Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Smallest calf I have ever seen.

Today I was out to a friends ranch and they had a heifer give birth to the smallest live calf I have ever seen. I wonder if the calf even weighs 35 pounds. The heifer is not especially tall herself which is a good thing so the calf has no problem reaching the teats to nurse. It is amazing how short a time it nurses before it is satisfied. It is about three days old when these pictures were taken and seems healthy as can be. It was jumping around like any normal calf would.

cute little bastid....

Hey Larry,

Isn't having smaller calves what gives the Angus an edger over the Hereford? That is what my Grandpa used to say, anyway.

They could name it "Quarter Pounder".

That is a dink for sure.

Usually when a calf is that small it's a twin.

Doubtful the heifer still has another calf in her 3 days later or she'd be 'sick'.


Must just be one really small calf!

That was their first thought Sam, but she cleaned and shows no signs of having another one in her. She is a very mellow cow which helps the little one a lot. While we were watching she even moved one of her back feet to allow the calf easier access to lunch.

I just have never seen one that small. She is even smaller than all the dogs on the ranch.

That might be true enough Tim, but I doubt any rancher would like their calves quite this small.

Although it would undoubtedly negate the worry of having to pull calves.

Life is good ad long as the little one catches up. I used to have some cows but the calving season drove me nuts. I just buy them around 700 and feed them out now.

No, that's all marketing.

LOL!! Thanks for the chuckle...I needed it.

There's little difference in calving difficulties between Angus and Herefords. It's when you mix in some of the exotics like Charolais or Simmental that things get ugly. One chart I looked at was comparing the problems when different breeds of bulls were used on Hereford and Angus cows. It show that Angus and Hereford bulls produced calving problems about 3% of the time. For the larger exotics, it was closer to 20%. The calf birth weights were about 10lb higher with the exotics.
The exotics were brought in to increase birth weights but the vet bills and calving losses offset any gains.

Could it be a dwarf?

wont be able to tell unless it starts growing a beard and carrying around an ax

I get the humor but I am kind of curious.

When I was a kid growing up my grandfather had a small meat market and did custom slaughering.

Lots of ranchers brought in what I heard called dwarf calves to be butchered. All of them had big knee joints and a rounded forehead but none of the ranchers wanted to admit they were calves out of their herd.

Many times they will end up being just a big as one born larger

I'd rather have a small healthy calf with no birth problems than a bigger one that stresses the cow

What matters is the size many months from now, and that has a way of evening out

A lot of acquaintances like to use a Longhorn bull with first calf heifers. They will throw a small calf. Easy birthing.

Birth wt. vs. weaning weight is where it's at.

That said, I prefer my calves to be a bit larger.

for being hung like a donkey.

Yeah, I remember the excitement when Charolais first burst on the cattlemen's radar in the 70's in Alberta... a lot of ranchers lived to regret investing in "big calves".

Heck he will bring $400 on Craigslist but sell him asap