Cow not taking care of calf

[PINZ Farmer]

Down at my neighbors today we pulled a calf and we had a little trouble but we eventually got it out. my neighbor says his cows almost always take care of their calfs but this one wanted nothing to do with it. i started rubbing it with straw and then a towel. and eventually the cow was moving around a little bit. once it is up and walkin good we might tie the cow up and try to make it so the calf can milk from the cow. my question is what do you guys do when you have a cow that wont take care of the calf. thanx for any help


joe

 

[Ellie May]

Bottle Feed it!
Ellie May

 

[PATB]

When the calf can stand, tie up cow and let calf nurse. It make take a couple couple of times before calf is accepted. I think the calf nursing has a claming affect on cows.

 

[dun]

If the cow likes grain, put a small pile or pan of it next to the calf, then sprinkle a handfull or two on the calf. This is before the calf is even standing on it's own. Seems like once the cow licks the calf to get the grain they are pretty well bonded.

dun

Down at my neighbors today we pulled a calf and we had a little trouble but we eventually got it out. my neighbor says his cows almost always take care of their calfs but this one wanted nothing to do with it. i started rubbing it with straw and then a towel. and eventually the cow was moving around a little bit. once it is up and walkin good we might tie the cow up and try to make it so the calf can milk from the cow. my question is what do you guys do when you have a cow that wont take care of the calf. thanx for any help


joe

 

[PINZ Farmer]

hey guys thanx for that advice. i will tell him to try that feed idea because if we couldnt get the calf to nurse we were going to bottle feed it and we were going to tie it up before we tried anythin else but i think what u said dun sounds real good. thanx again


joe

 

[PINZ Farmer]

this morning i got a call from that guy about 8 and said another calf needed pulled and i ran down there and we got it pulled and the guy told me that he tied the cow up and the cow let the calf nurse so that one should be doing fine. but for some reason the calf we pulled today, its mother is doing the same thing so we might try some of those ideas on this cow if we cant get it to nurse. thanx again.

 

[dun]

I'm alwasy a little surprised when a cow takes to a pulled calf right away. If someone pulled a watermelon out my .... I sure wouldn't have much of an interest in watermelon for a while.

dun

this morning i got a call from that guy about 8 and said another calf needed pulled and i ran down there and we got it pulled and the guy told me that he tied the cow up and the cow let the calf nurse so that one should be doing fine. but for some reason the calf we pulled today, its mother is doing the same thing so we might try some of those ideas on this cow if we cant get it to nurse. thanx again.

 

[Anonymous]

When you pull the calf make sure everything is ok and leave like you stole something. I almost never even with heifers have one reject a calf.
If you stay around till they suck too often they will reject the whole situation calf included

 

[Ellie May]

Yep always keep your distance. THey do better. It's like never pick up a baby bird or mess with baby rabbitts or fawns.
Ellie May

 

[greatgerts]

What I am wondering is if you have had to pull 2 calves at this guy's place in a day or so, what kind of bull is he using, and does he have info on EPD's? I mean, if I had to pull 2 calves in that short of a time, I would be looking into either backing off feed if I had fed the cows too much (not too likely) or look into a bull with better BW EPD's...with high accuracy.
Alan

 

[PINZ Farmer]

on the question about this guys bull, he has just a herd bull and it isnt a bad looking bull and this was his first year using it. he has already shipped it becuase of its wildness but he produces high birth weight calves consistenly or just about all the time. he has had five calfs so far and we have pulled all five but i beleive 3 have been first calf heifers so that might explain a little. but we already have a new bull at his place and i beleive he told me his birthweight epd is 3 point something so it should help some. thanx

joe

p.s. i think he tried A.I. the 3 heifers and only one took and that one has calved and we had to pull it and i think he told me the bulls name was like gismo i think and it is shorthorn but he told me he didnt no his birthweight epd. but even if it was low it was still a heifer so that could play a big part

 

[Anonymous]

Might be breeding heifers that are simply too small.

And, perish the thought, this might be a situation where he could have benefited by breeding with a well known Longhorn bull named "Gizmo" instead of a Shorthorn named Gismo(?)

Just sorta kidding, all you Longhorn haters out there (ggg). Arnold Ziffle