Just when you think they're going to die.....
 

I discovered in March that a heifer I bought in November was in late pregnancy – too late to abort, vets said. So, she calved Sunday, right at 15 months old. Hard pull by the vet – 73 lb bull calf. I was hoping for a 50 pounder.

Anyway, mom was wobbly in the rear end, and calf couldn’t use his legs and was out of it. Bottle fed him, and let him nurse while lying down. Monday he got up on hind legs, but was breathing hard at times like he was about to die. But then Tuesday he got on all fours, and could nurse while standing.

Today he’s walking around pretty good, even bucking occasionally. Mom is moving around pretty good, but still lacks some control in the rear legs.

As I now understand, on a hard pull while stuck in the birth canal and the umbilical cord is compressed, the calf is oxygen deprived. Which affects the brain and takes them days to recover and get muscle control and instincts back. Happens more in bull calves since they’re usually bigger.

Also in a hard pull, the cow’s nerve in the birth canal gets compressed, affecting hind leg control.

Next time I buy a freshly weaned heifer, I will consider the possibility of her being pregnant. Doing the math, this one was bred at 6 months. Shot of Lutalyse can abort early.

Monday
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...a/IMG_2333.jpg

Wednesday
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...a/IMG_2366.jpg

Holy smokes!! What a beautiful pair though. So glad all things turned out good for you guys. What kind are they? Very very pretty. Congrats!

Glad things are improving! Your heifer has a nice udder. At least the calf had the gumption to suck, some of them can't even do that after a hard birth. Bet the heifer makes a full recovery. We had one that her first calf got hiplocked and we waited too long to give her a hand. (The calf was flopping around its front end like a fish on the line, we just couldn't believe it didn't thrash itself out.) The heifer was "drunk" with her hind legs for a day or two, but soon recovered fully.

These are British Whites.

And yes, I've heard some don't suck - glad I didn't have to tube him - haven't mastered that yet. I really never wanted this experience - had always tried to breed for extra easy calving. But one does learn a few things.

oh they are very pretty cows. Off to research british whites:>)

Here's a site with lots of pics. I'm going to get semen from their bulls as they are smaller framed and some like Elvis are very gentle.

http://www.texasbritishwhitecattle.com/

Can't remember if I posted this last winter soon after I got them - wife says I should have taken the ear tags off before the photo.

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...a/IMG_2182.jpg

Wow. Going to research them as well.
Beautiful pair you have there. Glad everything seems to be on the upswing for you. :)

Beautiful!

I am happy everything turned out alright. I have to go research these too.

Great Pics, good story...thanks.

They sure are pretty. Good luck with them.

Gorgeous and that poor little baby having a baby of her own so early!! I'm so happy for you that it looks to be ending well. Beautiful photos btw.

Congrats! My Jersey was bred early, my fault, but she calved out a beautiful little heifer just before her 17 month birthday. She had a tiny little heifer, the heifer is just about 3 months now, and I can still pack her around. I think she would have calves on her own but I was there and gave her a little help getting the shoulders through. She was bred by my Dexter bull, vets said that she should have no problems.

Oh my, they are beautiful! I was just passing by to ask a question, but I tend to get caught up reading posts. :)

We have British Whites as well and love in Texas. We LOVE them!!! What a beautiful pair you have there!!!

I've seen calves like this come through the local auction, and wondered what they were. They are beautiful. Do you have them for beef animals or dairy, or are they dual?

They are considered beef cattle, though I believe like alot of beef breeds, they were once dual purpose. In the herd where I got these, there was quite a variation in udder size - some almost looked dairy. There's a video in the link I gave above of a herd and some of the cows have big udders.

I got rid of a jersey/lowline cow last year, as the kids are gone and even just a gallon a day was much more than we needed. Figured I'd try this breed and just steal a quart or so daily. Maybe I'll eventually have two beef cows calving at different times and milk each for 5 or 6 months.

Anyway, I assumed as this heifer is real young, she wouldn't have much milk, but I felt her udder a few days ago and it was quite full. So I milked out a quart that evening, then it was still big the next morning so I got over a quart. This is without her letting down, which is fine with me, since I don't need much cream. So it looks like I might have somewhat of a milk cow. I was dying on store milk, so life is good again.

And instead of the old way of milking in a bucket and bringing it in and running it through the strainer, I am just putting cheesecloth under the ring on a 2 quart canning jar and milking through it. Remove the cheesecloth, put a lid on the jar and throw it in the frig.

I'm going to have to feed this heifer very well if she's milking and trying to still grow.

Once I get my house built and I move to my farm I was considering trying to milk one (or more) of my Angus cows - I'v never milked anything so I'm looking forward to an interesting adventure....

What beautiful cows! I LOVE the black noses!

DJ, that makes me even more excited about wanting to try this breed. I was in love with them from the first time I saw a calf at the auction. Did you put a whole lot of time into gentling her so that you could milk her like that? I did look at your link, and the video, and like the fact that they seem to be naturally gentle, and that they are polled.

Of my two heifers, she is the less gentle one. But I halter trained them about 3 months ago which makes alot of things easier. I've just handled them generally - tying them out to graze, etc.

In my limited experience, gentleness doesn't always correlate with easy milking. I had a very gentle heifer once that would kick like crazy! After trying all sorts of tricks, I finally returned the treatment and she straightened out.

This heifer has always let me handle her udder easily and shows no signs of kicking. The only challenge now is that she takes motherhood quite seriously, so keeping the calf away while milking gets her excited. Tonight I put a llama halter on the calf and tied him up just out of her reach, which satisfied her while she ate some mowed grass and grain.

If I had her fully restrained, she might fight a bit. I have her tied in the corner where the feeder is, and she can take a step back and forth. Which is why the jar is handy to move with her. When she settles for a bit, I have held the jar between my knees and milked with two hands. Experiment in progress.

Sure is nice not being overwhelmed with milk as I've been with Jerseys or Jersey crosses. I also figure if I need to be gone for a day, I can skip a milking with less consequence than with a dairy animal.

To have more options, I got a couple Jersey/Hereford bottle heifers over a month ago. Now I'm wondering if they are necessary - though I might breed them to British White and see what happens. I saw a Jersey/British White cow on craigslist last year and she had the British White markings. They said she gave 5 gallons a day.

I've read others who grew up milking a beef cow. They would just pick one out of the herd that produced more and was an easy milker.

I've been recommending milking beef cows to other newbies. Sure alot easier than starting with a Jersey that can require one to instantly be able to milk several gallons. I've seen alot of people get discouraged or burned out. Fortunately I grew up hand milking a cow - can't imagine starting out never having done it and needing to extract a high volume.

Better to start milking a beef cow, and you can breed her to Jersey if you want. By the time you get the jersey/beef heifer, you will be a pro.

BTW, I went to a Jersey dairy a few months ago to see things and noticed alot of cows with very short teats that I couldn't get two fingers on. Must be designed for machine milking only. Another good reason for a beef cow or cross. My heifer has nice size teats, though may end up being too big in later lactations. Calf can't get hold of them if too big.

Whoa! Severe cuteness going on there! :D

Glad it turned out OK. When stuff of mine gets bred too young it might be a dead calf, a wasted year for the cow, and she's never as big as she should have been. I've got a cow out there like that now that was bred too young. Now when she has calves they get to be about as big as she is in about 6 months. She's a grand milker and mother but she was definitely a teen aged mother. Calves sure grow like weeds, though.

Jennifer

How big does this breed get??

I've been on the road away from the internet.

Yes, the story is not over. Question is after the hard calving, when and if she'll breed back, and how big she'll get. I wouldn't mind her being smaller - less feed demand. More cattle producers are realizing smaller framed cows are more efficient, as long as they can give birth okay. Smaller cows with bigger calves are obviously the most profitable.

They are considered to be a standard size beef breed. Though as with any breed, it depends on the breeder. And within a herd I saw a variation in size - more uniformity needed - linebreeding?

On the frame scale of 1 to 10, most beef herds are 5 to 6 or 7. I measured this heifer at frame 4 on an age adjusted chart. The bulls from the link I gave are frame 2 to 3. The lowline/jersey cow I had was a frame 2 (46 inch mature height, measured at the hip).