Well Wayne, you may want to put a couple sticks on the fire and get a warm jacket ready.
I figured my report merited some pics. It only hit minus 34 here last night, but it’s getting windy, and snow is to come starting tonight, which is interesting, usually the weather warms when it snows. Good time to be at home with a wood stove, I wouldn’t be surprised if power goes out in some places, and the folks will have a chance to reflect on how natural gas doesn’t work without electricity, double dependent. A house would cool off fast in this.
JO, geese were always here in the winter. Garry gave the right answer. This is a new guy, the egret. Saw him for the first time 10/15 years ago. Now there are a lot of them. beautiful.
The are in a small and bigger version.
Not real Garry, temps like that.
The Atmos is going strong here. 22C/72 F 24/7 inside. Outside is -5C during the day and -10 at night. Only a sunday workout is enough to keep us warm al week.
Joep, from what I understand the Egret is a form of Heron. We have plenty of the gray ones up here during breeding season, but I don’t recall seeing the white ones.
It was suddebly only -8C and sunny here today. My boiler is getting a rest. Feels like spring is about to arrive. I had to remove hat and gloves not to get too hot
Firewood prep, milling and chunking season getting closer. Really looking forward to it.
Yes, it is a white or silver heron. The blue or grey heron is very comon here too. The white since 10-15 years now. Never saw it in my life before that. And I am not 18 anymore. I am from the last century
Sounds like when the turkey vultures first appeared in this province. Before the early 1980s they had never been here. Now they go quite a ways into the north. Odd to see a Mexican bird in the boreal forest.
I guess the artic air that sits on the top of the ball at the north pole, slipped off the top of the ball and down towards Canada and the US. I guess that means it came up from Europe on the other side. Lucky you. They “promised” us zero weather for at least the next two weeks. TomC
I’ve got a question for you cattle farmers.
I was helping a friend of mine fix his tractor and he told me that he had a (Dexter) 6 month old calf (Heifer) that had a hurt leg. It had cut of the circulation to one of its back legs at the knee for about 12 hours ( it got hung in between two boards on a pallet ). The calf wouldn’t stand up he had fed it with a bottle for a few times. but it seemed to be getting weaker. he gave it to me to butcher because he didn’t want to just burry it and he did not have the time to mess with it.
When I got her out of the back of dads truck she didn’t put up any fight. I went in and got some warm water in a drink bottle that you can squirt in and gave her about a quart of water. after that I was trying to move her and she stood up and last i knew she was standing eating hay. she still favors the leg and has a hard time standing but once she is up she seems to do alright.
My question is how much should a 6 month old 130-180 lb calf drink in a day? Ive got a few gallons of milk I’m going to try to feed her a bottle full in a little bit. How much does she need to drink?
If her leg heals up I’m of a mind to keep her if I can get her to walk and keep moving and she will start drinking.
A wag on my part would be 4 gallons of water twice a day. When I was a kid we would pull the calves at birth. We would give them milk or milk replacer about a gallon twice a day until they got to eating grain. Then we would put then on grain hay and water.
If I was in your situation I would give her milk replacer you can buy a bag pretty cheap at tractor supply until the bag was used up it won’t hurt older calves. But only about half a gallon twice a day would be plenty if she is eating good hay. Once the milk has been drank offer her all the water she will drink twice a day. Honestly if she eats hay well at 6 months I would probably just buy a bag of calf starter grain. It is a mix or grains with molasses I think to make it sweeter. Molasses would probably do her as much good getting her strength back as milk. But you will have to watch her leg for signs of gangrene there is a good chance she will stand on a bad leg and get an infection. The best thing to do would be to monitor her temperature. Honestly I would probably never try to breed her as an adult assuming she recovers. I have seen too many weaker heifers that shouldn’t have been breed get in trouble. My guess is you have even odds of nursing her back to health so long as you can get her to get up and walk 20 minutes a couple times a day. She could be standing out of panic of being somewhere different right now there really isn’t much way to tell. But if you choose to butcher her definitely check her temperature first.
The reason for grain or milk at this point is to bost her strength. Hay alone would work for a healthy calf 6 months old they will just grow slower.
Oh a pint of grain twice a day would be plenty if you go that route
Thanks Dan.
She is still standing I just went out and checked on her. I don’t think it is panic she seems pretty comfortable but she keeps shifting her weight on her back legs. Is that a good or bad sign?
I gave her a handful of sweet feed that had a little extra corn mixed in (what we feed our horse) and she ate about a pint and went back to the hay.
she is still standing but not walking much. I’ll get her a bigger pen and see if she walks more.
What temp should a cow be? Similar to humans I would suspect.
What kind of thermometer do you use?
I tried the bottle and mom tried it to but she didn’t like it. She wanted the hay.
If she is staying up when you are not there the odds are good it isn’t that she is panicking.
The favoring of the leg wouldn’t worry me too much. Cows run a little hotter then people 98 to 102 is considered normal. You can use one for checking a humans temp.
The sweet feed for the horse and the hay will definitely meet her needs probably make you her best friend as horses get really good quality feed compared to cows.
I would stick to those and all the water she will drink twice a day. Sounds to me like she is on the right track to recover. So long as she is getting up and there is no sign of infection she will probably get better. If there are any cuts on her leg clean then with soap and water then use bag balm it is the best for sticking on animals and keeping cuts disinfected.
But in general a cow that is eating doesn’t have a temperature that is a very good sign with cows. When they dont come for food be worried because even over fed cows will come when they smell fresh food.
I just checked on her again. She is laying (like most cows do not sprawled out on her side)
down she drank about a gallon and one half of water she won’t have anything to do with the bottle/ milk. Thanks for all the help.
For any cuts and infections ask Luke for a bit of propolis and disolve it in at least 70% alcohol. Make a strong solution and apply several layrs on wounds both human or animal. Its amazing stuff. It forms a antibiotic chrust over the wound.
I have had roosters peal the skin off entire necks of hens and l saved them all with just a few drops of the stuff
It never cut the skin all internal. Yeah K it works wonders.
I haven’t checked this morning yet but it never got that cold last night so she should be alright.
I just was out there she still isn’t drinking a whole lot but she was up, and she was laying down last night so she had to have gotten up on her own. she still won’t touch the milk even in a bucket.
