• ikidd@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    And the cow often ends up hurt, sometimes permanently. Culling for hip displacement and broken legs is not uncommon.

    • da_cow (she/her)@feddit.org
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      23 hours ago

      Thats quite of an exaggeration and this can be counteracted.

      It is common, that cows can get hurt by the bull, but these wounds are usually only on the skin (this comes from the bull and other cows continuosly mount a single cow). If the ground however is slippery, it can happen that a cow gets hurt due to slipping when another animal tries to mount her. However counteracting this can be quite easy. Since you as a farmer usually know when a cow is ovulating just put her and the bull in a separate area, that has straw on the ground. At least in germany this is also mandatory (to be exact, its illegal to let the bull walk with the rest of the herd).

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        Well, we end up with at least a few hobbling around for a couple months, and other that show evidence of long-term damage that we will cull after weaning. That’s from a herd of 334 Angus/Simmental which aren’t a huge phenotype like Charolais, where it’s more common. And pasture breeding is the defacto standard in North America.

        So no, it’s not an exaggeration, it’s actual experience.

        • da_cow (she/her)@feddit.org
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          19 hours ago

          Thats interesting. My parents have a herd of about 100 Fleckvieh/spotted cattle (Including followers) and I couldnt remember that we ever had a case where a cow had a displaced hip or broken leg, because it has been mounted. We had to cull animals because of broken legs, but those were caused by other accidents.