heifers

I believe I mentioned on here that the neighbor had 10 heifers get out and they were wilder than stampeding buffalo. Well they got all of them except two and one of those showed up in the pasture with our heifers. She had that crazy eye look so we just left her alone for a week and she acted like she was starting to calm down. Anywho, today the neighbor decided it was time to get her back home. Jeff parked enough trucks and machinery between the pasture gate and the barn door to pretty much make an ally into the barn. The minute he walked out into the pasture that fool gets that crazy eyed look again and it required some VERY careful handling of the heifers to get her to simply walk into the barn with our heifers. It was very touch and go. After she was in the barn and sealed off from the outside. She was still very difficult to do anything with. She finally crowed in between the cows and she got a small dose of Rompom (sp?) to calm her down before she hurt someone or smashed something. That calmed her down enough to get a halter on her and get her safely into the cattle trailer without hurting herself or one of us. Obviously these heifers get very little personal attention. I have heard that vets absolutely hate working with cows in these big automated operations because it is like working with wild animals. There is a hoof trimmer working in this area that has Jeff help him with a local hoof trimming job because the cows are very difficult to handle in exchange for doing Jeff's herd. So I can believe the vets having problems with some herds.

And the neighbor still has one heifer running around that they haven't caught yet. Haven't seen it for a week or so, for that matter.

When I was milking I was told not to worry about temperament but worry about milk production. When I switched to that breeder I could milk a fresh heifer in the box stall with out tying her up . 2 years later the heifers from the other breeder started to freshen it was a whole different ball game. I eventually switched back and sold a lot of heifers . It's sad in this day and age with hired help a higher priority is placed on production but it seems to me I got as much milk out of quiet herd plus I didn't get kicked either.
I often wonder with the rations that are fed to the cattle might also get them stirred up.

If she were mine once I got her on the stock trailer she'd of went to a sale barn,some animals are just natural born wild/crazy.

We have a small dairy and installed a robot milker a few years ago. One thing we did notice was that without hands on handling anymore when you do have to catch an animal to treat/ai/preg check they can be nuts,

I am a Genex technician. I usually work in Oneida, Herkimer and Otsego Counties, but sometimes I come up your way to help out. I may be up there Aug. 25th. I have been in several large free stalls, including one with robots. The cows on some of these farms, including the one with robots, are as calm and gentle as a small farm. There are other places where as soon as anyone walks into a group, the cows are all on their feet, their eyes bugged out, their ears back and they are GONE. It all depends on how much human contact the cows have and how they are treated by those humans.

That is true for sure. They are calm as kittens to walk around and work with but its when you have to catch them they don't like it,we even had one get cross and attack an employee last winter.

This particular cow would never pay any attention to me day in day out but soon as anyone unfamiliar cam in the barn she would srand in front of them staring at them and not move,we have casual relief help and this one evening she snuck up behind him and flung him over the feed rail

Man there is nothing like getting kicked by a cow! Can knock you right across the isle of the barn. Man does that ever hurt!

Bob, Have you ever stopped at this farm in Worcester?

Or the freezer for sure.

magnesium is calming

I agree that once she was on the trailer a trip to the sale barn would be 1st on the list. She could either go to the feed lot of straight to the killer,

Sometimes you just don't know what gets them spooky. Year before last I had a group of fall calves that were holy terrors. Every one of them would either run over you or over the fence. They were out of the same bulls and cows from the year before and after and those calves were fine. I suspect that a big cat had been on the prowl that winter.

Maybe this is a dumb question, but, How can you milk a Heifer?

You milk a heifer after she drops her calf. She's then called a first-calf heifer.

Remember testing milk at one place before I went I was warned not to talk in the barn. Turns out that the guy used to beat the daylights out of both the cows and her she got fed up and kicked him out but if that herd ever heard a man's voice they would go nuts.
Also milked for a guy had 4 can't kicks and three milkers I could milk the whole herd and never use one.

my cattle are fine with tall kid or me but let someone strange come around they are eyes and ears until they see what is happening with the strangers.
when see nothing to be concerned about they are okay.

(quoted from post at 19:20:42 08/02/16) You milk a heifer after she drops her calf. She's then called a first-calf heifer.

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The cattlemen term is Heiferette, takes 3 calves to be a cow

I worked around Schenevus, Worchester, East Worchester and Decatur as the regular relief technician from late October 1985 until early August 1988 and again from January to July in 2009. I have probably been to that farm, but can't place it from the picture. Is it next to I-88 out of East Worchester? Give some hints.

There was a cow at a farm near Springfield Center that attacked my former partner 3 times. She wouldn't even bother to get up when I was there.

Wow yes they certainly know who they don't like

he means after she had her 1st5 calf,,.,. gotta tell yo u, a group of crazy heifers are as bad15 yr old daugh5ers on a rant ,,.. bulls and stters can be worse , but the likelihood in my opinion is lower ,,,. it does no good to keep a wild one in the herd ,,. they just stir up the rest of them ,.I bought a horse one time that would not take stud , this was about 1994,. the kids wanted her and I got her for 200 bux , nice looking 6 yr old palomino that was gentle and nice and easy for all of us to ride ,, but when she cycled ,, good lord ,,. it was like Jekyl and HYDE,,we would take her over to another good stud horse,, she kikt 5the trailer all the way ,.. he kept her for 75 daysand still she did not take ,,. we realized that when we brought her home gentle as a lamb , then 2 weeks later she gotin with thecowsand was racing them east to west back and foryth in the cow pasture , til everyone broke thru a 3 wire 1 hot barbed wire fence ,, what a mess ,, thank god it was December and all the crops were off , caught the horse abdstuk hewr in the barn and took her to the salebarn , went out with a loader full of groud feed and the cows followed me in like was the pied piper,. abou 5 yrs ago I bought a brahma/brangus semintal Heinz 57 mix ,the guy was selling the entire herd and she had to go with the group of 8 ,,big horss , wild eyed but she loaded good and was not flighty til she got home and the bullm decided he wanted some of that ,.. mbullHORACE was tame ,,. but she made the ornery come out in him ,, she raced around the fences and he was in pursuit ,, kinda reminded me of john wayne chasing after Maureen o hara on mclintock ,, never made contact the whole day that I couldtell ,, next day the circus continued with Horace belrering biching her constantly and thecentire herd doing the walhk around , it was nutz,, but apparently he got her cause I got a calf the next spring ,..and that durn heifer lookt a carbon copyof her momma complete with horns , but boy did that gal grow because thwee HEMOM+NIE ( That's what I named that battlax) had good plenty of milk and she allowed other calves to nurse too ,. not a bad thing if you gota slow calf on a very old cow ,, so I kept theHEMONIE and ll settled fairly well , except hemonie 2 seemed to be fence trynwhen she reached 600 lbs ihad enuf ,, that heafer truly was atrouble maker , and she already had 10 inch sharp horns , went to load her and about 6 others in the trailer ,, all others went in but her , thjis was our 3rd zattempt over 2 monthes of previous sales thay I wanted to include her in , each time she found a way out that we all thought was incredible ,, there was no way she was getting out now ,,I hadeverthing repaired andbeefed up ,,. that heafer come at me with my back turned wanting to get me in the back with her horns, my B-I-L seen her chargin and hollered to warn me , I whirled around as I climbred the wall and she got me on the inside of my legg ,, I was certain she tore my skin ,,. but no , after pulling off coveralls jeans and sweats ,, it was a cold day thank god ,, I just had a ftlong red streak heading upto you know where ,,. OHHHU Boy!!!. That wouldahurt ,, LoL ,, funny thing is my nephew threw some feed into the captured calves in the front portion of the trailer and befolre he could put thebuketin the back half that crazy hemonie was up theretrying in the trailer trying to steal from the front half , heslammed the door and athe hemonie went don the road ,m, itold the auction house to sell her seperateand aloner ,, and ididjust as goodin sle price as I didthe others ,,ifeel sorry for whoever got her ,.HEMONIE CONTIUED for 3 more calves ,, each one was ornery , as all the others , and now she had become herd boss ,,and her bad habits were being takin up by rthe rest of the herd ,when I sold her it tokk 2 attempts , she jumped over a grader blade with scarifyer spikes , andgot hung ,,I herd a rib or 2 snap and she was a bellering her trademarkloud beller , blood was gushing outwhere she had impaled herself,,.with lift down she stayed afoot and wigglherself free and went don to the pondand stood in the water that was nearly over her back ,, meanwhile iwas calling everyone for I feared we were gonna havew to have a butchering party in 90 degree heat ,after 10 minuts my n miniature jack russel named PUPPIE tookinterest in the HEMonie, and started barking vicouslyat the cow to make her leave the pond and get on the bank in about 5 minutes she wasanoyedenuf by PUPPIE and shecome out ,, ( SHE HATED THAT LITTLE PUPPIE when she would get ,,out PUPPIEW WAS ALWAYS a tatle tail and we be on her,,. LOL well she stood on that bank and PUPPIE was QUIET nd watchful like
Lassie would be, she huffed , and coughed and belched and blowed and farted for 10 minutes blowing out water and blood ,,by that timemnmy butcher team showed up ,,.andwe reasoned it best to try to walk her up to the head gate and load her up with 60 ccs of pennicillan , which we did ,easily with PUPPIES gentle urging ,, she was a GOOD Dog ,,. it was too hot tobutcher,. I kept her up for a few daysgave her sweet feed ,, one morning I went out to gicver her the rest of the sweet feed and the metal pipe gate that held her in was turned into a pretzel ,,.Well I Guess sheis Gonna be alright ,,. the nite before I had tried to get her in the headgate for another 40 ccsof penncillan and other goodies I got to ward off infection ,,it di not go wellandifigured best laeve her alone and try in the morning ,,that HEMONIE knew it too ,that's why she broke out ,,.in a month we loade up a very ealthy robust Hemonie that sjhoed no signsof injury,, and that battleax tried to run me down twice in the barn , so I got out of there and waited til she tookthe aweet feed bait we put in the trailer ,, that took ahour ,.and I imply went on and tinkered wi,. my hundreds of thinges to do projects , and slammed the doorwhen I sneaked up behind her

rite now mineral helps too ,.. and started using liquid Mineral Solutions on my Hay and Pastures and soybeans too ,,, no more dry fertilizer for my cows ,, no more pink eye , less flies , I dunno Why ???,, no more milk fever or oversized nipples , no more underweight troubled calves that require jump start medicine for a week or more ,, and rarely do I loose a calve .best thing i ever done for my cows,,.

Bob, The farm is on CTY RT 36 heading toward Westford. Pete has a couple Brown Swiss and the rest are Holsteins. Up the road from me is Don Evans with a small herd of Jerseys and where I milk once an awhile was the Taylor farm near Westford. I thought I might of met you at Pete's as he buys semen. Pic is the Taylor Maple farm.

Now I recognize it. Robin's father was the technician in the area for years. He retired about 1991 I think.

I bred cows for Don in '09 and heifers for his grandfather back in the '80s. I know where the Taylor farm is. Don't think I ever bred anything there.

We never called them that here in East Texas. I thought that I had missed something. Now, I will tell you something interesting. Me and Wife are parents of an adopted son. He is now 19 years old. We got him fresh out of his biological mother. I tell you an adopted woman can absolutely nurse an adopted son, without ever being pregnant herself. There is a group of women that come around the hospitals and help women with this. Pretty simple, It may even work on cows with the proper motivation.