What's the earliest preemie you've had born and live?

[Doc]

We had a bull calf born 33 days early on Monday. He is a JR Conquest out of a CCS Stampede dtr of Elsie Jade. Had to tube feed him til today, when he finally started nursing. He is running and playing now like he doesn't have a care in the world. Weighed 40 lbs when he was born.

 

[cpubarn]

Doc Good luck with your calf!



I had twin bull calves born at 38 days premature on Jan 12th.  Twin #1 had little hair and was alive only an hour or so.  Twin number two is now over 30 days old.  Each twin was just under 30# at birth.  "Bubba" is doing well and finally has enough hair that I took off his coat. (Medium size dog coat).

He could stand underneath his 1st calf heifer mother and not touch her at all, but by day 4 he could reach to nurse!

After a week or so moms milk was good enough that I could quit supplementing.

Mark

 

[Lucky_P]

Several years ago, we had one 5 weeks ahead of due date to AI service.  An N Bar Prime Time D806 calf, out of a mature SimAngus cow - the D806s often came as much as 2 weeks early out of heifers, but this one arrived 5 weeks ahead of the date due to AI service; had to bring him to the house and warm him up, tube with colostrum, but he went back out with the cow the next day.  No problems in the long run.

 

[Doc]

Good to hear these stories. This was the earliest that I had ever been around and didn't have a clue what his chances would be. He had a full hair coat , just no milk teeth(just starting to break thru).

 

[cpubarn]

When visiting with a well respected cattleman in central Iowa with a large herd, he said he had one 58 days early that lived a week.  I hope to hear of some more. 

 

[Charo]

In 2005 we had one 40 days ahead, one 33 days and another 20 days, they all lived well. In 2006 we lost some that were ahead so we test and found lepto, since that time we vaccine for that and see no problems.

 

[WRS]

We had one this year come 30 days early.  The heifer is small, but doing fine and is 2.5 months old now.

 

[justintime]

Several years ago we had a cow drop a set of twins very early. I did not have an exact breeding date as she was pasture bred . One of the twins was dead but the second calf was very much alive, and came into the world bellering its little head off. This little heifer calf weighed 28 lbs and I never dreamt she would survive, but she did. She barely had hair, but you could see the roan coloration on her skin. Her skin felt like tissue paper. I kept this calf in the house for about 4 days as it could not get around very good, but it sucked a bottle with amazing ability. She could drain a bottle in no time flat. At 4 days she had enough strength to finally stand and she started to walk around the house. She went back to the barn with her mother, and I had to hold her while she nursed for a couple days but she was then away to the races and never looked back. She was never sick a day in her life and she never got very big, but I kept her until she had eaned a calf from her and then decided to part with her and sent her to market. She really bonded with me, probably from my bottle feeding her after birth, and she would come running up to me any time I was near. I hated to sell her, but eventually bit the bullet and sent her to town.

I had another premature calf that we took out of a cow that had broke her pelvic on ice and could not get up. It was a month premature and it also came out of the side bellering and wanting to live. I put this calf on a heifer that had lost  her calf and she was in our herd for many years. I can't remember exactly but I am thinking she was about 50-55 lbs at birth, but she grew into a nice female and produced a heifer calf that we sold in a production sale for $3200.

 

[ATM OH]

We had a bull calf born 20 days early about a week ago.  We brought him inside to warm him up and had to bottle feed/tube feed for about a day and then he was up and doing fine.  Now 7-10 days old he is running around and seems happy and healthy.  I know a lot of you have posted stories of being earlier than this, but this is our earliest we've ever had and still survived.  Probably weighed 55-60 at birth.

 

[leanbeef]

We also had a set of twins born a few years ago...about a month early. The bull calf was apparently stillborn, at least he was dead when my dad found them. The mother was fighting off the buzzards, and the heifer calf was alive, but she was too small and weak to stand or walk. My dad called me to come help rescue the pair and get them to the barn.

We milked the cow and tubed the calf and then gave her a raw egg, then repeated that again that night at feed time. We didn't expect the calf to live through the night, but she was still alive the next morning. For several days, my dad put the cow in our chute, let the side down, and sat on a bucket with the calf laying over his lap so she could nurse. It was a few days before she could stand on her own, but she did live, and once she got started, she grew really well! We had her in a fattening pen with some freezer beef cattle, expecting her to be a freemartin. She cycled and we decided to see if she would breed...low and behold, she did. She had her first baby this past fall, and she's doing a good job with her. First time we've ever had a heifer that was a twin to a bull and not a freemartin...that we know of anyway.