Lost a calf

[msmith]

Seen mama away from the rest of the cattle so I went and checked on her as I figured she either had a calf or was going to have one. She had it and it was dead. She is a little gimpy so she would have a little trouble running off a coyote or stray dogs. Not sure what got it because she had the mud so trampled all other tracks were destroyed. Not much of an expert, but I would have thought yotes would have the rear end eaten out.

[nastygunz]

As clean as those ribs are almost looks like a cat or a big bird got to it. Vultures?

[msmith]

No vultures. Could be an eagle though, but I haven't seen it around lately.

[Hawks Feather]

That is not a good thing to have happen. Sorry for the loss.

[msmith]

That is not a good thing to have happen. Sorry for the loss.

Thanks. The price of cattle right now, that's $500 down the tube immediately and close to $2k at weaning.

Mounted the thermal/NV to my AR. I'll give it a quick site in tomorrow. Prolly not a yote but calving season is starting and the weather is getting frightful so better safe than sorry. Have never really had too much trouble with critters but EHD and bird flu has taken a toll on some of the food sources. Usually, it's just those black headed buzzards that worry me.

[FinsnFur]

Thats not what we wanna see 
I always thought Birds were the ones that went for the ribs and picked em clean.
My daughter raises beef cattle, I can relate to the loss. She's had a helluva year for for losing calves.So bad that they had some tested for bad soil.

[Okanagan]

Doggone.  That's tough whatever the cause.

When I was a kid we could buy dairy calves for $2-5 a head, and I would bottle raise them or put them on one of our cows, especially if a cow had lost a calf.  Big difference nowadays.  Every calf is a big loss. 

Will add that sometimes we just never know why a calf died.  My favorite cow only had one set of twins, and they were both dead when I found her with them in our pasture in the morning. They were beautiful white faced bulls, valuable calves without a mark on them to indicate why they died.  I should have brought the cow into the barn the night before, like my dad recommended.  It was a warm night in late spring and besides being lazy I figured the open pasture was a more hygienic place to drop a calf than our barn where calves with scours had died.

I recall every bit of that morning strongly, because it was the day I saw John F. Kennedy in person.  My girlfriend, Mom, sister and I got there early and were near the front row, 20 feet or less from Kennedy.  I was looking at him with binoculars and when his eyes met mine through the glass, the former Navy officer chuckled to see a kid using 7x50 binoculars at 20 feet.

And that was the day I lost my best calves. 

My condolences to you.  Hope you find out how the calf died, to help in the future, and I hope you can nail a coyote or a few whether they killed the calf or not.

[msmith]

Thats not what we wanna see 
I always thought Birds were the ones that went for the ribs and picked em clean.
My daughter raises beef cattle, I can relate to the loss. She's had a helluva year for for losing calves.So bad that they had some tested for bad soil.

Could have been an eagle. I think there is a nest close by.

A couple of years ago we had a bovine pandemic of talaria. Kinda like covid that most survived but underlying conditions would exacerbate it and they would die. Things like the stress of a twisted leg or nursing a calf. Some farms lost 20% of their herd.

[nastygunz]

With the high cost of beef this thread made me wonder if cattle rustling was still a thing-

[FinsnFur]

With the high cost of beef this thread made me wonder if cattle rustling was still a thing-

Yep, we have a guy at work wearing a nice blinking ankle bracelet for stealing cattle. Not his first time getting busted for it either.

[Hawks Feather]

With the high cost of beef this thread made me wonder if cattle rustling was still a thing-

Yep, we have a guy at work wearing a nice blinking ankle bracelet for stealing cattle. Not his first time getting busted for it either.

You know if they still allowed hanging for cattle thieves it would have only happened once!