Enough Colostrum?

[Ryan]

We had a young cow have a calf last year, but only 2 of the quarters had milk. The calf lived, but always looked like he wasnt fully nourished, even though he had all the grain, grass, water,and usually hay he could eat. She is due to have her second calf within the next week.

My question is this: Do you think the cow will produce enough colostrum in just the two functional quarters for the calf to get all he/she will need for its immune system or do we need to supplement him some with some store bought? And, is there a possibility that there could be milk in the front two quarters this time around (if not she will probably grow wheels soon)?

 

[jerry27150]

two teats will produce as much as four, but if she didn't do a good job last year why did you keep her. she may never have enough milk to grow a good calf on her own, might consider creep feed for new calf

 

[Ryan]

Why'd we keep her?
We gave a second chance hoping she would do better the second time. In her defense we did haul to the pair when the calf was less than 2 weeks old to a show in iowa, and then to another 4 or 5 shows before he was even 3 months old.

The calf was able to get up beside mom and eat grain out of the trough when he wanted.

 

[jt]

i will give a first calf heifer a second chance if the calf doesnt do quite like i want, but the second one had best do well.. but, she has to be milking in all 4 quarters to get that second chance...

jt

 

[shorty]

If you think she doesn't have enough to start it won't hurt to mix up a pack of replacement colostrum and give it to the calf right away , there is also e-coli protection in that package. I always keep some on hand when I have heifers expecting their first calf , sometimes they don't have enough milk or don't feed the calf right away so I make sure the calf gets something right away

 

[TheBullLady]

She'll have enough colostrum in the two quarters. We had a Guernsey that had two "blind" quarters and she raised awesome calves.

 

[Farminlund]

We have more than our share of twins (most seem to be born dead at birth) but when you run near 20% a few are delivered alive. We have never supplemented colostrum & each calf only has the output of 2 quarters & we've not had a problem to date. Knock on wood - ouch!

 

[Ryan]

We are hoping that she well do better with her second calf, and most of the problems were associated with what we did (i.e. hauling the calf to shows so often at such a young age). I dont know if we would ever register anything out of her, but if she can raise a calf to weaning then she is doing what we ask of her.

 

[Medic24]

We too are softies at heart, when ever we have or get a cow that has problems, and we suspect they did not have certain advantages, we almost always give second chances.

That now leaves us with a lot of healthy cattle, but a few humpbacks, a few low milk producing cows, some late bloomers, etc. :cboy:

Can almost look at parts of our farm as a invalid ward for livestock. :lol:

 

[milkmaid]

If she didn't have milk in the two quarters last time, she's prolly not going to have milk in all four this time around either. If the quarters are truly "blind" - say she got an infection in them as a heifer from laying on wet hay/silage - she won't have milk. However, if the problem was that she had a blockage in front quarters so that the milk was unable to come out...she might have milk this time around.

She should have enough colostrum for the calf as well as enough milk later to support him. I've even seen some one-quarter cows (the other three 'killed' by mastitis) that give enough milk to support calves quite easily. Depends on the cow.