Strange Cattle Deaths

[kfacres]

We bought a pull behind bale feeder several years ago... never had something kill so many cows!  cows would eat the underside, and bale would fall on top... crushing, and sufficating her beneath...  We then converted the feeder into a silage feeder...

I think they have modified those old hay wagons since, because several producers in the area had the same problems.. 

 

[beattieclubcalves]

use to work for lundy hay farms had the best lab you could ever want except if you left your pop sittin somewhere in the shop he owuld steal it to chew on... one day we were stacking bales (big square bales) and the whole pile fell over and of course he had to be under it it kelled him instantly.. but this dog also 6 months earlier lived thru my boss drivin the bale fork completely thru him bout at the stomach completely thru we pulled him off rushed him to the vet he lived til he met his match with a stack of 4 bales!

had a holstein steer we bought one day at the sale barn for a bottle calf was prob weighin 800 pounds when this incident happened had him out in the calfin pasture had a calf hut in the field and the back tin was startin to come off at the back cover somehow he got his hea in there panicked and flipped it and snappe his neck i was there feedin when it happened was in complete shock and couldnt get it off his head we had to shoot him


had a nice blue roan steer this year was always a pain in the rear for us fence was not bad he would somehow find his way thru it in to the bean field got him pot bellied than one day he figured he would get out by the road and one of the grain trucks headin to the ethanol plany plowed him at least the semi driver was nice enough to call

 

[wfq]

Four or five years ago we bought a yearling Angus bull that I had near the house with a couple of cows I had around for some reason or another.  One morning I found the bull had hung himself in the fork of a tree.  I guess he must have been trying to breed one of the cows and got stuck in the tree.  Really sad way to lose a good bull.

 

[forbes family farms]

Ever hear the old saying if you don't have anything you won't lose anything. Anyway i have lots of weird lifestock death at are family farm. We have a creek in our pasture and because of all the rain this year it was really deep and the cow decided to go through the deepest part of the creek and she was there over night, we didn't know about it until my dad took the four wheeler out to check the cows and here we see a cow stuck in the ditch we got her out but she had phemoyna she lived but we sold her the next day at the sale barn. We brought a three year old horse at the sale barn he was really skinny we got him healthy we had him only 18 months and one morning he fell over dead don't know why. We had a nice heifer that we were going to keep for a cow she always was into something my dad goes out to feed the calves and we see her head stuck under a cow panel gate she sufacted. We brought a really nice cow she had a calf then right after giving birth she died by getting struck by lighting. My uncle put something in are pasture and our best cow we had decided to go eat it and she died from poison now we tell my uncle never to put anything in the hayfield.

 

[cowman]

How about this for ironic...I've been reading this post as the snow has us stuck here in Iowa, and now I have a story to add. I have an old Cargill floor for hogs I have stripped out and used as an open front shed for the cattle. The original steel posts were cemented into the concrete slab, and stick out about 4 feet. There are only 3 of these post on a 60 x 40 slab of concrete. The cattle and my Quarter horse mare got snowed in the shed. When they went to walk out the horse started up over the drift and then it gave way---impaling the horse on the post hidden beneath the snow. Fml, I need to move south.

 

[LN]

One of my cows died last night. We had them up in the pens for AIing for a month and she started losing weight about 2 weeks ago. When we turned them out last week she was looking pretty poor and kinda dragging when she walked. We had some brutal cold last night (for south Texas anyways) and found her dead this morning. I don't have the slightest clue what could've been wrong with her. She wasn't a special cow, but she had a 2 month old calf on her so now I have another orphan. Whoopee!

 

[FutureBreeder2013]

There was a guy up around me somewhere who lived on a dairy farm with about 50 or so calf huts and one night he had a coyote get into one or two of those pens and killed two new calves.

 

[BRdoc]

We had a 4 month old Meyer daughter. Undoubtedly, the best heifer we have ever raised. Sold the heifer for a chunk of $, to be picked up at weaning. The very next day went out to check cows. I couldn't find her. Finally found her, with her head stuck in the "V" of a tree, dead. Ironically, my wife had tried to convince me NOT to sell her. I guess it's true...the wife is ALWAYS right!! Needless to say, I have done alot of chainsaw duty since.

 

[simtal]

One of my cows died last night. We had them up in the pens for AIing for a month and she started losing weight about 2 weeks ago. When we turned them out last week she was looking pretty poor and kinda dragging when she walked. We had some brutal cold last night (for south Texas anyways) and found her dead this morning. I don't have the slightest clue what could've been wrong with her. She wasn't a special cow, but she had a 2 month old calf on her so now I have another orphan. Whoopee!

could be hardware

 

[jackpotcattle]

Walked out this morning and found a show hfr dead. She was laying in the middle of the pen and was still warm (it was -23 last night) so she hadn't been dead too long. Have no clue what happened they were running around playing last nite, so she might have slipped and broke her back or something and then died this morning. Anywho, don't know and nothing I can do about it now, but sure does suck.

 

[farmboy]

close this thread. too many peoples animals dieing today.

 

[Downtown Pete]

Holy s#%t.  Didn't mean to jinx anybody with this thread.  Just got done doctoring two heifers for cocicitiosis (sp.).  Must be something in the air ( or the-20 temps!)

 

[kamerkat]

I had one die when i smacked her on the butt trying to get her on the livestock trailer.she always through a fit in loading chute and this time she just decided it would be easier to die

 

[showgoer]

Had a first calf heifer with a real nice bull calf on her.  She was thin and not milking well so we brought her up to feed her some grain and put her in a pen with another older cow and calf.  That cow was 1/8 Holstein and had more milk than her worthless calf could consume.  The good bull calf figured it out and started "robbing" off the Holstein cow when her calf was also nursing.  The Holstein would head butt the bull if she caught him "robbing" and would send him on his way.  Went out to do chores one morning and found him perched atop a 4 inch fence post running from just behind his navel up through his body and poking out just behind his shoulder.  Only thing we could figure out was the Stein had enough and sent him airborne ~ top of the fence post was almost 5' in the air!  Had a cow prolapse her uterus after calving in the pasture one night (not a pretty sight) and die as well.

 

[DiamondS]

Three years ago to the day, I got a call from our hired man as he was feeding, 9 head of yearling heifers had walked out on the pond and fell through the ice.  Lost all of them.  We fenced that pond and all the other ponds that cows had access too.  One week later, I fed my horses hay but they weren't down from the pasture yet.  Went out and fed a few cows.  Got back about 11:00 am and my two older geldings were down and the old man was really talking.  I thought "surely not".  Went and got my hubby and we took off for the big pond in the pasture but nothing.  We had a smaller pond fenced off, but when my two 3 yr old geldings and 6 yr old gelding were running and playing, they broke it and ran across that pond falling through.  We saved the two younger horses, but my 6 yr old died in the pond. 

Have had a couple of cows get a hedge apple lodged in their throat and die.  Have a couple that to this day I have no idea what caused em.

 

[farmboy]

well our first calf of the year was born dead or died very fast as soon as it was born this morning. way to jinx me guys. 

 

[aj]

I heard first hand of a guy having 11 heifers band up in a corner in a hailstorm. With their necks through barb wire lightning killed them. I guess it was 11 head killed. Others survived.

 

[BCCC]

Had a bred cow die a few months ago had her posted and she died from being a fat kid, she just up and decided she was going to eat way to much and she died.

Two summers ago had 7 bred heifers die by getting struck by lighting, they were all halfways under the 3 wire fencer built with old hedge posts, that fence now has some t-posts for grounds.

Last year sent a horse to get rode in the feed yard, and one night a peice of tin blew of their horse barn, and guess whos horses it hit? Out of 75 horses it hit mine! Skinned its face compleltly, had to put it down.

Also know a guy that had a very expensive roping horse, and he was headed to a rodeo and the horse fell through the wood floor and when ever he stopped for fuel he found a very expensive roping horse in his trailer with no legs.

Any one every have a two headed calf born? When I was I think 7 we had a simmy cow have a two headed calf with one body, and when we found it, it was actually ALIVE! However died about 15 minutes later, I will have to try and find that picture.

 

[aj]

I would think a two headed calf could be worth some money with taxidermy. The guy at oakley Kansas with the giant prarie dog would buy it.

 

[justintime]

I am not sure if this thread jinxed me or not, but the morning I first read it, I went out to find one of my best heifers dead. She got cast in a small hollow and bloated. She was my only Timeline heifer calf born in 09 and she was pretty good. Timeline is one of the bulls we are showing in Denver.

As far as strange cattle deaths, I could probably write a book on the subject. One of the strangest I remember, was accidental in nature. We had broke a patch of pasture in the spring and had seeded it to oats for grazing that year. It was evening when my dad finisihed so he took the tractor and seed drill home, and left the truck in the pasture. Before he left he lifted the hoist a little as it looked like it could shower. The next morning we went to bring the truck home. I dropped my dad off at the truck, and there were some cows standing near by. I drove back to open the gate so he could come out while he lowered the box and drove out. The control for the hoist was on the dash of the truck, so he started the truck, pushed the hoist control and drove away when the hoist was down.  As he approached I could not figure out why the truck was making so much dust. As he got closer, I figured out that he was dragging a cow. When I got him stopped, we quickly lifted the hoist and the cow was dead. It was one of our best Simmental cows. All dad said was" Well, at least it was a Simmental".