The Joys of calving!

Had a cow start calving at 3am this morning. Let her go until 6 am because she has always had small calves, unassisted (55# and 70#). She wouldn't lay down so we started pulling while she was standing. I've never seen a calf with a head so big. Got him half way out and then he was hip-locked. Finally got him turned, and she decided to lay down then he slid out. This guy weighed 150 pounds! Born right on the due date. He's as big as my 2 week old calves! He is a Heat Wave.

Then, 11am had a first calf Paddy O' Malley heifer go into labor. 5 days overdue. The legs were coming out, but when we pulled the head kept slipping back. Called the vet, had to do a C-Section. Luckily the calf was alive. 88 # beautiful baldy bull calf. I attached a picture of him. Mom and baby are doing great for what they went through!

good to hear it went well. another 150 lb heatwave....  (dog)

At sundown tonight I had about 40 baby calves jumping around,head butting each other,bucking, checking out their top gear, changing leads across the cornstalks. There is nothing that will do your heart good like watching the little boogers play. Its a therapy that helps make live worthwhile. I could sit and watch them for hours if I could. ;D

How about a picture of that 150 pounder?

Glad you got em out!

Paddy x ?
Heat Wave x?

Pics if you could of the Heat Wave

Something tells me the heatwave might not stand up for a couple days  (lol) thats unfortunate

The Heat Wave is out of a Freestyle cow that I showed a few years back. She was Champion Chi at the Ohio Beef Expo in '03. He was standing and nursing within an hour! I will get some pics of him up soon.

The baldy calf that came C-section is a Next Step, which is our herd bull. He is a Theobald 969 x Playboy. The heifer was out of Paddy O Malley. The only reason the heifer was bred to him was because she would not settle AI. So far he has sired some really nice calves, but they have been coming pretty big.

<party>Glad everyone is doing okay.  It sounds like you had a busy day!

DCC_Cattle said:

Had a cow start calving at 3am this morning. Let her go until 6 am because she has always had small calves, unassisted (55# and 70#). She wouldn't lay down so we started pulling while she was standing. I've never seen a calf with a head so big. Got him half way out and then he was hip-locked. Finally got him turned, and she decided to lay down then he slid out. This guy weighed 150 pounds! Born right on the due date. He's as big as my 2 week old calves! He is a Heat Wave.

Then, 11am had a first calf Paddy O' Malley heifer go into labor. 5 days overdue. The legs were coming out, but when we pulled the head kept slipping back. Called the vet, had to do a C-Section. Luckily the calf was alive. 88 # beautiful baldy bull calf. I attached a picture of him. Mom and baby are doing great for what they went through!

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my dad had a cow that always had a baby that was BIG

aj said:

At sundown tonight I had about 40 baby calves jumping around,head butting each other,bucking, checking out their top gear, changing leads across the cornstalks. There is nothing that will do your heart good like watching the little boogers play. Its a therapy that helps make live worthwhile. I could sit and watch them for hours if I could. ;D

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I completely agree!  We have a heifer calf that you would think is training for the kentucky derby but she has a training partner.....the donkey!  Alot of people don't like Donkeys but we are really fortunate to have good one.  We have had this donkey for 5 years and have yet to use her.  Alot of the old timers say that a Donkey can really quiet down a cattle herd and think it is true.

Here's a picture of the Heat Wave bull calf. I couldn't seem to get a very good pic of him.  In person, you cannot believe how wide, thick and solid he is!

both calves look nice!  (thumbsup)

WOW!!!!! He'll make you some money!  (clapping)

kane1598 said:

WOW!!!!! He'll make you some money!  (clapping)

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This quote says it all, that is why people (incluing myself) keep breeding to Heat Wave.

Looks good.

No harm intended, but coming from someone who raises commercial and purebred cattle, you folks are nuts!

Thank you LN.  As long as people are honest I like people to communicate. Darn it call aspade a spade a spade. I hate people saying " well he's not a heifer bull but if your cow can lay down and have a 120# calf on cornstalks he should work well in your a.i. program, darn it I'm ticked off. So many people get into the business and cagwin or some body else who has no connect(what so ever to the real real world) gives them advise., it makes me sick. Grow up. Take advice from some someone other than cagwin. So many show people want to to be part of the inner the circle. They want to be liked. They will fail to notice that thge emperorer has no clothes on . Cagwin has never lived in the real world. He is a promoter and promoters are not cattle breeders. They are cattle cattle traders. Cattle traders sit back and they find cattle people who want to be part part of a mutual admiration soceity and they work you.

Going to be an all niter.  One first calf heifer done.  Had to help probably 85 lb heifer calf out of morgans direction 285 days. Need to have calf puller closer and not try to pull with chains and hands.  Hard to type right now with white fingers.  No way she was having it alone.  Black pearl first calf heifer.  Had another morgans 8 days ago and only 65 lbs out of a half blood angus 1st calf heifer.  Just goes to show the cow is half the birth weight.  Now waiting on a cow that has the water bag out.  God i wish mine would calve during the day.  Been feeding them at nite for three weeks or more but i knew after feeding that these two were acting different. 
Makes a guy wonder how all these club calf bulls have birth weights on their ads of 95 and under.  I bet people would be amazed what actual birth weights are for these club calf bulls.  I know of several clubby bulls that their birth weights are 10 to 20 lbs higher than advertised and that is just a few of all of these bulls. 

I agree that the cow has a lot to do with it. I also believe that you just get a freak occasionally. For example, we had four Paddy O'Malley calves this year. Three of these had BW's 64 to 73. The other one was 148 and backwards. Really hard pull, and it died a day later. The cow was a Direct Hit/Sturdy that calved unassited to Pale Face as a heifer. She was 80 lbs at birth. Go Figure.

Congrats!! He looks great!  I love babies.