have big shoulders which has caused the problems. This is the first time using an AA bull, normally use Lim with few issues.
 

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