If you own them, they will die....

[PDJ]

Got some bad news from my dad yesterday.  Our Waukaru IMF bull, (18 months) got into a fight with our 9 year old Fuzzy Vision bull through the fence.  The young bull had to be put down.  I know these things happen, but it would have been nice to at least see the first set of calves before we lost him.

 

[JTM]

Wow, I am really sorry about that! It is really frustrating when crazy stuff like that happens. Who knows, maybe you will fall into a better deal on a better bull. Hope things get better...

 

[nate53]

 

[Freddy]

Like your quote, my uncle told me 50 years ago as long as you raise them, you will lose some ....Very sorry for your bad luck ...

 

[justintime]

Yup... I had to leearn early in life that if you have livestock, you will also have dead stock. I received a purebred Shorthorn bred heifer for Christmas when I was 8 years old. Less than a year later she had to be put down as she developed cancer through her body. ( I have never seen another case like this in my life). The loss that will stay with me until I die was the death of Saskvalley Pioneer. I happened to be in his pen where he was bouncing around and playing on a nice spring day. A moment later he is in obvious distress and cannot breath. He followed me into the barn and stood beside me as I phoned my vet, then laid down on the floor. As I knelt down beside him, he swung his head onto my legs and died.  It turned out to be a blood clot that had broke away and hit his heart causing a massiv heart attack.
Just a few days ago, I found a $6800 heifer dead in the pasture. She had given us 1 calf but it still was a shock to find her when she had been in good health. I guess I may never know what caused her death as the rotten coyotes had not left enough of her to figure anything out.  It is never easy!

 

[ruhtram]

I've lost a few cows, it defiantly sucks when your really excited to see what their going to calve. Sorry for your loss

 

[RidinHeifer]

Sorry for your loss. Makes it even harder when its a good one. Sad to say that only the good ones die young too.

 

[chambero]

We had a bull that sired a winning steer at Houston one year and the Champion Angus the next.  He got both back legs broken fighting another bull.

We bought two Strictly Businesss-sired bulls.  One got struck by lightning 2 days after getting him home.

My son had a real good Maine show heifer.  We turned her out in the pasture to lose some weight before calving.  She got struck by lightning so bad she that she apparently caught on fire.  All we found were bones and two partially melted ear tags. 

 

[kfacres]

All we found were bones and two partially melted ear tags.  

amazing that it was hot enough to burn up everything but bones....  yet- it only partially burned up the plastic tags--- you'd a thunk that fire would have been crazy enough to smother them out first thing and melt into the air

It sounds to me like you need less cottonwood trees in the pasture... they are a magnet to lightning

 

[kfacres]

we lost our best shorthorn cow this fall, about 2 weeks before calving.. Lucky we had an insurance policy on her- which paid for an autopsy...  Official determination was that she was carrying twins, and as they were rotating to be born- one shifted, and pinched off a nerve- blocking blood supply, and killing the cow instantely... 

Just think...  if she'd a  only had a single calf... like most normal cows...  she'd most likely still be alive, as that calf wouldn't have run out of room.. so we lost our best cow, and twin heifer calves.