One of our herd cows had been trying to have her calf for close to an hour, so we decided to get her up to the barn and into the calving pen so we could help her out.
I remember doing that 50 yrs ago. Used a bumper jack,no gloves. I remember the weight and mass of the membranes and fluids were just about close to the calf's. That kinda grosses you out when yer that young, but watching him struggle up and get ahold that nipple and get to work pulling on it.We were so glad, the mess meant nothing.
Definitely different than I remember in the 70's on Wayside Farms in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. My grandfather was Milo Wolrab. I've pulled a few myself without the winch. Tied up with just a halter to a fence post in the pasture, no gloves, chain on the front legs before we pulled, and lots of swinging the calf after getting him/her out to get the fluid out of the lungs. Failing to get the fluid out killed more calves than I'd like to remember - mechanical pneumonia sets in pretty quickly especially in hot, humid Iowa summers.
Thank you for the video, I lost a calf and cow yesterday because I didn't have the correct set up and knowledge to perform this. I regret not seeking out this video earlier. Thank you,
I just found your channel and really enjoyed this video of the calf being born. Hope that doesn't happen too often as it looks like a lot of hard work for both you and the cow.
Muchas Gracias por compartir vuestra experiencia. Muy útil video. Saludos desde Argentina. Thank you very much for sharing your experience. Very useful video. Greetings from Argentina
Very interesting for a city kid to see how you do this; thanks for posting it. The other cow--I assume she's there to keep the mother calm? Do you have certain cows that you use for this because they're calmer than others, or do you just bring in whichever is nearby?
Good question. The other cow is actually in there because she had calved recently and she is in the loafing area with her calf. It just happens to be adjacent to where the calving pen is. But it does help when other cows are around to keep the one being tended to calm.
Better than how I do it. I put a ratchet strap on the chain, ratchet the excess and then start walking up the ratchet strap until the calf comes out. I’m not a big fan of pulling calves, but it’s one of the necessary things of running cows.
The momma looked like a cranky one at first. Those were always the hardest deliveries when they wouldn’t work with you. Looks like this one had a happy ending.
Seemed like a fairly easy pull. Perhaps it happened off camera but i would always put a hand back in just in case there,s a second one lurking in there made that mistake only last week lost half a set of twins when i handled the cow it presented perfectly fore legs and head none of the signs of twins to many fore legs or a combination of fore and hinds that would only be possible if the calf was a contortionist but two hours later two more lega appeared. Wont make that mistake again.
Great video. Enjoy the content as always and I guess I'll go ahead and shoot my shot. Wouldn't mind if you use my name (Andy) and think it would be hilarious if you used my wife's first and middle Ashley Kate. In the south they do the double names haha. Plus there are a lot of Ashleys out there. Either way no big deal if you don't use them but I got a few months till I name a new calf at my place. Looking forward to having a couple new calves of my own.
Beautiful. How often do you have to assist in the births? That contraption seems like it does most of the work, but I’m sure Brian would say otherwise.
My dad and me, 15 yrs old don't use gloves when pulling a calf or reaching in to grab the legs. All you got to do after is spray your hands off with some h20 even though gloves would be nice sometimes haha
Not really fast in considering that she was trying for over an hour to push...and that's probably just the time they knew she had been trying)..gotta go or you are going to be delivering a stillborn calf!
I didn't have a clue that this sort of thing took place in cow-ville. AMAZING!!!! I'm guessing that I'm not ready for raising cows. I do want cows, but I don't feel I know enough to do this. Is there a established system where by I can get my cows raised by someone else but still have a active hand in it???
There are places out there that feed and calve out your cows for you for sure. But if you want cows as pets you don't have to breed them, then you wouldn't have to worry about calving.
Yes, my dad did. About 4 years ago a tornado took down most of our buildings and grain bins and we basically got to start over from scratch. That is why we have such a nice facility
Since we sell bulls, we need to know which ones were difficult to calves so we don't sell that one, otherwise our customers could have trouble with that one
How did you know to intervene? I work for a farmer and we do the manual chain pull often.. but I don't know if we should... Please tell me how you know. ( I don't want to seem disruptive , lazy , or difficult to the Boss.) Thank you in advance.
Based on time and cow effort. If she has been calving for over 45 minutes it is getting close to time to intervene. If she does not settle down or is not putting in effort to push, then you may as well get in there and do something
If we wait too long it is possible of the cord to break, and then the calf would suffocate. This girl was taking too long, so we went in to help. We would rather help to early, instead of too late and risk a dead calf.
Is it because of modern breeding that calves are bigger than they used to be. I never previously heard of a mechanical calf puller, just that occasionally - years ago, human manual intervention was needed, usually if the calf was in the wrong position, not due to size. Was around farm animalsall my younger life. Kind of the same with humans. Sometimes the babies are now just too big to come out unassisted.
We specialize in calving ease. Nobody breeds for big calves normally, it is just makes calving hard. We especially breed for small calves, it just happens from time to time.
@@SonneFarms When I was a kid from age 11 I was kind of put in charge of keeping watch on the cattle sheep and horses housed in the fields around my home. Owned by someone who lived a mile away. Iwould check the fields a couple of times a day and phone if there were any problems - such as new born lambs that had been stillborn or one time 2 sheep managed to tip a trough over on themselves killing both. Proudest moment was age 13/14 when I single handedly assisted a prizewinning trotting mare to foal. I was entrusted to keep an eye on her as they knew she was due. I spotted her lying downn, phoned the owner, but by the time he arrived with a vet they just watched as I comforted her encouraged her, cleaned off the lovely foal's nostrils, massaged him and got him to his feet and was suckling within 20 mins. No intervention needed. I had been this mare's sole companion for a couple of months as she has been housed in an isolated barn for her own protection, with nothing but 1 guy who would check on her for 10 mins, ensure she had hay and the trough was working. I spent several hours a day sat on the barn gate with my arm around her neck talking to her. Hence she trusted and accepted me me. Would not have dared try this with a random unknown animal.
That was quite a while ago, I don't remember what the calf was. If it was a bull it will get sold as a herd sire to a local producer. If it is a heifer it will probably be kept in the herd as a replacement heifer.
Yall did not let her push when pulling yall just went to town give the cow a lil long she would of had it just fine yall need to have a lil more patience
That's a calf jack. At my farm we never use this. Can hurt the calf and more importantly the cow. When we pull calf's from cows we use baler twine. We tie the two ends off in loops in-between the knuckles and the claw. It makes a loop you can stand in and lean back into so we ease the calf out. When she pushes we pull. Back and forth like that until the calf comes. Nice and easy. All by hand, no instruments.
She was taking too long. The cow will continue to get tired and won't be able to push anymore. Also it is possible that the calf is backwards or in a bad position so we need to make sure that it is coming out okay if it is taking too long
The cow was not settling down nor working at it in the normal pace. When i checked the calf I could tell it was larger than I was comfortable with and its tongue was starting to swell. I have waited too long before and lost a calf. I would rather go too soon rather than lose a calf. I cant think of anything on the farm that eats me up morethan losing a calf. Thanks for the question.
Brian Sonne so right Brian that happened to me, I got back from being out with another emergency, too late to find a first calver in real trouble, immediately jumped into action to help her but the suction was the main culprit plus the calf was way too big. Hence the calf was already dead. Beautiful Mickey but what a sad thing to go through.
We are very wet and it looks like planting will be a little delayed. In many places the water is running over the road but we have little compared to Nebraska.
@@cindybates2599 Do y'all even watch the video with the sound on? Hooooly g'day, some of the comments on here show you people have never done any work with animals and think everything in nature just works out fine 100 percent of the time. Educate yourself, get experience with it, or don't comment on things you know nothing about.
