Cow With Calf Aggression

[inyati13]

In the thread on the senior gentleman near me getting mauled by a cow with a calf, there seems to be an effort to have it "both ways". I have often seen comments to the effect that a cow is expected to protect her calf from coyotes, dogs and other threats in the pasture. If that is so and protection of the calf is considered a trait to be coveted, then it only follows that a cow with that nature is going to express that same trait when she perceives a threat from a human. It is therefore the producers responsibility to protect himself from a cow with calf. As pdfangus said:

armed or not I would not shoot a cow for doing her job....

 

[pdfangus]

we are on a nearly parallel track here....

 

[greybeard]

There is,protective--and then there is over protective.

The key word in your post is 'perceives'.

 

[TexasBred]

In the thread on the senior gentleman near me getting mauled by a cow with a calf, there seems to be an effort to have it "both ways". I have often seen comments to the effect that a cow is expected to protect her calf from coyotes, dogs and other threats in the pasture. If that is so and protection of the calf is considered a trait to be coveted, then it only follows that a cow with that nature is going to express that same trait when she perceives a threat from a human. It is therefore the producers responsibility to protect himself from a cow with calf. As pdfangus said:

armed or not I would not shoot a cow for doing her job....

I want a cow to be very protective of a newborn. The "over protective" mentality usually goes away in a couple of weeks and then she as well as the other cattle in the pasture simply takes care of their calves. I never try to approach any cow immediately after calving nor within the next few days. There is no need to !!

 

[Jake]

If we culled every cow that gets mad when I grab her calf I wouldn't have many cows left. Something that has never been selected against in our operation. Cows won't mess with you once the calves are a couple weeks old, however when I am tagging calves I make sure I have an escape route and don't put myself in any compromising situations. A tame cow can decide to hit me the same and one that is blowing snot.

 

[skyhightree1]

When I got butted into the fence for messing with a calf that taught me a valuable lesson and I do not fool with them for a while after they are born. When I tag/band I am extra careful now where the mama is.

 

[MO_cows]

We are small, I know it will be different for a bigger operation where the cows don't see their owners as often. In our case, I don't think it's too much to expect for a cow to tell the difference between me and a coyote! Knock wood, we have never been charged when messing with a new calf. Still cautious and always aware it could happen. One cow did run a bluff charge at our son, he was visiting and went out to see the new baby and she didn't "know" him. She stopped about 3 feet away from him and gave him "the look". Me and hubby had already handled the calf and she just stood there and watched us. Apparently, she trusted us but not a "stranger". I can live with that.

 

[Jake]

We are small, I know it will be different for a bigger operation where the cows don't see their owners as often. In our case, I don't think it's too much to expect for a cow to tell the difference between me and a coyote! Knock wood, we have never been charged when messing with a new calf. Still cautious and always aware it could happen. One cow did run a bluff charge at our son, he was visiting and went out to see the new baby and she didn't "know" him. She stopped about 3 feet away from him and gave him "the look". Me and hubby had already handled the calf and she just stood there and watched us. Apparently, she trusted us but not a "stranger". I can live with that.

Our cattle do not see people on foot outside of feeding time very often. When not during calving season they will come up to see us to figure out if there is a treat if we are on foot but the majority of the time we are not walking through them as they are in large areas.

 

[Nesikep]

I'm with MO_cows... Last night at 2 am one of my rather big and excitable cows had her calf in the field... she's about 1800 lbs, and has an aggressive streak in her... so far she has never been 'clobbered' for it, but it made for an interesting job getting the calf up to the corrals... she was pretty good compared to other years though. Last year she was so excited about her calf I swear she nearly killed it licking it and rolling over... it nearly looked like a cat playing with a mouse, and you certainly wouldn't have wanted to get close then. Her sister has the same aggesiveness, and my cow who's a real witch at calving, well, she's the only one who's experienced the 3/4" breaker bar over the poll, and at 10 years old, she is starting to learn and get better... She has a miserable udder that no calf can find, so it needs a little help.. and she behaved like a dairy cow in a stanchion when I got her in the headgate.
I always give myself an 'out' when I'm with the newborns... and as heifers I can tell even if they're tame, they have that look in their eye that tells me to watch my back. I have 3 daughters of the old witch and they're all really good.

 

[branguscowgirl]

I too an "ok with them protecting their newborn calf." I handle mine at birth, giving the calf selenium, vit. A and D, Nasogen, Calf gaurd, and tx cord with betadine plus weigh them. I always have the 4-wheeler to step behind and try to have a second person as "a look out!" For the most part, my cows will just stand there and eat some grain while I do the calf.
Let me ask those who "leave them alone for a couple weeks", how are you getting "birth weights" on your calves?

 

[sizmic]

There is a need to handle a calf at birth if you plan on doing good record keeping and are raising seedstock that you want to backup with info. We send some calves direct to slaughter and it really helps knowing what day they were born and who the momma and daddy are.

Sizmic

 

[TexasBred]

I too an "ok with them protecting their newborn calf." I handle mine at birth, giving the calf selenium, vit. A and D, Nasogen, Calf gaurd, and tx cord with betadine plus weigh them. I always have the 4-wheeler to step behind and try to have a second person as "a look out!" For the most part, my cows will just stand there and eat some grain while I do the calf.
Let me ask those who "leave them alone for a couple weeks", how are you getting "birth weights" on your calves?

Unless you're raising registered stock exact birth weights are not that critical. A good estimate will suffice unless of course you just like to play with numbers. We weighed calves immediately but waited a few weeks to bother with anything else. Never found all the injections, ear tagging etc. that critical.

 

[pdfangus]

I handled thousands of calves on the day of their birth for nearly 40 years.....
weighed , tagged, in some cases tattoed, in some case shots and normally iodine on the navel....
have dealt with all sorts of attitudes from killer to totally uninterested....I would rather have the killer than the cow who does not care....
I have been hurt several times in my younger days....

Had one cow take 1400 lb appendix QH out from under me and he got up and hauled a$$ leaving me there to my own devices....

had one cow get me down and had the snow not been two feet deep she would have killed me....lamed me up pretty good as it was....

roped a lame calf once that was 300 lbs anyway...he bawled and mama came looking for something to kill....she treed me and dang near killed my dog....

had a young cow than had not calved yet but was in labor....claim another cows calf and she chased me thru a dark barn at night until I ran into a barn post and dang near busted my head open....I came to about two hours later still laying in the barn and she had had her calf and was still huffing at me....why she did not kill me while I was out is beyond my reasoning.....

have roped and reeled in a many a calf....have had cows get in the back of the pickup truck with me.....

over time I figured out ways to keep me and the calf alive....

never trust any of them....have a way out...sometimes it is under the truck or the tractor....some of them can not be buffaloed....

best money I ever spent was for one of those calf catching hooks....really helps....

Like Smokey says...."Only You can....." keep you alive.

I would not allow by older partner to be with me when tagging because he was not agile enough and I could not handle the calf and protect him....made him mad as heck but he survived it....won't let my wife near one now for the same reason....

 

[branguscowgirl]

I too an "ok with them protecting their newborn calf." I handle mine at birth, giving the calf selenium, vit. A and D, Nasogen, Calf gaurd, and tx cord with betadine plus weigh them. I always have the 4-wheeler to step behind and try to have a second person as "a look out!" For the most part, my cows will just stand there and eat some grain while I do the calf.
Let me ask those who "leave them alone for a couple weeks", how are you getting "birth weights" on your calves?

Unless you're raising registered stock exact birth weights are not that critical. A good estimate will suffice unless of course you just like to play with numbers. We weighed calves immediately but waited a few weeks to bother with anything else. Never found all the injections, ear tagging etc. that critical.

My next question is for those that do not treat calves at birth. Have you had any cases of scours or navel ill?
I am not being sarcastic in any way. I am just trying to see if my vaccination protocol is "over kill" compared to the risks of problems.
I have never had a case of scours. And the only calf that I have delayed treating the cord with betadine, developed navel ill. So I think my protocol has worked well for me. Not so well, when I did not do it.

 

[Jake]

I too an "ok with them protecting their newborn calf." I handle mine at birth, giving the calf selenium, vit. A and D, Nasogen, Calf gaurd, and tx cord with betadine plus weigh them. I always have the 4-wheeler to step behind and try to have a second person as "a look out!" For the most part, my cows will just stand there and eat some grain while I do the calf.
Let me ask those who "leave them alone for a couple weeks", how are you getting "birth weights" on your calves?

Unless you're raising registered stock exact birth weights are not that critical. A good estimate will suffice unless of course you just like to play with numbers. We weighed calves immediately but waited a few weeks to bother with anything else. Never found all the injections, ear tagging etc. that critical.

My next question is for those that do not treat calves at birth. Have you had any cases of scours or navel ill?
I am not being sarcastic in any way. I am just trying to see if my vaccination protocol is "over kill" compared to the risks of problems.
I have never had a case of scours. And the only calf that I have delayed treating the cord with betadine, developed navel ill. So I think my protocol has worked well for me. Not so well, when I did not do it.

Extremely rare we treat a navel with Iodine and have never once treated a calf for naval infection. But you live in a different environment. We wait to do anything other than a tag until branding time. Calf's immune systems aren't functioning fully until they are a month old so not much point in wasting the $$ on them. Antibodies will be the only shot that is beneficial

 

[TexasBred]

I too an "ok with them protecting their newborn calf." I handle mine at birth, giving the calf selenium, vit. A and D, Nasogen, Calf gaurd, and tx cord with betadine plus weigh them. I always have the 4-wheeler to step behind and try to have a second person as "a look out!" For the most part, my cows will just stand there and eat some grain while I do the calf.
Let me ask those who "leave them alone for a couple weeks", how are you getting "birth weights" on your calves?

Unless you're raising registered stock exact birth weights are not that critical. A good estimate will suffice unless of course you just like to play with numbers. We weighed calves immediately but waited a few weeks to bother with anything else. Never found all the injections, ear tagging etc. that critical.

My next question is for those that do not treat calves at birth. Have you had any cases of scours or navel ill?
I am not being sarcastic in any way. I am just trying to see if my vaccination protocol is "over kill" compared to the risks of problems.
I have never had a case of scours. And the only calf that I have delayed treating the cord with betadine, developed navel ill. So I think my protocol has worked well for me. Not so well, when I did not do it.

Don't remember ever having scours with any beef cows. When we dairied we pulled calves from the cow on the third day and raised them on bottles. We used fresh milk right out of the pipeline and very seldom had any scours. With the holsteins we would dip the navel with iodine. Currently don't do anything with baby calves except let mom take care of them.

 

[cow pollinater]

I'm mostly hands off until branding time and this year I had less than 2% navel ill. I will doctor scours when I see it but it has not been enough of a problem to spend any time worrying about.
As far as cow aggression, I'd be really worried about a cow that didn't come after me if I grabbed her calf. Even when I had the registered cows here on the valley floor I expected them to get upset about me weighing a calf.

 

[slick4591]

Here ya go.

http://youtu.be/AbWAjjp72fw
[youtube]AbWAjjp72fw[/youtube]

 

[branguscowgirl]

Here ya go.

http://youtu.be/AbWAjjp72fw
[youtube]AbWAjjp72fw[/youtube]

That's pretty neat, but I think that it might take some practice to use! I could see myself not being able to drive and close the gate without running over the calf in the process! :lol2: But that might be just me! :lol2:
I think that I would get more use out of it parked.......... :nod:

 

[cow pollinater]

Here ya go.

http://youtu.be/AbWAjjp72fw
[youtube]AbWAjjp72fw[/youtube]

Talk about a false sense of security. :lol: Where do you go when one flips that thing over or comes in from the top?