The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Cattle => Topic started by: Roxy on July 25, 2011, 12:23:28 am
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One of the two remaining cows from the TB problem we had, calved at 2am yesterday morning .....she is 20!! I am pretty sure she has calved every year, so this will be her 18th calf. Molly is a black and white hereford, and the farmers childrens pet as they grew up. They are now adults with families of their own, but still hold a soft spot for the old cow, and she will let you go in the field and hug her, still. How strange that the old girl was resilient to the TB. She always had a bull calf one year, then a heifer, so has a heifer this year by a Simmental.
I said to the farmer, thats it, no more calves? He laughed and said, he would see if she came in bulling ;D
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bless her, thats a grand age!
wonder what the oldest cow to successfully calve is?
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oh bless :wave:
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Well done, old girl :)
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Thats great, never thought how long cows live, I can see she is a major part of the family and she well deserves to be.
:cow:
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That's so nice. Warmed my heart so it did, reading that. :cow:
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Black and White Hereford???? I think you mean Black Baldy (Hereford x Angus.) Amazing though that a cow of 20 calved her udder must be HUGE!
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Well done that cow, she sounds wonderful :)
bless her, thats a grand age!
wonder what the oldest cow to successfully calve is?
Thought you might like this
From "The Book Of The Jersey", 1947, by L. Gordon Tubbs:
"Eminence 7124" bred and milked well after she had passed her 20th birthday (Isle of Jersey).
Similarly the English cow "Broom", calved 17 times in 17 years and lived to be 21.
Mr E. J. Boston's herd sire was still active at 15 years of age, his dam being slaughtered at 23 years old.
Until 1932 the world's record for Jersey longevity was held by an American cow called "Financial King's Interest", who died at 24 years 7 months, having produced 20 heifer calves and 1 bull calf (authenticated by AJCA).
In 1932 this record was broken by "Merry Maiden's Brown Lady" of Iowa who complete a record of 6507 lbs of milk at 26 years of age, and is said to have secured the additional distinction of being the oldest cow of any breed to have finished an official record.
A grade Jersey in New Zealand named "Grannie" produced 22 calves, and gave 50 lbs of milk at 25 years old; at this age it is reported that "she was sound in all her quarters, but without a tooth in her head."
In British Colombia there is reported to have been a Jersey who had had 27 calves and gave birth to her 28th in June, 1930, at 30 years of age.
A Jersey in Gloucestershire lived to be 27 and bred regularly every year up to 25.
From Tasmania comes the report of a Jersey cow 30 years of age and the dam of 27 calves, her first at 18 months of age.
It can be truthfully said that the average Jersey is not really in her prime until her 5th or possibly her 6th lactation, in spite of the fact that she produces her first calf at 2.
There are numerous cases on record of bulls . . . .
"General Cowslip" lived to the age of 17-1/2, and the well-known bull "Eminent", who died in 1916, was 19-1/2 years of age.
"Goldfinder" died in Australia at age 19.
"Mourier King" lived on the Isle until nearly 20 years of age and was used almost up until his death.
The famous American bull "Pedro" is reported to have sired calves when he was over 20 years old.
A record for regular breeding was put up by a Jersey in Texas who produced, and reared, 14 calves in 7 years, having had 7 pairs of twins, all heifers except the first pair.
In February 1935 the "Jersey Bulletin" reported the case of a Jersey cow who gave birth to quintuplets, all of whom survived.
There is a peculiar case on record of a Jersey cow who was in-milk for 17 years, giving 2-3 gallons a day, without having had a calf during that period; as the owner was under the impression that she woudn't breed, she was never sent to the bull.
All the best
Sue
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Thank you darkbrowneggs - thats very interesting!!
Bioman - we have red and white herefords and black and white herefords round here - not many nowadays admittedly, but thats what everyone calls them!!
Will try and find a pic on my computer of the old lady with one of her calves from a couple of years ago.
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Black and White Hereford???? I think you mean Black Baldy (Hereford x Angus.)
Pretty much anything black or black-and-white crossed with a Hereford will give a 'black-and-white Hereford' : the white face is a dominant gene and appears on all first generation offspring.
In these parts there are plenty of 'black-and-white Herefords' - there are 11 on this farm! plus 3 red-and-white ones - and they are almost without exception the result of a Hereford bull on a dairy cow, usually a Friesian / Holstein. The dairy farmers like the Hereford on their heifers as he gives an easy calving for her first time, and the calves are easy to sell; the heifers being popular as suckler cows and the bullocks easy to rear and sell for store or fat.
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Aah I understand. Down here they are referred to as Black Baldy or Hereford X
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ah, bless her 20 and still going strong :cow: :cow:
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I bought some hay from the cows owner, and went over to the field to say hello to the two cows who lived with us during the summer for many years - it was lovely to see them again, and to see the calf too.
Took some pics, but I do find it hard to upload them on here, as they have to be reduced in size, and turn out diddy (yet most other forums, I can put pics on no bother, so not sure why I struggle on here.
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Went over to collect some hay, and took my camera.
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y218/dollylane/017-1.jpg)
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Love it :cow:
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:cow: :thumbsup:
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Love the pic, congratulations to all concerned....Anne. :cow: :cow: :wave:
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Gosh!!! WELL DONE!!!! For a twenty year old who's just calved she looks in really good nick so - double well done :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Wow - she looks in incredibly good nick. Look at her udder too - looks like a youngster.
The Hereford x Friesian was the backbone of the suckler cow herd before dairy got so intensive and the Friesian morphed into the coatrack known as the Holstein.
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Wow - she looks in incredibly good nick. Look at her udder too - looks like a youngster.
The Hereford x Friesian was the backbone of the suckler cow herd before dairy got so intensive and the Friesian morphed into the coatrack known as the Holstein.
Agree totally. The Hereford x Friesian still makes up a significant proportion of our suckler herd; you can usually tell the Holsteiny ones (narrow backends) and avoid them.
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the hereford x friesian was instigated by the sac and other college
s to boost the income of the dairy farmer at that time there were pure friesian beef fattening units the use of the heifer calves supported by the colleges as the future suckler cow was over rated they claimed the milk production of these crosses was better than all other crosses (latter refuted by experiments done on milking all types of suckler cow)
with the dairy farmers ever increasing aim of maximum production the Holstein was introduced (longer legs to allow for a bigger vessel with the production of milk instead of flesh)
the only reason the hereford x friesian gained the popularity it had was the massive push the colleges exerted on the farming comunity
i was never a fan of this suckler cow preferring hereford Angus simmental and Charolais latterly running 7/8 and 15/16 simmentals with better returns than anything with friesian in it :farmer:
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It may not have been the BEST suckler cow, but it seemed to do OK and it allowed an integration of the different sectors of cattle farming that is now sadly lacking.
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there never has been any integration of the farming sectors the only time that this occurred was when the old farmers had mixed units the government interfeared and was the start of specialized farming that has buggered the whole thing up
i have seen the transformation from mixed family farms to the ever increasing clamour for bigger units with the economy of scale trotted out as the driving force behind it
the old system of dairying you have to have a calf to produce milk these calves were either reared to be replacements or slaughtered or sold for beef production the hereford x friesian introduction saw the herefords reach the dizzy heights that they can only dream of now on the back of some other sector of farming that will support the poor dairy farmer to give them the huge returns that they had become accustomed to
where do you think the huge sums of money came from to build cubicle houses slurry stores and grain towers that dominated the dairy farms and not forgetting huge EU grants that was thrown at them the same greeting faces were not long in shutting up when quotas came in (they claimed restrictive practise ) until they realized there quota was worth money and so the money generator keeps on going
a lot of the dairy farmers that have given up now have cattle fattening enterprizes same with a throughput of 2000 cattle a year yes they have to buy the beast from a farmer have any of you seen the latest prices for finished cattle and that is with the suppermarkets buying the bulk of it :farmer:
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The old girl has had a beautiful calf bless her!!
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The old girl has outlived some of her daughters and granddaughters, bless her!! We cannot understand why she did not catch the TB .....she had been on the land a lot longer than some of those that caught it.
I don't think she has got many teeth left to be honest. She does go a bit poor in winter, but picks up again come Spring and the new grass. Every year I take a pic of her and her latest calf, and think that will be the last one!! Last calf and last pic I mean ....she cannot go on forever.