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| CornHusker
I feel your pain. In Sept DH went out to check on dairy cows and bring home to milk (we graze our cows) I had just gotten up and he came in and said we have XX amount of cows dead. What a rude awakening.They had been grazing on a piece that they had been on and off of several tiimes this year. BUT becasue we had several inches of rain in several weeks (timely rains or myb untimely whatever the case may be...)it jump started the alfalfa and clovers to grow. Same thing we watch for in the spring with the spring rains and first growth of lush grass. They would have been left on old pasture in the spring untill the grass had a chance to grow and get out of the "lushness" stage. Vet said it was the drought and they had seen all kinds of problems with it. All said and done, we lost 13 dairy cows, varying ages, and 2, 2012 heifer calves. What really sucks is we we seeing our peak for milk production at that time and were "getting on top of things". Not only did we loose the value of the cows but also the value of the milk. a double whammy. We are not young but have only been milking for 3 yrs that we have been able to get the truck out for pickup. Vet said it was something that would have been hard to anticipate or watch for.
Sometimes farming is a bugger. the only thing you can do is swallow hard, grab the boot straps, pull them up and continue on. My DIL says sometimes you pay more in "life tuition" at the school of hard knocks, than at other times. Keep going and don't give up. | |
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Lost 40 head this morning
