Chubby heifer

Anna · Post by **Anna** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:42 am

My cow who has an 9 months heifer at foot has started to loose condition during the last month. I am not very worried about her, she still is quite ok and she will not have her next calf until late August, but she has had a little extra feed to keep up (lusern pills, betfor and crusched barley). I could have given the pair more hay instead, but I thought it would be better to just feed the cow more - not the hiefer who is chubbier than I want her to be. But now it seems like all the extra feed given to the cow ends up in the heifer anyway, the cow is loosing even more condition and the heifer is indeed NOT.

I would certainly have weaned the heifer if I expected the cow to have a spring calf, but thought that the extra work of keeping them separated could be spared this year.

What would you advice me to do? Will always extra food to a milking dexter just make her produce more milk?

As I said, I am not worried about the cow but a little worried about the heifer. It´s not supposed to be good for a heifer to grow fat, is it? I am planning to keep her for breeding/milking.

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 1:58 pm

I can't answer your question but I do have quite a lot of cows that are losing a bit of condition over the winter even though their feed is excellent.

ann · Post by **ann** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:17 pm

Hi Anna

Maybe if you let the calf have some of the hand feed she will stop milking her mum, otherwise you might just have to separate them if the cow seems to be losing to much condition. Are you sure the calf is tubby, some calves have a lot of winter coat and look fatter than they are. Some are just greedy and will suck as long as mum lets them, if this is the case can you separate them with a gate between them if they are in a pen so that the calf is not able to suckle but they can still see one another, this is how I wean my calves, works great, no stress. Good luck.

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:29 pm

Ditto Clive. I just wonder if last year's poor summer and lack of sunshine has anything to do with it and the animals faced the winter without the usual summertime boost.

If she were my heifer, Anna, I wouldn't worry about her being chubby at 9 months. Is she short or non-short? The shorts usually look very well covered, whereas the non-shorts go through various stages as they grow. There is time for her to slim down a bit if necessary before she goes to the bull, but I think it is much older heifers who get fat and cause problems and maybe those which are overfed in late pregnancy.

Anna · Post by **Anna** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:10 pm

Both are non-shorts. I am sure that she is very well covered since I touch and check on her every day.

I think I´ll leave things as they are for some more time, but I will separate them if things seem to turn to the worse. (If weaning is needed I´ll put gates between them but they will still eat from the same table and be able to lay down beside each other. It worked very well when big sister was weaned last year.)

I´ve heard or read somewhere that a heifers udder can be "destroyed" if she grows fat. By destroyed I don´t mean it would be useless, but that she would produce less milk. Could it be a myth, or is there some truth in it? Maybe she would need to be obese for it to happen?

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:42 pm

They often go through a period of having babyfat. She'll grow into the weight, when her legs grow a bit and she develops an adult figure. Some of our calves look like butterballs before they are weaned. I wean them at 6 months, as they are outdoors all year round and grass is less plentiful during Winter, so the cows don't need the extra burden of feeding an older calf while being pregnant with the next. Its a different curcumstance than yours. I wouldn't worry about your heifer being fat at her age.

AlisonKirk · Post by **AlisonKirk** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 9:39 am

Hi Anna

It sounds as if your cow & calf should now be separated....we wean at 8/9 months. Your calf sounds as if she's had an excellent start which will stand her in good stead for the future and she will grow into a nice healthy breeding cow.

By giving the dam extra feed you are increasing the milk supply & the calf is making the most of it. If the calf's getting the milk easily she will carry on suckling & not worry about weaning herself.

We wean one group of calves in the spring & the cows are put onto a mixture of barley straw & hay for 10/14 days by which time they are dried off & can be turned out safely without udder problems. It may take a little longer to dry your cow off if she's been given extra feed.

Hope this helps.

Alison Kirk
Boram Dexters

ann · Post by **ann** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 8:45 pm

anna

one thought which worried me slightly was that you said that even with extra grub your cow was geting thinner, my brother gets a lot of twins and he always know if one is having twins as where all the other cows are doing fine on there normal ration the ones having twins tend to loose condition, just a thought, if she doesn't improve it might be worth getting her either scanned or P.D by your vet.

Anna · Post by **Anna** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:09 am

Twins.. I hope not. It would be the first twin dexter birth in Sweden I think. But some time has to be the first of course... Would she start loosing condition already? She was AI´d in November.

We had the same situation last year, the cow was getting thinner in January/February, but then she started off with less fat than this year.

I will start by giving them as much hay as they want and cut down on the hard feed to a minumum just to see if it affects them differently (I need to give them a little to keep the daily routines up). And have in mind not to let the cow loose to much of course. I will have to stop feeding her the extra stuff well in advance anyway, if she will be weaned.

Thank you all for your different views on the subject! I find it so valuable to be able to disucuss big and small worries with you here.

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:46 am

We had twins a couple of years ago. I wasn't even there. I just went in the barn and there they were, two of them, both female and absolutely identical. I still can't tell them apart and they are both slightly smaller duplicates of their mom.

seacon dexters · Post by **seacon dexters** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:13 am

Hi! I would wean the calves off. The cow will still lose condition for a while worrying about the calf but then soon putting it on again.

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:14 am

We had twins born about three years ago, to a 10 year old cow (owned by my Sister-in-Law), unassisted. The only problem was that the female of the pair, got her head stuck in the nearby fence and we found her there when we returned back from the city late at night. (I'd just spent a few days in hospital having my appendex out). I extracted her head and held her up under her mum to have her first feed. (Not something my Doctor would have approved of probably). :;):

She had been licked clean by her worried mum and her twin brother had been fed. Once she'd had a good feed and was steadier on her feet, we felt happy to leave them to it.

At six months of age, I was impressed with the size of the two calves, both almost the same size as their diminutive mum, with the bull calf being the larger. A very good production from such a small cow.

I had realised from her size at seven months gestation, that she was carrying twins (the enormous girth gave it away) :D and put her in a flatish paddock with good grass growth, that I could let her strip graze, with as littleoutput in energy as possible. She was also given hay each day. It resulted in two good sized calves, that grew well. We made sure she was fed well, until she and her calves could be transfered back to her owner's property.

The only issue you need to be aware of, is that with the extra placenta, there is more possibility of uterine infection and in this case, a damaged teat (a old accident) allowed an infection to enter. After seeing a coloured discharge a few days later and realising the damaged quarter wasn't being emptied properly, I called the vet in. Intra uterine antibiotics and three antibiotic injections later, during the week, she was back on track and able to go home.

Here is a photo of the two of them;
http://s30.photobucket.com/albums....254.jpg

Edited By Inger on 1204431632

wagra dexters · Post by **wagra dexters** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:08 am

Inger, is your heifer a freemartin? We had one once very early on in our experience.
The Mum has done very well.
Margaret

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:55 am

I believe any heifer born with a bull calf twin would be a freemartin.

Martin.

Saffy · Post by **Saffy** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:06 am

I have a feeling that the heifer is OK if she didn't come from the same egg as the bull but Duncan will shoot me down in flames shortly I expect as I am talking from a very dim and distant memory here!

Stephanie