another bull calf this morning.

greybeard

Herd Master
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Messages
5,940
Reaction score
10,803
Points
553
Location
East Texas
Beefmaster momma X sim-Char bull. Very lightweight calf, at least 30 days early, born unassisted less than an hour before I took the pics but up walking and I've seen it nurse already.
augcalf1.jpg


augcalf2.jpg


Hope it makes it ok. That's $$ in the bank right there..That momma raised a heck of a calf when she was a heifer. Last year's calf drowned the same day it was born.
 

Latestarter

Novice; "Practicing" Animal Husbandry
Golden Herd Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2014
Messages
11,384
Reaction score
17,481
Points
623
Location
NE Texas
Grats. Nice looking little guy. 30 days early? really? wow... impressive.
 

Goatgirl47

True BYH Addict
Joined
Aug 8, 2015
Messages
1,164
Reaction score
1,052
Points
263
Location
Louisiana
I'm sorry about last years' calf.

Hoping this one will make it! He looks pretty good from the pictures! :thumbsup
 

greybeard

Herd Master
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Messages
5,940
Reaction score
10,803
Points
553
Location
East Texas
What a beauty! She's making a real nice bag there....

Congrats!!
I don't really like her oversized teats, but the calves seem to manage to get them in their mouths ok.
She's among the most docile mommas I have and a good thing, since I've gone against my own advice & didn't dehorn her.
 

Baymule

Herd Master
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Messages
33,089
Reaction score
98,640
Points
873
Location
East Texas
Nice looking calf, hope he grows off good for you. I have to ask, how did last year's calf drown? I am thinking a lot of rain and pools of water.
 

greybeard

Herd Master
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Messages
5,940
Reaction score
10,803
Points
553
Location
East Texas
Nice looking calf, hope he grows off good for you. I have to ask, how did last year's calf drown? I am thinking a lot of rain and pools of water.

We did have 4 different floods or high water last year March-late May timeline and one of them was a contributing factor I guess. The 1st one, in late winter, the water was already up in my pond and one morning from my back porch, I saw a huge feral hog next to the corner of a fence that keeps the cows away from the pond in a little 3-4 acre pasture right behind the house. I jumped up, grabbed my 270 from inside the house, but by the time I got back on the porch, he was gone. I figured he ran across the pasture into the woods on my sister's property.
A month later, between floods, I noticed that cow had had her calf during the night in the same little pasture, but couldn't find the calf anywhere. I looked hard all day long.--there just wasn't anywhere in that little pasture she could have hidden it. I watched the cow and she kept going back to the same place and I realized that was where she had had it and saw the ground was still bloody. I walked all along the fence and ended up down to that corner of the fence and saw the bottom wire was broken. I remembered that hog doing the disappearing act, and it made sense. The hog didn't go to my sister's, it had just run thru the fence and broke the bottom wire, which is pretty common here with feral hogs. I figured the momma had nosed her newborn calf under the fence into the tall grass between the pond and the fence to hide it. Figured it laid down and went to sleep and when it woke up, it stumbled off the edge of a 3 ft drop and into the pond. Sure enough, 2 days later, it floated up.
drowned calf.jpg deadcalf2.jpg

Really kicked myself over not checking that fence closer.
 

Baymule

Herd Master
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Messages
33,089
Reaction score
98,640
Points
873
Location
East Texas
I bet you were kicking yourself. It's hard enough to lose a year's worth of calf without blaming yourself over it. That's something that you just didn't see coming.
 

animalmom

Herd Master
Joined
Dec 19, 2009
Messages
1,958
Reaction score
2,231
Points
343
Location
North Central Texas
He's a handsome lad. Naming him Harvey? How is he doing? Inquiring minds would like to know...not that you don't have bigger events on your horizon.
 
Top