Cattle Breeding 2018

[Wehner Homestead]

Went out to see Reagan’s calf and got this pic...L to R: Mallory, Moxie, Otis

Edited because the cow is Moxie, not Reagan.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Worked on the breeding dates to have due dates on the cows. Otis’ pic is as the beginning of his thread. We still miss him like crazy. I’ll share Fred’s pic again in case anyone missed it in my journal. Fred is a
SimAngus.

Bailey has several bred dates because we couldn’t eliminate that she was in heat (but can do what’s called a “conservative breeding” which won’t cause harm if she is actually bred) and may have scratched her tag on a branch for the last date. Time will tell.

I also have a date to monitor some of the girls that I didn’t include because their tag was obviously scratched but appeared to be a limb instead of a bull but I’d rather note the dates as a precaution and just put a little extra reminder beside them so I can recall the situation if need be.

2019 Calving Schedule
2/11 Georgia (Grand Fortune)
Gatlin (DCC Destiny)
2/19 Maxine (MWJ)
2/23 Scarlett (Grand Fortune)
2/25 Elsa (Black Power Play)
Maddie (Loaded for Bear)
2/28 Ember (DCC Destiny)
3/1 Bailey (Dakota Gold)
3/5 Sydney (approx Otis)
3/23 Bailey (Dakota Gold)
Maizy (Dirty Thoughts)
4/1 Dolly (approx Otis)
4/15 Bailey (Fred)
4/18 Melody (Fred)
5/2 Mabel (Fred)

**approx means I don’t have an exact date but that would be the due date if the bull bred them on day placed together. I keep very detailed notes as to who is with which bull and when.

Mabel is for sale. We didn’t intend to keep her anyway and the last attempt to sell her fell through.

Josie and Moxie didn’t stick. I think some of it was the heat and some of it was that they cycled at odd times, like when we didn’t have a bull between Otis dying and getting after here. Won’t be counting it against them and they get to hold over until next year and be in the first group to get bred.

 

[Latestarter]

Looks like 3 busy months. Hope they all produce nice calves with no issues.

 

[RollingAcres]

Looks like 3 busy months. Hope they all produce nice calves with no issues.

X2!
Looking forward to seeing these calves in the Spring.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Josie, Moxie, Elsa, and Maizy all ended up open. Mabel is staying. She looks better all the time.

Moxie wasn’t included in the following because we knew she was too drug down to stick and we were prepared to winter her despite that and breed her back next year.


Vet was out today to see what’s going on with our herd. He drew blood on Josie, Elsa, Maizy, Gatlin, and Georgia. (Gatlin, Georgia, and Elsa lost their calves at 3 months last year.) He truly believes that it’s likely a freak coincidence but is testing for lepto, bivd, brucellosis, and he mentioned one other thing that I hadn’t heard of. Pregnancy tests are going to be done on Elsa and Georgia. It could take up to 3 weeks to have all of the results back since they have to send the blood to several different places.

Josie was born last year, heat cycles likely fell when we were having bull issues. She palpate fine so we will attempt breeding her again next year. It’ll give her some extra time to grow. She’s sentimental so I’ll hold onto her if I can.

Maizy palpated as open and likely cycled a few days ago. (We saw signs of heat on Friday but didn’t witness standing.) She had her first calf this year and she palpated as no issues noted.

Gatlin palpated as bred for early Feb. This was wonderful news! She lost her first calf at 3 mos last year so we are super excited to get a calf out of her!

Georgia also lost her calf at 3 mos last year. She should be bred for her fifth calf for early Feb. She palpated as having a really low uterus. Her body cavity is huge and the vet was unable to feel low enough to find a calf. This is the reason for the pregnancy test. He said there’s either something majorly wrong or she’s bred and with her bigger body capacity, has room to grow it. Time will tell.

Elsa. Oh this cow. She’s breaking my heart! DH bought her dam from my grandfather for our first anniversary. An oversight by my grandfather when the cows were simmering there caused her to founder and we babied her through a year to get Elsa. Our oldest niece showed Elsa and won her class, Champions Crossbred, and Showmanship her first year in 4-H with her. She calved the first time with a breech 35# calf that she had on her own. She was thought to have lost her second calf at three months last years and her third at three months this year. Upon palpating, she has fluid in her uterus. A pregnancy test is being done on the blood work to verify but the uterus is likely an abnormality and I’ll be saying goodbye very soon. I am glad that I’ll have the peace of knowing it isn’t something that I can fix and it removes the regret of not giving her one more chance.

I’ll update when I have results. I can’t leave you with all of that ugh so here’s a pic of some of the girls that’s I snapped while mowing Sunday night.

 

[Latestarter]

Sorry about Elsa... Bad turn of events.

 

[greybeard]

is testing for lepto, bivd, brucellosis, and he mentioned one other thing that I hadn’t heard of.

Trich or Vibriosis?
(I've heard some producers refer to cows with Vibriosis as 'being Campy' from the Campylobacter bacteria that causes the illness .)

 

[Wehner Homestead]

I really don’t remember. He may have mentioned both. I’ll have to see what the reports say when I see them. He’s emailing me copies of everything.

 

[RollingAcres]

Sorry about Elsa.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

First results were on my voicemail yesterday. Georgia is in fact bred!!!
Elsa is not! Definitely hoped and prayed for a miracle but knew it was a long shot. Waiting on a few more results before we ship her but it will be happening.