Haggis I am really sorry to hear about the wee bull calf not making it. At least the Lady is in good health. And yes they do understand more than many people give them credit for. According to 'folk lore' over here a bull calf tends to take about 10 days more to 'cook' than a heifer.

Bad luck Haggis, I think anybody who own cows knows the disappointment of losing a calf.

On the plus side it sounds as though you have an awesome milker - it's such a boon when they come in on their own to be milked. Give her another 4 or 5 days for her milk to come in and you'll be complaining about having sore hands :D Did you buy that milking machine?

Cheers,
Ronnie

I have a friend in Alberta, Canada who calves in Jan/Feb. She has to immediately get to the calves and put them in a warmer or they will die. They sit in the warmer until they are dry, then they are fine.

One trick is to feed your cows in the evening starting at least 6 weeks prior to calving. Feed them at 5 or so in the evening and they will all calve during daylight hours. She told me this and I have found it to be true. Too late to help this time, but perhaps it will be of value to someone else. I practice this just to make life easier during calving.

I don't think there is anything sadder than a momma cow with a dead baby. They are so pathetic in how they moo over it and seem to beg you to do something. Animals know more than we want to give them credit for. Once I sold a horse. I hauled her off. When I came back the other horses came running to the fence calling for her. They knew she should be in the trailer, but she wasn't. I had always thought the horse being hauled called first to cause them to come over, but she was gone. It made me sad that I sold their friend :(

Jena

Haggis, I am so sorry for your loss. Not all the messages must have pulled up yesterday or I would have seen that it had already happened. My heart is with you and hope that you are doubley blessed in the future to help with the hole in your heart now.

Haggis,

Sorry to hear about your loss. Give Lucy a good neck scratching for me. Regards to you and yours!

Dan

Haggis, I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope Lucy's feeling herself soon!

Jena, I'm also up in Alberta (maybe we're neighbors) and if a person is calving in winter it can't be done without hotboxes (homemade or prefab) and a selection of vet essentials. We always feed in the evening and we've never had a moonlight baby but it's something that has to be done all along or at least long enough to establish a pattern but you can't start the week before delivery. I prefer to calve a bit later on grass but it's not uncommon to have springs storms that foil that plan and then it's back to hotboxes or blankets warmed in the dryer.

I milked out Dorsey this morning as usual, and Lucy stood outside the milk room waiting her turn, and as soon as she entered the stanchion she started pouring milk from all four faucets. I kind of felt like I was just in the way trying to milk her. She still kicks a bit, but just at her teats when I start milking one or the other, not at me.

I fed and watered the chickens, cattle, rabbits, and other varmints. My son and I went and got a load of firewood to saw and split. (My firewood guy didn't bring my firewood this past summer, so we're spending every Tuesday or Thursday getting a load of firewood worked up.)

My son and I laid out a quarter of beef to to thaw and work into hamburger. It took all day to thaw even enough to cut up. I did the evening milking and came back to finish cutting up the beef about 9 p.m., and with the last cut I boned out the top of my thumb! Herself turned pale, got weak in the knees and started to go down, so now I've got her in one arm and trying keep from dripping blood all over the kitchen.

I kind of looks like my thumb has a hound dog's ear hanging from it. :haha:

She wanted me to go to the Hospital ER, but I'm a big fan of Duct Tape. In this case Duct tape wouldn't work; it wouldn't even stick, and it's hard to keep the hound's ear centered while the tape it pulling at it. I guess I hit a vein or something because it's really leaking in a big way.

I finally wrapped it pretty tight in some strips of an old tee-shirt and put Duct Tape on that. It was still going pretty good this morning so we went to the drug store and got some antiseptic, gauze, and some better tape. As I write it's still leaking but the Doc says it's too late to stitch it so just keep it clean and apply pressure to stop the blood.

It was pretty tough to milk this morning with one hand and trying to keep the other hand clean, but we got it done. Kind of like me typing now; doing both with a limp.

I was counting the days until the milking machine came in; now I'm counting the minutes.

Such is life at Wolf Cairn Moor, there is always something exciting in the works.

Haggis

"I milked out Dorsey this morning as usual,"

Should read "yesterday morning";sorry. :(

Haggis -- Playtex gloves are wonderful things. You might try a pair, especially with the mangled hand.

Be careful out there ... DH's uncle spent a week in teh hospital with blood poisoning from a hand injury.

Ann

Haggis,

I used super glue to hold my hand together when I cut it so deep. It worked great and came off right when it should.

I think the doctors use it a lot now.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

Super glue it and hide it in a latex glove; both good ideas. When it stop bleeding I'll glue it shut and be good as new.

Thanks a heap! :)

My daughter, who works as a nurse in intensive care, said she'd super glue it (in the hospital they use glorified, sterile super glue). It may scar, but it's probably not your first scar :) Wish I could be there milking for you (which says a lot knowing you are at -degrees in temp.). Glad to hear Lucy is making the milking easy.

Oh jeez Haggis, what rotten luck! First the calf and now your hand. :(

I am just coming in here at the end of your story, but wanted to offer my condolences.

We lose quite a few winter-born calves on the farm where I work and I always do the same thing (second-guess whether they would have made it if I had just gotten there a half-hour earlier).

A lot of the time, even if they do survive, they get pneumonia within a week or two and we lose them to that. :(

I know it's customary to breed back around 60 days, but with your brutal winters, perhaps you should wait an extra couple months? Just a thought ...

Hope that hand feels better soon. OUCH!!!

AAAGGGHHH...

HAggis, I hope that your hand heals real soon.

When my husband was a kid, he worked at a meat cutters. They all wore gloves made out of fine chain mail. A good meat cutter rarely needs it, but I have it on good authority that even a great meat cutter needs it once or twice.

The thumb is doing alright as long as I stay inside the house. The meat and skin that were cut loose freeze within a few minutes outside; and I all but live outside. My new milking machine's intake filter freezes too at the temps we've been having. The vapor off of the hot milk travels trough the vacuum line to the filter then freezes and clogs it.

It is some aggrevating: can't milk with both hands due to the cut thumb, my good hand freezes numb and useless in the cold air when milking by hand, and the new machine won't work very long due to the freezing filter. :rolleyes:

They had -54 this morning in Embarass, just 20 miles away, but one of our milk customers had -56 just 5 miles from here. We don't have a thermometer around here; it would freeze me to death to look at it.

I'm not sure what to do about breeding for year round milk out of two cows. I suppose one could aim for April and September calves? Dorsey's due to freshen again in April but then I wouldn't be able to breed my just freshened Lucy again until December after she's already dry, and that just won't due. :confused:

Haggis, you don't have to wait 'til they're dry to breed them back!

60-90 days is the industry standard.

In your case, I'd leave Lucy open 'til the end of June. Breeding her then will give you a late March-early April calf.

If Dorsey freshens on schedule, you could breed her back at the same time (unless you're trying to space them out for year-round milk production!). Handy if you're doing A.I. and using shots to bring them into heat at the same time.