New calving season

[lithuanian farmer]

Have three calves due in less than ten days. Two cows are due on the 12th of August.Both first calvers, one is waiting for a charolais calf,another will have simmental calf.The third cow's due date is 22nd, but she's incalf with belgian blue, so should be calving at least a week earlier than her due date.
Here are some pics I took yesterday and today. It's very nice to have a walk in the herd and look how cows and calves are doing.

This tank is due with Simmental. She doesn't seem to be preparing much yet, so she should go over term abit.

This one will have BB calf. Fingers crossed for another roan calf.

Trying out some different angles at taking photos.

Some of the calves:

The only Charolaisx heifer yet.

INRA95 bull calf in the front.

My fav heifer from the herd bull this year.

Almost 4 months old Charx bull calf. Dam is standing behind him. Some growth there!

What a view!

An adopted heifer. She has changed alot!

Just barely over a month old Charx bull calf. Maybe I'll use the same bull for his dam again this year.

I guess it'll be enough for this time...

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Finally, another Charolaisx heifer born today! I was hoping for a heifer of this colour from this cow, so it looks that my wish came true. That's the second calf for the cow, calved unassisted, nursing well, born at 283rd day, would say ~85lbs, so quite a small calf for us.

Now can wait for the next calf. It should be simmental, as the cow seems the closest to the calving.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Yeah! always nice to get a heifer!

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Two cows have calved yesterday. Have two more nice heifers born! One is Simmentalx, born at 292nd day, one is bbx born at 282nd day. Both strong and lively, and both are very good replacement candidates.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

awwwwe Love the BB coloring

 

[Bright Raven]

Two cows have calved yesterday. Have two more nice heifers born! One is Simmentalx, born at 292nd day, one is bbx born at 282nd day. Both strong and lively, and both are very good replacement candidates.

Thanks for sharing your pictures. They are magnificent. Do you use a camera or a cell phone?

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Thanks for sharing your pictures. They are magnificent. Do you use a camera or a cell phone?

Thank you. I use camera most of the time, Fujifilm finepix s2100. Had it for quite a long time already, not the perfect quality, but good enough.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

awwwwe Love the BB coloring

Me too!

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Just found a newborn this morning. To be fair have forgotten that this cow was due now and thought that she'll calve in September or so.
Well, here is 7/8 Charolais bull calf, born at 287th day, sired by a completely different Char bull than most Char calves we have.

Charx and Simmx heifers enjoying a nice morning.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Had a calf born a couple days ago from a heifer.
This beauty

And here's a new mom.

Recent pics of some of the calves:

Simmentalx, 3weeks old.

Charx and simmx heifers.

BB heifer is growing really well. 3weeks old.

[media]https://youtu.be/uAXAA2Dgy6o[/media] Video with three soon to be weaned heifers. Definitely going to try to keep them as replacements. One is piedmontese cross, one belgian blue and one blonde d'aquitaine cross.

Waiting for one to calve in a week time or so. She's on 281st day already. Looks really big around her mid section. Going to be her second calf.

Pic taken 9days ago.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

You have some great calves - and super great COLORS!!! Love em.
Will you be field feeding your bales, or just haven't picked them up yet?

 

[lithuanian farmer]

You have some great calves - and super great COLORS!!! Love em.
Will you be field feeding your bales, or just haven't picked them up yet?

Thank you. Yeah, we sure have some more colors this year, but it's more exciting to not know what kind of calf you'll have.
Bales are for winter, just haven't brought them home yet.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

One of the most difficult moment in cattle farming... The blue roan cow has calved on Monday at 289th day. Needed assistance, big bull calf, alive at first, but barely survived a couple hours. The second calf for the cow, so it was too big for her... 137.8lbs calf...

Well, it happens and thankfully cow is alive and doing well.

On a better note, here's one calf, which impresses me at the moment. He's 75days old in photo.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Ouch - sorry to hear that.
But, yes, that is a nice growthy calf.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Been very inactive for a while. A lot of stuff happening and been very busy.
Have lost another calf during calving. Charolaisx bull calf from limx second calver, 132.3lbs. Cow calved herself, but calf was dead, cow had uterine prolapse and was numb on one back leg. It's been two weeks since then and she's doing pretty well. Not completely recovered from the numb nerve yet, but walks by herself well.

However, have one Simmenalx bull calf born two days ago from angusx second calver. Born at 293rd day and is a very lively calf. Plus lovely color

Have two more left to calve this year and we'll have some rest until February. One is heifer, on 288th day and one cow is due on 31st of this month.
Weaning is on it's way already, so there soon will be lots of noise again. AI calves are showing good quality, so it's going to be a pretty good group of weanlings. Maybe will post some photos of weanlings sometime soon.
Here's one AI calf from a heifer. Very good calf for a 1st calver. Will be interesting to see how his dam performs later.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Finally, have finished calving all cows this year. After some recent misfortune finished it without much of trouble.
On Friday heifer finally decided to calve. 299days gestation... 7/8limo herself, incalf with AI limousine, medium calving ease. Sure was worried. Heifer did needed assistance, but both are well and formed a nice new family. She had a bull calf, of course, not weighed but over 110lbs.

The last cow has calved on Saturday, 281days gestation. Found her and a calf early in the morning. Calf- heifer was well, strong and active. Later that day have found the same colour small dead calf in the field. Well, it looks that we had the first set of twins born this year. Thankfully one calf is well, so it's not a big loss. Sired by AI Blonde, out of 3/4Char cow. Her first ever set of twins, she's 8years old.

Average gestation length his year was 287.6days, weighed calves BW 112.4lbs.

 

[Nesikep]

Sucks to lose one, but when it's a twin it's not quite so bad, at least momma has something to do!

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Heifer calved 2 weeks late - I'd not want to repeat that sire. Gestation length is heritable.
Sorry you are not able to watch twins grow, but one live one is good. Was the other a heifer?

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Heifer calved 2 weeks late - I'd not want to repeat that sire. Gestation length is heritable.
Sorry you are not able to watch twins grow, but one live one is good. Was the other a heifer?

Gestation came from the heifer herself. We had two bull calves born from the same sire last year, 283 and 288days gestation. Both dams were sired by our first Limousine bull. This heifer is sired by the second Limousine bull we'd. That bull's calves are born at over 290days most of the time. At the moment have only two his daughters calved, this at 299days gestation and another at 295days... Good thing is that they seem to have more room inside, but I don't like such long gestations... Time will tell if we'll keep his daughters.

I'm happy with just one calf, especially when the winter is near. It'd be a struggle for the cow to raise two calves until spring. No,unfortunately the other calf was a bull calf, but I still plan to do a reproductive system check for this heifer when she'll be an yearling or so.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Sucks to lose one, but when it's a twin it's not quite so bad, at least momma has something to do!

Yes, I'm happy with one calf and that mom and a calf are both fine.