Today we could have lost on of our best keeper yearling heifers. As I approached the hay ring to put a new round bale in it, I noticed that the hay ring was up on edge and a calf was lying on the ground, half in and half out of the ring. Initially, I thought the calf was dead, but when I slightly elevated the ring with the tractor front end loader, the calf moved.
The heavy duty hay ring is the kind with a circular bar at the top, below which is the hay access area, and below this are three circular bars at the bottom with openings between them. The heifer apparently crawled into the hay ring to feed on the remaining hay, and when it tried to exit the ring, somehow its leg slipped through the upper opening of the bottom three bars, around the outside of the middle bar, and back through the lower opening with its hoof wedged tightly against the inside of the bottom bar. It took my neighbor and myself pushing and pulling together to force the hoof out of its wedged position. The heifer was plenty sore, and highly distressed, but it will survive.
These types of hay rings may be okay for baby calves and adult cattle, but not for yearling calves that still can squeeze through the hay access area into the center of the ring to feed. Tomorrow, I plan on purchasing a new hay ring that has a foot tall shield around the bottom to prevent a calves' leg from getting caught between the bottom bars. From now on, I will use this bottom-shielded hay ring to feed round bale grass hay to yearling calves. I hope none of you have had this problem.
Certain Hay Rings Dangerous for Calves
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire