Cows, calves and veterinary

Bloat balloons

When I've created space on the camera, I'll take photos of clover! The little leaves are growing like weeds - well, all weeds seem to be thriving right now, but clover is outcompeting the buttercup and chickweed and thistles and having a good go at taking on the grass.

Edit: There ya go
Interestingly, the leaves in the lower photo have evidently been nibbled by something non-bovine.



I have a very clear answer to the question, 'does bloat oil actually do anything?' Evening milking tonight. On the left side of the fence, we have cows, a few of which show signs of mild bloat. On the right side of the fence we have balloons. Friesian balloon, Jersey balloon, crossbred balloon - take your pick.
Is it time to start panicking?

Apparently not. The balloons were content with the world. I touched a few swollen abdomens as they turned past me in the race (having raced towards the milking herd, they were now coming back to their 'official' paddock) and they were tight as drums.

Since adding bloat oil to the drench, I'd twice in a week had to dump it and start the mix again because it had become too thick to use. Naturally I blamed the bloat oil, even though I've mixed it in the drench in previous years - but not at such high rates. So two days ago a couple of Peta dispensers were delivered, with the added bonus that trough treatment should allow me to cease bringing the dry cows in for drenching every morning and attempting to persuade the five yearlings with the milkers that they really *do* want to lift their heads up for the drench gun.
The dry cows were started on trough treatment immediately; the milkers had another day on full rate bloat oil with the drench before I mixed a new batch.

So this morning, decision-making. They would still get bloat oil in the drench, I decided, firstly because I was still seeing mild bloat even with drenching, secondly because they were not yet accustomed to bloat oil flavoured water and in the time it took for the concentration to come up in the trough and the cows to get used to drinking it, they'd be at risk. So 3 ml a cow times three days in the drench, 5 ml a cow in the trough dispenser for twelve hours.
The paddock they were coming out of looked a little rougher than it ought - bonus, the cows were wellfed, the dry cows are right across the way and I don't think the breaks I set up yesterday were big enough; turf them in here to clean up the clumps and they can go back to their too-small break later. Move the dispenser to the (clean) trough? No, I decided, they'd get the correct rate in their own trough later, they wouldn't be here long.
I could see both herds throughout the day, checking from a distance that they remained comfortable.
When I went to get the dry cows and put them back in their paddock, I found balloons.

I checked them after milking, then a couple of hours later (just now). The bloat has gone down, and I thought that would be it for the night, but 53 who was threatening to calve is now very much underway. Accompanied by grinding teeth (sometimes a sign of milk fever). So another hour or so and it'll be back out to check on her.
The AB calves are finished (the last two were bulls) and there are 46 heifer calves this year - close on 50% of all the AB calves born. We hit a lull about a week ago, corresponding to the time the bull went out. So far I've seen two of his calves, except one of them has horns, and a possible AB sire. Looking at the two calves together, however, I'm convinced they are siblings. Angus bulls that throw calves with horns are usually not pure Angus - and as far as I could tell the bull did look pure.
According to my records, if all the cows that were AB while the bull was running with them held to the AB rather than the bull, then the bull achieved a 33% conception rate to his matings (some of those cows didn't have access to the bull, as I was runing two herds).
Two cows have apparently held to dairy AB from the last few high BW straws, while running with the bull. 53 is one of those.
The next couple of months will tell the full story.

And hopefully I won't be able to find balloons to take photos of. Just clover.

'nother edit: It's not quite a balloon, primarily because there's so little space in a yearling abdomen that the swelling makes a distinct 'hump'. Get a bit of mature body depth and she'll probably start to look like a balloon. This girl has been coming in with bloat every morning, recently. I took this photo just after milking, a couple of hours after letting the yearlings through onto today's paddock. Didn't see any bloat among the cows.

posted by nellta holdings @ 5:01 AM