A new problem

Not that I don't have enough problems ----
I have a new one.
We bought a heifer this fall from a club calf sale in SD, and brought her home to Iowa. Our intentions were to show her as a breeding heifer at a July County Fair. I went out to feed them this morning, and there was a small (estimated 50 lb) dead calf laying in the yard. THe heifer is only a March calf, and has now had a calf of her own @ 14 months of age.    Lesson learned - I should have given her a shot of Lute when we brought her home in Sept.
My questions - 
Think she can still make an OK show heifer in July?
How soon can I breed her back?
Do I even keep her? 
???

I would be asking for my money back. You should probably hold off on breeding her, but I would ask the vet. Contact whomever is in charge of the sale and be sure you tell them so it doesn't happen again (probably will but people will at least be aware of it)

X2

oakie said:

I would be asking for my money back. You should probably hold off on breeding her, but I would ask the vet. Contact whomever is in charge of the sale and be sure you tell them so it doesn't happen again (probably will but people will at least be aware of it)

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Hang on fellas.  Heifers can get bred at very young ages.  It doesn't happen that often, but it does happen.  You didn't tell us exactly when you purchased this heifer.  And, the calf sounds like it could be a preemie.  So, the question becomes, how good are your fences?  Could she have gotten bred at your place?  You know the saying, don't throw stones.....  Anyway, even if she was bred, it appears to be a mistake and there isn't any reason to think she won't be good and healthy to breed in a few months. 

If she is in good condition,(and not too fat), she should cycle again in 60 days or so.  That will be April/May calf, still good for show.

Talked to the breeder and alerted him of the problem?  He may make her good and replace her with another heifer to breed.

A 50 pound calf is 7-8 months along.  Surprised it did not live.    Count back and maybe you'll find the answer.  October/November is when she got bred.

The thing that will throw her out of show heifer contention is if she can dry up and maintain condition till July... but most likely you will just have to turn her out and rebreed her when her next cycle comes and make sure that she is clean and not dirty from having aborted a calf.. We had a show cattle person around our parts have a 11 month old heifer pop out a 70lb fetus so figure up the breeding date on that girl your best bet when buying heifers sadly is to always be pre-cautious and go ahead and give them a shot of lute it never does hurt..

farmin female said:

Hang on fellas.  Heifers can get bred at very young ages.  It doesn't happen that often, but it does happen.  You didn't tell us exactly when you purchased this heifer.  And, the calf sounds like it could be a preemie.  So, the question becomes, how good are your fences?  Could she have gotten bred at your place?  You know the saying, don't throw stones.....  Anyway, even if she was bred, it appears to be a mistake and there isn't any reason to think she won't be good and healthy to breed in a few months. 

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No possible way she got bred at our place - we have 2 males on the farm - both show steers, no neighbor catte for 2 miles, hog tight fence (concrete, and new gates)
We bought her in Early October - she had to have been bred in August
Calf was full term, just very small (the heifer isn't very big) it had hair, etc.

oakie said:

I would be asking for my money back. You should probably hold off on breeding her, but I would ask the vet. Contact whomever is in charge of the sale and be sure you tell them so it doesn't happen again (probably will but people will at least be aware of it)

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Talked to the breeder this AM - told him not happy but did not ask for anything - just told him we would not be back unless they did something - whatever they feel is right. He called back, and offered $250 buyers credit towards next year's calf - won't cover even close to all expenses or time and labor lost, but still a good gesture - we'll see if we decided to o back or not.

CyFarmer- this is a more common problem than what you might think. I have heard of this happening SEVERAL times and had the same thing happen to one of my daughters show heifers, and unfortunately she died trying to have it. I believe it was earlier in the spring, around mid April. The guy we got her from gave us the option of giving us a comparable heifer next season or refund our money. Very good guy, not everyone would do that.

The lesson here is to make sure anything you buy in the future from any pasture sale gets a shot of Lut when they get home. You just never know and like I said,this has happened to many people that I know. At least your heifer is alive. She should be ok later to breed back and have a future as a cow.

Another thing to think about is, are you sure that your heifer was a March? Some of these seller will slide the DB some. She may have been older than a March which doesn't change much of anything. Sorry for your troubles.

Cyfarmer said:

oakie said:

I would be asking for my money back. You should probably hold off on breeding her, but I would ask the vet. Contact whomever is in charge of the sale and be sure you tell them so it doesn't happen again (probably will but people will at least be aware of it)

Click to expand...

Talked to the breeder this AM - told him not happy but did not ask for anything - just told him we would not be back unless they did something - whatever they feel is right. He called back, and offered $250 buyers credit towards next year's calf - won't cover even close to all expenses or time and labor lost, but still a good gesture - we'll see if we decided to o back or not.

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I'm sure it happened by accident and he made a gesture towards making it right.  I see no reason to not go back. Things go wrong with livestock it's a fact of the business.

The same thing happened to us.  The young heifer we bought was bred and we lost both heifer and calf. We did not ask for anything in return and the seller was pissed off when we did not buy the next year and jerked my children around at a cattle show.  I know things happen with livestock but this seller took it to the extreme.

We haven't had the problem with buying animals, but I did have a young hereford heifer that was vet checked not pregnant almost die trying to calve 2 to 3 months later.  Accidents happen I guess :/