Cow abandoned calf

[zman6133]

One of my cows had her calf the other day and just walked away from it. I mean she just dropped it on the ground and went back to eating at the hay feeder. I watched and waited for 30 minutes to see if she was going to return to it but instead she walked farther away and laid down and took a nap. In the meantime, I picked up the calf and took it to the barn, washed it off and got its colostrum into it. The cow has never returned to the spot to see if there is a calf there and has never cried out like the others when they are away from their calves. I tried to do some research on this topic but can't seem to find any reason for her to just drop it and walk away. I took her to the vet and he checked her over and said that "yes" she had a calf and was fine. I am thinking that this is not the kind of cow I need to keep around. Plus, this is not her first, it is her third calf and she knew what to do every other time. The little heifer calf is doing well in the barn and getting all the attention she can handle from my wife. I still have 29 calves due and am not thinking that this could happen again. The first 10 cows had their calves just fine, with no issues.

I am just looking for some idea as to what I can expect. Nothing like this happened last year. Do I keep her or send her down the road?

 

[dun]

Easy answer! Put her on the trailer to the sale barn and run her through as a weigh/kill cow. It's not normal and there is no reason to expect any of the others will do the same thing. Sometimes the momma reflexes just turn off, some will go to the extreme of trying to hunt down the calf to kill it. Also, there is no reason to expect that her heifer calf will do the same thing in the future. If you are of the mind to keep the calf, raise it properly with good quality all milk replacer and at least 20 20 fat & protein. After weaingin keep her on grain for at least 6 months and she shold grow out just as well as the calves form the cows that actually raised tehir calves. Raising one like that is not cheap, if you don;t want to be committed to doing it right just haul the calf to the sale barn too.

 

[zman6133]

Thanks Dun, that is the honest answer I needed to hear.

 

[vclavin]

Easy answer! Put her on the trailer to the sale barn and run her through as a weigh/kill cow. It's not normal and there is no reason to expect any of the others will do the same thing. Sometimes the momma reflexes just turn off, some will go to the extreme of trying to hunt down the calf to kill it. Also, there is no reason to expect that her heifer calf will do the same thing in the future. If you are of the mind to keep the calf, raise it properly with good quality all milk replacer and at least 20 20 fat & protein. After weaingin keep her on grain for at least 6 months and she shold grow out just as well as the calves form the cows that actually raised tehir calves. Raising one like that is not cheap, if you don;t want to be committed to doing it right just haul the calf to the sale barn too.

Dun,
Since the cow has never done this before, is it possible she senses something wrong with the calf? I know some animals kill their young if they are defective in some way, rather than waste their energy raising offspring that may die anyway or not. Although, I know some have the mothering instinct so strong that they will defend a dead calf from being removed.
Valerie

 

[randiliana]

The only time I've really seen a cow abandon a calf (other than a bad mama) is with really old or sick cattle. The calf will usually be healthy enough but the cow has no 'extra' to give to the calf. So far I've never seen a cow abandon a calf because something was wrong with the calf.

 

[3waycross]

With that many left to calve you might just end up with a mother for that calf anyway. Did you do anything to get her to take the calf?

 

[zman6133]

I did everything that the local farmers could come up with to get her to take to the calf. They are just as puzzeled as I am about the whole situation. The calf is doing well in the barn and is very healthy, sucks the bottle like it is going out of style and has taken to my wife like a child. We tried rubbing the afterbirth on the calf and a couple of other ideas but she just never took to it. I must have led her to the calf and made sure she knew what it was over a dozen times and she wanted nothing to do with it. My fear was if I kept it up, she would sooner or later hurt he calf, so I stopped. I ran her over to the Vet's and there is nothing wrong with her. I had him look her over from head to foot just to make sure. He told me that for a 4 year old cow to do something like this is rare but maybe she was just a shitty mother, you know is happens in all species. So I will load he up and send her to the sale barn. Thanks for all the advice but I can't afford to take any more chances on this one.

 

[Floyd]

I had one abandon her calf last yr. A cougar got the calf...just took it a month & $200 to die.

That cow is raising her calf & one a heifer, that is already in various freezers, did not mother up to.

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

We had 1 a few years back - same thing, had a calf and walked away. The calf lived for about 3 days after nursing fine, acting thrifty, and then came out one morning and it was dead. We did not have the Vet do a PM to find out why as it was the only calf that died that year.

We did sell the cow anyway (no sense in feeding it for another year without income).

 

[houstoncutter]

Put wheels under her kister

 

[zman6133]

Just an update....there was nothing wrong with the mother according to the Vet. He just said sometimes the cow is just a bad mother and there is nothing you can do about it. Well, my wife agreed that we can't have any bad mothers on our place, so away she went to the sale barn. The calf is now my wife's new best friend and follows her all over the place. My wife says that since her own mother did not want her, it is her job to take good care of her. She is growing like a weed and has no intention of trying to get out of the yard. I say yard as our yard is about 3 acres and she lives in her own shed at the very back. She comes up to the patio to get her bottles in the morning and then again at night. She is already about 125 lbs and is doing really well. Plus, it is a heifer calf so my wife having her as a pet is okay with me as if it was a bull calf, she alreayd knew what it fate would be. Thanks for all the help and advice.

 

[dwilliams35]

Keep an eye on her in the yard: we had one like that a few years ago, before it was over with she was eating pretty much anything she could get her mouth on: plastic sheeting, feed sacks, etc.: she'd find a new way into the shop every chance she got, even chewed on my pickup bumper. I found her dead one day heavily bloated, I took her off to the woods, and a few months later I went back and there was plastic everywhere. A lot of stuff that I just hadn't missed, turned out she ate.