This will be short.
Breeding season has begun for our herd of cows. I started artificially inseminating them on Monday the 20th. So far we have bred 46 cows.
We put the bulls in with the heifers on Thursday the 23rd. We used to start breeding the heifers first, but it is not enjoyable to train new heifers to the parlor without a nice group of cows to show them how it is done and to squash them in place once they do get in the parlor. Last year was our first year of beginning to breed the heifers after we began to breed the cows and we liked how that worked out as far as freshening them in this spring.
I am insane for staying up this late. It is midnight and I have to get up in about five hours to continue breeding the cows.
Goodnight all.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Monday, May 13, 2013
Calving Season Statistics
With only one cow left to calve, I will post our calving season statistics.
*We freshened 175 cows thus far.
*We are milking 169 cows.
*Our calving season began February 21, 2013.
*Calving Difficulty -out of 175 calvings, we pulled 12 calves and the vet had to cut one out. That makes 13 total, which equates to about 7.4% of the total calvings. They were all heifers and looking at them, they usually fell into one of the two categories of either possessing a very narrow rump or being only medium sized (for our heifers) and having a huge bull calf.
*We had 4 recorded milk fevers (2.2% of the herd). Danny fed increased levels of Mag Ox this year along with corn gluten feed for the pre-fresh ration and he feels as though that helped.
*There were 6 animals with retained placentas (3.4%). We treat our retained placenta cows with 1 drench of whole leaf aloe vera gel from Pharm Aloe starting 24 hours after calving if the cow has not cleaned in that time frame. We continue with this treatment until they drop the cleanings. Most of the cows dropped their cleanings within three days of beginning treatment (we did have a few cows that waited until several days after calving to begin to show that they did not drop their cleanings).
*We had one cow that never calved, but that we began milking. She looked as though she was close to calving for about 4 days. Then we noticed she seemed to look depressed and actually looked like her udder was beginning to shrink. We drenched her with aloe and Cal-drench and called the vet. We described her symptoms to him, and without looking at her, the vet said it sounded as if she has a twisted uterus and was unable to calve and her body simply mummified the calf. She is milking now, and appears to be fine (other then she never had her calf - I palpated her and confirmed that her calf was still in there). Every once in a while she will expel horrible smelling watery discharge. She is alert and has a very healthy appetite and has not lost condition. She is now 63 days in milk.
*We had one cow that turned out to be open.
* One cow turned out to be pregnant to a much later breeding date. So, we sold her (she was also showing symptoms of johnes and we tend to get rid of cows pretty quickly once they get on that list).
* One heifer sort of aborted. She bagged up and never actually had the calf, but her body was in the process of trying to mummify it--we sold her.
*Three cows were shipped soon after calving (1.7%). One was a johnes cow. Two were heifers with no decent quarters--either blind or extreme mastitis in all four quarters.
* and finally, 3 cows died within 40 days of calving (1.7%) . One was a result of milk fever and a hillside. One was a result of trying to calve on a hillside, and one cow (just today) was anemic with a heart murmer and had to be put down.
So, we are waiting on one lone cow to calve. She is in with the milking herd, because there is no way she would stay in a paddock by herself.
Blessings to each of you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
~2 Corinthians 12:9
*We freshened 175 cows thus far.
*We are milking 169 cows.
*Our calving season began February 21, 2013.
*Calving Difficulty -out of 175 calvings, we pulled 12 calves and the vet had to cut one out. That makes 13 total, which equates to about 7.4% of the total calvings. They were all heifers and looking at them, they usually fell into one of the two categories of either possessing a very narrow rump or being only medium sized (for our heifers) and having a huge bull calf.
*We had 4 recorded milk fevers (2.2% of the herd). Danny fed increased levels of Mag Ox this year along with corn gluten feed for the pre-fresh ration and he feels as though that helped.
*There were 6 animals with retained placentas (3.4%). We treat our retained placenta cows with 1 drench of whole leaf aloe vera gel from Pharm Aloe starting 24 hours after calving if the cow has not cleaned in that time frame. We continue with this treatment until they drop the cleanings. Most of the cows dropped their cleanings within three days of beginning treatment (we did have a few cows that waited until several days after calving to begin to show that they did not drop their cleanings).
*We had one cow that never calved, but that we began milking. She looked as though she was close to calving for about 4 days. Then we noticed she seemed to look depressed and actually looked like her udder was beginning to shrink. We drenched her with aloe and Cal-drench and called the vet. We described her symptoms to him, and without looking at her, the vet said it sounded as if she has a twisted uterus and was unable to calve and her body simply mummified the calf. She is milking now, and appears to be fine (other then she never had her calf - I palpated her and confirmed that her calf was still in there). Every once in a while she will expel horrible smelling watery discharge. She is alert and has a very healthy appetite and has not lost condition. She is now 63 days in milk.
*We had one cow that turned out to be open.
* One cow turned out to be pregnant to a much later breeding date. So, we sold her (she was also showing symptoms of johnes and we tend to get rid of cows pretty quickly once they get on that list).
* One heifer sort of aborted. She bagged up and never actually had the calf, but her body was in the process of trying to mummify it--we sold her.
*Three cows were shipped soon after calving (1.7%). One was a johnes cow. Two were heifers with no decent quarters--either blind or extreme mastitis in all four quarters.
* and finally, 3 cows died within 40 days of calving (1.7%) . One was a result of milk fever and a hillside. One was a result of trying to calve on a hillside, and one cow (just today) was anemic with a heart murmer and had to be put down.
So, we are waiting on one lone cow to calve. She is in with the milking herd, because there is no way she would stay in a paddock by herself.
Blessings to each of you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
~2 Corinthians 12:9
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Some New Experiments!
I have been following The Dairy Crossbred Blog for over a year now. I enjoy reading about their experiments with different breeds and genetics. Some things I agree with and some I don't. In reading the blog it has inspired me to try another breed with our herd. So, this year I looked through the sire cataloge and picked three or four bulls that interested me. Then, I e-mailed the company to see which bulls are actually available. The borders being closed have limited supplies so the bull I that was my first choice was not available, but I found one that I hope will not disappoint.
This will be my first steps with Montbeliarde! The bull I chose was Arobase. I wanted to try Avallon, but unfortunately he was not available. I ordered the semen from Creative Genetics of California. They were excellent to work with and sent the order very quickly. Here it is!
They even sent us a free Procross t-shirt! I wish it was in my size, but I think it might fit Danny better. I hope it at least fits one of us. It may be too small for him and too big for me :/ Ah well, I would wear it anyway.
I also am trying out an MRY bull this year as well. I have heard good things about them--one of the positive things I have heard is that though they carry more flesh, they are not as big as Montbeliardes. The drawback of the MRY breed is that there is limited selection without the borders being closed let alone with them shut down. The bull I am trying of the MRY's is Dos 4 from CRV. The nice thing about CRV is that they have a sales representative close to our area, so I didn't have to pay for shipping!
Eventually, I would like to narrow my crossbreeding selection down to about three different breeds. The breeds that are in our herd are: Holstein, Jersey, Milking Shorthorn, Normande, Ayrshire, Dutch Belt, Lineback, Swedish Red, and Norwegian Red...I don't think I am forgetting any of them.
The breeds I am actively using to breed with are New Zealand Ayrshire, British Friesian, Finnish Ayrshire, Lineback, New Zealand Holstein, New Zealand Kiwi Cross, Jersey, Norwegian Red, Normande, American Ayrshire, and now Montbeliarde and MRY. Some of these bulls are leftovers that I am simply trying to use up.
I am in full on preparing for breeding season. I am slowly but surely matching up which bulls are on the service sire list for which cows. I might try to write out my system later, but that will be for a different post.
Blessings to you all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This will be my first steps with Montbeliarde! The bull I chose was Arobase. I wanted to try Avallon, but unfortunately he was not available. I ordered the semen from Creative Genetics of California. They were excellent to work with and sent the order very quickly. Here it is!
They even sent us a free Procross t-shirt! I wish it was in my size, but I think it might fit Danny better. I hope it at least fits one of us. It may be too small for him and too big for me :/ Ah well, I would wear it anyway.
I also am trying out an MRY bull this year as well. I have heard good things about them--one of the positive things I have heard is that though they carry more flesh, they are not as big as Montbeliardes. The drawback of the MRY breed is that there is limited selection without the borders being closed let alone with them shut down. The bull I am trying of the MRY's is Dos 4 from CRV. The nice thing about CRV is that they have a sales representative close to our area, so I didn't have to pay for shipping!
Eventually, I would like to narrow my crossbreeding selection down to about three different breeds. The breeds that are in our herd are: Holstein, Jersey, Milking Shorthorn, Normande, Ayrshire, Dutch Belt, Lineback, Swedish Red, and Norwegian Red...I don't think I am forgetting any of them.
The breeds I am actively using to breed with are New Zealand Ayrshire, British Friesian, Finnish Ayrshire, Lineback, New Zealand Holstein, New Zealand Kiwi Cross, Jersey, Norwegian Red, Normande, American Ayrshire, and now Montbeliarde and MRY. Some of these bulls are leftovers that I am simply trying to use up.
I am in full on preparing for breeding season. I am slowly but surely matching up which bulls are on the service sire list for which cows. I might try to write out my system later, but that will be for a different post.
Blessings to you all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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