Dams not taking care of calves

[tntblaster11]

I have some Angus cows that have calved at least once successfully and reared the calf fine. Got a new bull last year, turned him out, and things went fine. Fast forward to calving this spring and out of 30 cows, I've had 3 that refuse to take care of the calf. They lick it off, and that's about it, leaving me to deal with the problem. Is there any way that the new bull can be linked to this behavior? IIRC the nurturing instinct is mainly hormonal? Is there something that I can do to influence this, or what should I be thinking about to minimize this abandonment behavior.

I do cull cows who will not take care of calves, usually those are 1st calf heifers though, not an experienced cow.

 

[dun]

There are varying degrees of maternal behaviour. It ranges from trying to kill the calf to never letting the calf be seperated from them. Some cows will feed their calves and that's about it. As long as they don;t abandon them completely and not feed them I don;t worry about how they behave. Granted I always like to see the attentive cow that licks her calf and talks to it and keeps an eye on it, but not all of them do.

 

[Andyva]

There are a lot of factors, but, I've found that generally a cow with a full udder is more interested in her calf than one that has no milk. Is their body condition as good as it was when they calved before? Sometimes they get pulled down by their first calf and never quite catch up and the second calf is harder on them than the first, in terms of body condition and milk production. If they are older, maybe they have mastitis damage.

 

[Nesikep]

Andyva, I'll have to pay attention to that, it's not something I've thought of much before... I have one cow who'll kill you if you try and get close to the calf, but used to be a miserable mother... her calf's ears and tail froze when it was hardly freezing out because she just didn't do anything... And she's the one I posted a video of showing her big swinging udder that she has to kick out of the way to not step on it. She's become more docile over the years but I don't turn my back on her... 5 days or so after calving she's all sweet again. My old cow was another story... even with arthritis she wouldn't let that calf get more than 10 feet away from her for the first month... and she was nice to me.. just a VERY concerned mother.

I've had pretty good luck with my heifers... They may not quite know HOW to lick a calf dry effectively, but they all have paid attention to it... One of them in particular was licking it with the very tip of her tongue... I looked at it like washing a car with a Q-tip... Then she came to me and she used the 'whole washcloth' on my neck and did a through job there..

 

[MO_cows]

"Not taking care of the calf" - you mean she won't let it nurse, or she's just not paying it enough attention to suit you?

 

[Stocker Steve]

There are varying degrees of maternal behaviour. quote]

Cows vary, but there are also some breed tendencies. Herfords and SH have more mothering in them then some of the more popular breeds. Makes you wonder a little about what we are selecting for...
I do select for mothering ability, and I have never had a problem with a home raised heifer. I have some degree of concern with 10 to 20% of purchased cows. In ideal weather it may not matter - - but some springs will will cost you more than just frozen ears. Put the self centered ones on a trailer this fall.

 

[Nesikep]

StockerSteve.. It just so happens that the cow I was talking about wanting to kill you and not taking care of her calf is quite shorthorn!.. I have found Salers to be particularly good mothers, but she's got some of that in her too.. There's just some that are good at it and some that aren't, and you can't fix stupid!

 

[dun]

Other then Lil Orphan Annie's momma 5-6 years ago, the only ones we've had that walked away from their calves have been really hard pulls. All but one of them came back within an hour and took care of it. The other was the bull calf we had this year, hard pull from a heifer and she could care less. Wouldn;t sniff it, wouldn;t lick it, dumped grain on it and she licked the grain off then walked away. Put her in the chute and she would let it mess around at nursing but it never figured out how to latch on. Bottle fed it a couple of times and one morning I went down with a bottle and the cow was sucked dry and she was licking and talking to the calf.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Put her in the chute and she would let it mess around at nursing but it never figured out how to latch on. Bottle fed it a couple of times and one morning I went down with a bottle and the cow was sucked dry and she was licking and talking to the calf.

You can usually find a way to make it work, but are how close are they to a handling facility and is it worth it ?

 

[ANAZAZI]

Put her in the chute and she would let it mess around at nursing but it never figured out how to latch on. Bottle fed it a couple of times and one morning I went down with a bottle and the cow was sucked dry and she was licking and talking to the calf.

You can usually find a way to make it work, but are how close are they to a handling facility and is it worth it ?

In my opinion it is worth the trouble to try to fix them up; but we have a cull list, and adventures like this puts them on that list.

Putting a cow on the cull list at spring calving may mean I slaughter that cow in autumn or even close to christmas, and for all I know she can be a great cow all summer and that can not save her if I had to mess with her like this in the spring.

Perhaps most of these mothering problems stem fron inadequate culling at the bull producing farms?

 

[Chris H]

After this winter, I'd be checking for frost bit teats on a cow that refuses to let the calf nurse. And it could be the experienced cows just tuck their calves in a safe place so they can go graze.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Perhaps most of these mothering problems stem from inadequate culling at the bull producing farms?

I think most high growth bulls calved out in a barn with a video cameras are just not selected for calf vigor nor mothering ability.