New to LSB, Taupo, Meat goats, Highland cows, chooks and an orchard.

Hi - I have all of the above. New to having a LSB and keeping animals. I'm a city boy from just outside Belfast in Ireland, been in NZ for just over 7 years and loving it. The iFarm (called thus by my mates who know I need to look everything up on the internet) is going well bar two issues.

1. I lost a calf when a cow miscarried. I believe it was due to the Tutu I discovered on the hill later.
2. Looks like I've lost all my fruit from the newly planted apple and pear tree orchard. Bronze Beetle to blame, busy searching for a remedy but too late for this year I think. I'm going to have to buy my cider until next season.

PK

Welcome to the forum.

In regard to the cow, how much Tutu do you suspect/know she ate? I doubt that would cause it, if she ate it without any illness herself. It's not a known abortion risk plant. My cows have access to Tutu all around our place and that's not what ever causes them to slip pregnancies. Sometimes they just do, but common causes are infectious diseases including Lepto, BVD and Neospora.

Hi Ruth - Thanks for that. I was given that info from the vet that looked at her. I had never heard of Tutu. I've poisoned it now and await its death (The Tutu not the cow). Then I'll cut it up and remove it. Although she miscarried, I never found the calf. The vet said it was most likely about the size of a cat and would be reabsorbed into the cow. He gave her a lot of drugs to prevent systemic infection. There was a lot of things hanging out of her rear end which lead the vet to that decision. It was her first pregnancy. Will try again probably in a month or so.

PK

The cattle abortions that I have had from mid-pregnancy onward (3 or 4 of them, so not many) the cow has always aborted rather than re-absorbed. A 5 to 6 month foetus was about the size of a cat. I have not had a tutu poisoning, but my book suggests that the cow herself would be very, very sick after she had got over her excitedness, and deep and rapid breathing. If you have to hire or borrow a bull, or do AI, I would give her 6 weeks to recover from her illness.
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