4 days overdue.... What should I due?

[box6rranch]

Well Red, according to your Maine schedule that would make her due date today. Nice enough weather hopefully she'll listen to your expert advice :O)

 

[greenbean]

I induce a few cows/heifers each year based on my travel schedule.   I know for you purists on SP that would be a sin but I would rather be here when the calf is born than a thousand miles away when  she has trouble.   In my world, inducing cows is a tool that works well for me.   However, given the choice I would always like them to calve on their own.   We use 5 ccs of Lutalyse with 20 ccs of dexamethazone and usually about 36-40 hours later we have a calf.   I won't induce a calf if I don't know the exact breeding/AI date though.   I have not had any more problems with the induced births than I have with "natural" births.   I sometimes wonder if heifers dilate quite as well as they would naturally but that is just a very obscure observation on a few heifers.   Heifers don't dilate as well anyway.  Bottom line is that I'd rather they calve naturally but being here when they calve trumps the other considerations as long as I know their breeding date.

By the way, Greenbean,  we're from northern Iowa(Northwood) too!!  What's your hometown?

I'm from Swea City, but currently in Ames for school.

She hasn't claved yet, she looked like she was getting close last night before I left to come back, but we have thought that for a few days lol!  She was starting to seperate herself yesterday from the rest of them so it shouldn't be to much longer.  we never ran her through to check the position of the calf though... We have another that should calve about the same time she does.  I'm sure tadpole will have an update after school today. 

 

[tadpole]

No... No calf yet.  Put her in the barn for tonight.  We had a Northern Improvement calf out of a Paddy O' Malley heifer today.(I think i said she was bred to total solution in a earlier post but i got her confused with another one).  She had a pretty good sized bull calf.  I think the taz will calve here pretty quick.... i have been saying that for a while but.... she seemed to put that final swell on her udder today so I think she she will be having a baby here pretty soon! 

 

[red]

when the teats are almost straight out get ready.

Red

 

[Jill]

This is a classic example of why we don't induce, if you had induced when you 1st questioned it you would have been at least 7 day too early.

 

[JoeDirt]

when the teats are almost straight out get ready.

Red

Go CALF GO

Better go get your catchers met just incase

 

[braunvieh]

Last year was the first time we tried inducing. We had a heifer that was got bred by the wrong bull who was not a heifer bull and we knew she was very close. We palpated and everything seemed good and then induced. She has a 78 pound bull calf unassisted about 36 hours later. Would probably do that again in a similar situation.

My dad had some Charolais heifers get bred on the cow before weaning and were noticed too late to abort with Lute. So, we induced them EARLY to prevent any further damage to the heifers, we knew the calves would not survive. Both of them calved in the middle of the night with backwards calves and it was a mess. Don't think I would do that again. The heifers were OK but may have been OK calving on their own when ready too.

Good luck with your heifer and keep us posted.

BTW, we go with 286 for our breed's gestation. Last year embryologist said due date was 2/8, we figured 2/17. We did not get an ET calf until 2/15 and most were born around 2/19-21. All were nice moderate size.

 

[red]

I wonder what the truest gestation table to use would be?  I've seen a few and the dates are always different. Our Maine X is 3 days late now but we used the chart listed in the SEK Genetics book.

This is a classic example of why we don't induce, if you had induced when you 1st questioned it you would have been at least 7 day too early.

Jill, I might be wrong w/ all the different posts but I think box6rranch is talking about a different cow than Tadpole & greenbean were.

 

[Jill]

Sorry, what I got out of his post was that she hasn't calved yet.

 

[CAB]

  It has seemed to get a little confusing by now. There are different cows being mentioned and I really don't know, nor have I gone and tried to figure out the actual breeding date or due date. I just hope that she/all soon drop the calves. LOL. Brent

 

[box6rranch]

Hi Jill, sorry for the confusion but I did throw our cow into the mix. Red gave me 283 day gestation which would have been yesterday. No calf yet so I'll move over to your model and see what happens :O) That moves us to Thursday. She is progressing, udders are slowly filling up and she's definitely mushy and dropped. She lost last year's calf. It was a monster that died before it was born so we are keeping a good eye on her and hoping for positive results.

 

[CAB]

Good Luck Box6. Brent

 

[box6rranch]

Thanks, we bred her to our all white shorthorn bull. He's had pretty small calves so hopefully this one will be too. Hoping for a blue roan bull.

 

[red]

also some bloodlines tend to have either longer or shorter gestations. I think for example Ali & Gigolo Joe's are shorter.

Red

 

[tadpole]

She finally calved!!!  <party>  <party>  When I came home from school today he was up walking around the pen.  She had a bull calf and weighed eighty six pounds tonight when i processed him.  XXCC called it.... She calved on 295 days! haha..  I will try to get some pictures on here in the next couple of days...

 

[CAB]

Congrats Tadpole/Greenbean. Brent

 

[JoeDirt]

She finally calved!!!  <party>  <party>  When I came home from school today he was up walking around the pen.  She had a bull calf and weighed eighty six pounds tonight when i processed him.  XXCC called it.... She calved on 295 days! haha..  I will try to get some pictures on here in the next couple of days...

GRATZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

<party> <party> <party> <party> <party> <party> <party>

Get the pics we all love to see all your hard work you have done maybe he will be another womenizer

 

[box6rranch]

Congrats!!!! Our's is still crossing her legs :O)

 

[OH Breeder]

Congrats!

 

[xxcc]

good job gentleman.

i induced a cow about 4 years ago and it too ended up in a wreck.  something i learned there was that's it's tough to make something out of nothing and sometimes you need to let the chips fall where they may and cut your losses.  i'm glad this one had a happy ending.  i knew some guys that ran into a wreck with some full french Charolais back in the early 80's and induced about 20 head, after the first three calved, they wished they hadn't.  the calves had all the bone, none of the muscle mass and a bunch were premes.  it was a wreck.  mother nature knows what she's doing...if anything, it's teaching some of a lesson.