Candidate for freezer camp?

[lavacaw]

I have a heifer that is about 3 years old that has not bred. She is aggressive and on the large side of breed standards. She has been with a bull almost continually for the past 15 months. She has large cone shaped teats and a fifth small one. I really think she is NOT what we want to be reproducing.
Please feel free to chime in with your thoughts as to what you would do with her.

[otf]

Have you had her examined by your vet? I'd do that before making any decisions.

[Olga]

Has she ever calved? I've never seen cone teats on a "virgin" heifer. That alone would be a decision maker for me - cone shaped teats may have to be milked out every day for so long after the calf is born. Our Maxine makes really nice calves - has developed cone shaped front teats. They have to be tended to for the first two weeks of lactation. The right front gets bigger than the left front, but I think we might kill them both when she's done with this lactation - quarters that is, as in chemical mastectomy. She makes plenty of milk in her rear two quarters to raise calves on. And so far, her heifers don't exhibit her cone teat trait.

[rdoubled]

If we are breeding to improve the breed then you would not want to continue a hard breeder, bad temperament and a terrible udder. To many Dexter's have bad udders. Off to Freezer camp for sure!

[otf]

Others have made some suggestions; however, I want to reiterate that you need to find out WHY she hasn't caught (gotten pregnant)...is she cystic? Do you have positive pregnancies on other cows bred by this bull, and I mean preg-checked by a vet. I think you should find out WHY before you write her obituary!

[cddexter]

freezer camp, for any ONE of the above reasons.

If you really want to know why she's not caught, have the slaughter guy keep the relevent bits and you can take them to your vet for an exam.

Doesn't matter why at this stage, I can't think of anything that's fixable, unless she's always been waaaay to thin or waaaay too fat, and even if that were fixed, there's no guarantee she'd breed, anyway and you are still dealing with poor teat muscle and temperament. I think most of us have cut our losses at some point or another, and in reality, doesn't matter what the sex, bad quality is bad quality. Enjoy that bbq. c.

[lavacaw]

Thanks for all the input. I had planned a trip by the vet's before going to the knacker. No, to the best of my knowledge, she has never been bred and I have a beautiful 4 month old bull calf by the bull from another cow. She is not overweight or underweight and really has a beautiful conformation other than being very tall. I think it is mostly her disposition I don't like and I'm thinking dehorning might help that. Again, I welcome your comments.

[otf]

"Their temperament isn't stored in their horns."

Where's the applause icon?

[Star Creek Dexters]

Lava, I sent you a message.

[dexterlady]

I do have to agree with what Gene said. BUT, I have a cow who was very agressive with our other cows and after I got her dehorned, she is now low cow on totem!!! She has never been very friendly anyway and now with now horns she is even more skiddish. If she had all the faults that your cow has, she would have gone to freezer camp AFTER I had her ck'd. by vet to see WHY she would catch when bred. Maybe she doesn't feel good or her hormones are imbalanced. Be really interesting what the vet says.....Donna

[Clive]

In the freezer IMO. Animals that don't breed easily are a waste of time and space. Accepted advice here would be not to breed from any heifer that hasn't got in-calf after 6 weeks with the bull, even if she was good in other respects. A bit harsh I know!