Today was another bad day in a bad calving year. This afternoon I found another dead newborn calf. I don't know why it died. Perhaps it was a stillbirth. The temperature this afternoon was in the mid-50s on a sunny/cloudy day. It was a nice looking heifer calf; a decent sized calf as it was heavy to pull out to the pasture to be recycled by Mother Nature.
Between the previous calf losses, the twin calves, several cows tearing out their ear tags, I got confused. Since we are now in the third heat cycle for the cow's breeding period from last year, I thought all the cows had calved and that I only had the 3 late cows left to calf, not four cows. I thought this cow had lost her calf earlier this year. So I was surprised to find the cow and her dead calf in my loafing shed this afternoon.
Out of 15 cows to give birth I lost 3 calves this year. It has been a rough calving season.
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