# Bad luck in cattle business.



## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

After owning cattle for several yrs I was presented with twin calves. It took a little while for me to get someone to assist me & it turned out the 1st twin was breach. 1st calf was DOA & second calf was barely breathing. It's air passageway was full of mucus. After hanging upside down a short time to aid in fluid drainage it stopped breathing. Oh well if one owns livestock one is going to lose a few but it's always saddening.


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## Ox76 (Oct 22, 2018)

Yep. Damn the bad luck.


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## ozarkian (Dec 11, 2010)

I feel your pain. I lost three during the past fall calving season. I have been working cattle all my life. Your out there in the dark of night, struggling to save a life of the calf and or it's momma. I just never get used to the pain.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

That really sucks. I lost a calf this year as well; umbilical cord was raped around the neck, and I also lost a cow. No one ever said raising cattle would be easy.


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

The last one that I pulled backwards was alive but the the cow turned into a witch, we left the calf in the pen with the cow so she could lick it, in hindsight I wish I would have drug it up in the manger, because I suspect she stepped on it and broke its back leg. We have the back leg splinted and we are feeding the calf with a bottle. Its going to be a long 3 or 4 weeks if we pull this one thru. One person told me if someone tells you they never have any trouble with cattle they are lying to you. Worst case situation dead cow and calf and a vet bill besides and now you have to pay to get rid of the whole mess.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

24 calves so far this year with zero issues, well other than the first one I’m pretty sure momma had him standing up and he landed head first on a rock. Wouldn't suck and would barely stand on his own first 2-3 days and momma lost interest. The wife raised him, he still ain't the brightest peanut in the turd, bordering just on being dumber than a sack of hammers.

Really impressed we had no issues since a third of the herd were first calf heifers.

A few years ago lost a calf and momma, calf was upside down. All the years Dads been around cows never had an upside down calf. Actually had to google it to see what to do. we spent over three hours jacking around and couldn’t get the calfs head out from under her pelvis. By this time was well after dark and finding an actual vet that even works on large animals is harder every week and actually finding one that would come out is near impossible. Only place that really deals with large animals anymore wants you to schedule an upside down calf at least two weeks in advance….

I have a vet that buys at least a hundred rounds a year from me, called him and he said for me he’d come out, but his wife thought she might be going into labor. He said if we wanted we could load her up and bring her there (minimum 45 minute drive) but he couldn’t guarantee as we were pulling in his drive he wouldn’t be leaving for the hospital. So scratch that, and yah they went to the hospital that night and brought a bouncing baby girl home.

So next morning loaded her up and she got turned into hamburger.

Then a few years before that had not one, but two cows prolapse. Was so long since we had one I had to Google it as couldn’t even remember what it was called. One we managed to get loaded and to the local slaughter house, other one had to do it shortly after dark and was dead by morning, her dufus calf was alive until he went under the wire and went head first into a tile hole.

Then of course sooner or later, no matter how many decades you’ve had cattle on the farm and no matter cow proof you think you have things, they find some new way to commit bovine hari cari.


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

The dumb ones seem to happen I think sometimes when it takes to long for them to be born, There head swells up and I think they lacked enough oxygen for a little while.


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

Hanging them upside down is no longer recommended. You want them perched upright, with their back legs on either side of them. This relieves pressure on their diaphragm. CPR can also be performed by cupping their mouth and covering one nostril and breathing in the other nostril - its slimy, but it works (sometimes) As well as trying to perform chest compressions to go along with it. 

I have saved a couple over the yrs doing this.


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## Rrueda (Jan 10, 2019)

Well, sometimes bad luck and good luck are depending on how you take things. I've been where you are right now and most of the times, the cows are not able to properly raise and wean two at a time. The toll is very high on the cow.

On the other hand, if a cow is having twins; it is a red flag in my book. Most often than not, they are inefficient cows from a reproductive standpoint. I would wean the calf and cull the cow from the herd.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

This cow has received a trailer ride to the sale barn


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## Aaroncboo (Sep 21, 2014)

I was always told if you have livestock you have to expect some deadstock. Name of the game. Been fortunate this year with Calves. But I bought seven pigs five of which were just castrated the day before I picked them up and it wasn't two weeks before they all died... the two gilts are doing very good and have a date in November. Bred and raised pigs for 10 years and never had that bad of luck


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Well I was dealt another blow in my small cattle operation. I sent a nice/thick black baldy bull calf to local cattle auction. When my check came I was appalled because the calf weighed 475 & brought $0.55 per #. Granted he had a little too much white on his legs & his coloring resembled a Clydesdale(Budweiser) horse with white going up one hind leg. He was sired by a baldy Sim-Angus bull & out of a polled Hereford cow. I'll bet that the white hair won't affect the taste of the meat when the calf is slaughtered! Cow that lost twin calves weighed 1410 #s & brought $0.59 per #


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## Ox76 (Oct 22, 2018)

I remember back on the farm it cost us more money to ship the bull calves off than what they brought at auction. One step forward and two steps back.


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## Aaroncboo (Sep 21, 2014)

Just goes to show you how little control we have on all the prices... Never liked the auctions... We get told what to pay for inputs then the auction tells you how much it's worth. How many businesses do that? Not many successful ones. I refuse auctions anymore because I've been burned to many times. I'm lucky enough to live in a fairly populated area and can sell straight to the end user. But it comes with downsides (wife had to chase a cow through a gas station this morning) but that's what makes it fun.


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

Like everything some auction companies are better to deal with than others. Sounds like management of the auction looking out for the buyer in this case rather than the seller. Had a auction like that local 40 years ago, three others about a 2 hour haul away. I would guess over half the cattle auctioned from here where not sold here.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Yes I agree. I will not send another head to local barn. I will also tell the local livestock owners my story. I sent a large bull yesterday to a sale barn 30 miles further away.


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