FerAppease for Adoptions

[Randi]

So FerAppease is a new product on the market in our area, just available last fall. Designed to help reduce stress in cattle, especially freshly weaned calves it sounds too good to be true! But the more I talk to those that have used it the better it sounds.
It is a synthetic version of the Bovine Appeasing Substance that is secreted by a gland on the udder when her calf is sucking. It is topically applied to the skin above the muzzle and behind the poll , 1/2 the dose in each spot. It is to be used any time there is a significant stressor in the animals life (weaning, branding, transportation, calving....and so on). It begins to take effect as soon as it is applied and lasts up to 14 days. It is available off the shelf (you don't need a prescription), it has no withdrawal, and has a shelf life of 2 years.
In my world, most things that sound too good to be true.... are. This is the exception. I bought some to have on hand for calving season (and whenever else I might need it). My thoughts were to use it whenever we were going to adopt a calf. Mostly for the new mother, since newborns usually aren't that picky about mom, they just want food and to be cared for by their mother. It would likely be useful in trying to adopt older calves (or get them onto a bottle if that is necessary).
Anecdotal evidence so far
I had been milking 2 cows that lost preemie calves for about a week. Since calving season was just starting I knew that we would have calves that needed a mother. We have a few cull cows that we have been holding with the intention to calve them out and adopt their calf to a different cow. And we always seem to have twins.
But DH got impatient and as a neighbour had an extra calf we went and picked him up. The cow we put him on was a bit of an airhead, she likes to run around like an idiot whenever you are working her. However, she seemed to be still wanting a calf. This calf was a big dopey dufus of a calf, if he ever sucked his mama I would be surprised (we were told she died). He didn't really suck well, although he did try. He was also starving hungry, to the point that we just bottle fed him as he just couldn't put it all together with such an empty belly. So we fed him and then put him and her (with a dose of FerAppease) in a larger stall in the barn for the night. By morning it was obvious that she adored him.
The second cow got one of the calves from the 2 sets of twins we had the next night.... Again, she seemed to want a calf, but not to the point of stealing one of the ones that were living in the same pen as she was. This cow is a nice cow to work with. Put her in the headgate and milk her like a good old dairy cow, no fuss, no muss. We got the twin sucking on her in the Mat Pen, dosed her with FerAppease and then put them in the pen together for the night. In the morning she also adores her calf.
Is this absolute proof that it works? No. But my experience in adopting calves says that even the ones that want a calf take a little longer than overnight to convince them that the new calf is theirs. In 30+ years of calving cows out I have only ever had 1 cow that walked in the barn, we got the calf sucking and they walked out as a pair. It seems a little far fetched to believe that 2 cows would do the same 2 nights in a row. There was no kicking, head butting or any other shenanigans. And turn them out of the barn without the calf and they are immediately looking for their calf. I will gain more evidence (good or bad) as calving season progresses, I am sure. We have 250+ cows left to calve.
The video is of the second cow and her adoptee from last night. She had been turned out of the barn for a good part of the morning and this is when I let her back in (she couldn't wait to get back in the barn)

 

[Travlr]

So FerAppease is a new product on the market in our area, just available last fall. Designed to help reduce stress in cattle, especially freshly weaned calves it sounds too good to be true! But the more I talk to those that have used it the better it sounds.
It is a synthetic version of the Bovine Appeasing Substance that is secreted by a gland on the udder when her calf is sucking. It is topically applied to the skin above the muzzle and behind the poll , 1/2 the dose in each spot. It is to be used any time there is a significant stressor in the animals life (weaning, branding, transportation, calving....and so on). It begins to take effect as soon as it is applied and lasts up to 14 days. It is available off the shelf (you don't need a prescription), it has no withdrawal, and has a shelf life of 2 years.
In my world, most things that sound too good to be true.... are. This is the exception. I bought some to have on hand for calving season (and whenever else I might need it). My thoughts were to use it whenever we were going to adopt a calf. Mostly for the new mother, since newborns usually aren't that picky about mom, they just want food and to be cared for by their mother. It would likely be useful in trying to adopt older calves (or get them onto a bottle if that is necessary).
Anecdotal evidence so far
I had been milking 2 cows that lost preemie calves for about a week. Since calving season was just starting I knew that we would have calves that needed a mother. We have a few cull cows that we have been holding with the intention to calve them out and adopt their calf to a different cow. And we always seem to have twins.
But DH got impatient and as a neighbour had an extra calf we went and picked him up. The cow we put him on was a bit of an airhead, she likes to run around like an idiot whenever you are working her. However, she seemed to be still wanting a calf. This calf was a big dopey dufus of a calf, if he ever sucked his mama I would be surprised (we were told she died). He didn't really suck well, although he did try. He was also starving hungry, to the point that we just bottle fed him as he just couldn't put it all together with such an empty belly. So we fed him and then put him and her (with a dose of FerAppease) in a larger stall in the barn for the night. By morning it was obvious that she adored him.
The second cow got one of the calves from the 2 sets of twins we had the next night.... Again, she seemed to want a calf, but not to the point of stealing one of the ones that were living in the same pen as she was. This cow is a nice cow to work with. Put her in the headgate and milk her like a good old dairy cow, no fuss, no muss. We got the twin sucking on her in the Mat Pen, dosed her with FerAppease and then put them in the pen together for the night. In the morning she also adores her calf.
Is this absolute proof that it works? No. But my experience in adopting calves says that even the ones that want a calf take a little longer than overnight to convince them that the new calf is theirs. In 30+ years of calving cows out I have only ever had 1 cow that walked in the barn, we got the calf sucking and they walked out as a pair. It seems a little far fetched to believe that 2 cows would do the same 2 nights in a row. There was no kicking, head butting or any other shenanigans. And turn them out of the barn without the calf and they are immediately looking for their calf. I will gain more evidence (good or bad) as calving season progresses, I am sure. We have 250+ cows left to calve.
The video is of the second cow and her adoptee from last night. She had been turned out of the barn for a good part of the morning and this is when I let her back in (she couldn't wait to get back in the barn)

Does it work on people?

 

[SBMF 2015]

So FerAppease is a new product on the market in our area, just available last fall. Designed to help reduce stress in cattle, especially freshly weaned calves it sounds too good to be true! But the more I talk to those that have used it the better it sounds.
It is a synthetic version of the Bovine Appeasing Substance that is secreted by a gland on the udder when her calf is sucking. It is topically applied to the skin above the muzzle and behind the poll , 1/2 the dose in each spot. It is to be used any time there is a significant stressor in the animals life (weaning, branding, transportation, calving....and so on). It begins to take effect as soon as it is applied and lasts up to 14 days. It is available off the shelf (you don't need a prescription), it has no withdrawal, and has a shelf life of 2 years.
In my world, most things that sound too good to be true.... are. This is the exception. I bought some to have on hand for calving season (and whenever else I might need it). My thoughts were to use it whenever we were going to adopt a calf. Mostly for the new mother, since newborns usually aren't that picky about mom, they just want food and to be cared for by their mother. It would likely be useful in trying to adopt older calves (or get them onto a bottle if that is necessary).
Anecdotal evidence so far
I had been milking 2 cows that lost preemie calves for about a week. Since calving season was just starting I knew that we would have calves that needed a mother. We have a few cull cows that we have been holding with the intention to calve them out and adopt their calf to a different cow. And we always seem to have twins.
But DH got impatient and as a neighbour had an extra calf we went and picked him up. The cow we put him on was a bit of an airhead, she likes to run around like an idiot whenever you are working her. However, she seemed to be still wanting a calf. This calf was a big dopey dufus of a calf, if he ever sucked his mama I would be surprised (we were told she died). He didn't really suck well, although he did try. He was also starving hungry, to the point that we just bottle fed him as he just couldn't put it all together with such an empty belly. So we fed him and then put him and her (with a dose of FerAppease) in a larger stall in the barn for the night. By morning it was obvious that she adored him.
The second cow got one of the calves from the 2 sets of twins we had the next night.... Again, she seemed to want a calf, but not to the point of stealing one of the ones that were living in the same pen as she was. This cow is a nice cow to work with. Put her in the headgate and milk her like a good old dairy cow, no fuss, no muss. We got the twin sucking on her in the Mat Pen, dosed her with FerAppease and then put them in the pen together for the night. In the morning she also adores her calf.
Is this absolute proof that it works? No. But my experience in adopting calves says that even the ones that want a calf take a little longer than overnight to convince them that the new calf is theirs. In 30+ years of calving cows out I have only ever had 1 cow that walked in the barn, we got the calf sucking and they walked out as a pair. It seems a little far fetched to believe that 2 cows would do the same 2 nights in a row. There was no kicking, head butting or any other shenanigans. And turn them out of the barn without the calf and they are immediately looking for their calf. I will gain more evidence (good or bad) as calving season progresses, I am sure. We have 250+ cows left to calve.
The video is of the second cow and her adoptee from last night. She had been turned out of the barn for a good part of the morning and this is when I let her back in (she couldn't wait to get back in the barn)

Glad you are having good results with it. I didn’t see any significant difference in feeder cattle at weaning. Not enough to purchase again. I talked to some steer jocks and they swear by it. They use it every show they go to.

 

[W.B.]

Glad you are having good results with it. I didn't see any significant difference in feeder cattle at weaning. Not enough to purchase again. I talked to some steer jocks and they swear by it. They use it every show they go to.

That’s what we noticed here. First bunch of calves we used it on I really couldn’t see any difference. Skipped it on the rest. Still have a little left so I guess it couldn’t hurt to try it on a cow we are grafting a calf on.

 

[Randi]

I didn't expect to have to try the FerAppease again quite so quickly. Unfortunately we lost a week old calf overnight. Not really sure why, mama is a good 10 year old cow and the calf seemed to be healthy yesterday.
This was the process for this cow, #119. At noon, we caught her and applied the FerAppease and turned her back out (in a pen with no calves). Then we captured one of the twins and separated it from it's mother so it would be hungry later on. At 4 pm I got #119 back in, caught her in the mat pen and checked her out for mastitis, always a suspicion when you lose a calf for no apparent reason. She tested fine. I went and grabbed the calf and by now it was hungry, showed it the teat, it took about 30 seconds to convince it to suck the cow. Once it was aggressively sucking I let the cow out of the headgate into a pen. The calf followed and in a couple minutes went to sucking.
The video was taken immediately after I let the cow out of the Maternity Pen. She has no restraints or restrictions other than the size of the pen.
This is a 10 year old cow, that lost her week old calf within the last 24 hours. I wouldn't say she loves this calf yet, but she is not attempting to fight it off. She did half-heartedly kick at the calf when it tried to suck from behind. If it sucked from her side she did nothing. She did sniff the calf several times.
I am certain that this process would not be this easy without the FerAppease. 10 year old cows that just lost their calf do not let other calves suck them without throwing a fuss.

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

We have used it for a couple years with success mostly on calves.

 

[Randi]

I had someone comment of FB that they used it when they reintroduced 31 mature breeding bulls after breeding season and it made a huge difference.

 

[texoman]

I've seen it work on a man's calves he took to the vet for working up. One was forgotten on the ferappease part, and it paced the lot and bawled like weaning calves do. The others walked out of the trailer, got a drink, and laid down in the sun. It convinced me enough to buy a bottle and try it out when the time comes.