Grafting a calf onto a heifer

[Beefy]

Hunny,
dont worry about msscamp, she gets alittle excited every once in a while. i think the salt thing was a great idea.

i dont think the O No Mo type products would be a lick of good at this point. your best bet is to keep on keeping on until the calf decides shes going to eat when she gets hungry. sounds like it wont be long now.

i dont even bother with skinning calves. afterbirth works sometimes but i rarely have afterbirth/calf skin at the same time i have a calf to work with and that stuff dont keep forever. lol. there are three personality types to work with- one that isnt going to take a calf no matter what, one that readily will take, and one that needs a little persuading. most of the time they just need a little persuading. my bet is your calf will be taking milk from the cow within 3 days and the cow will be missing the calf when she is weaned.

 

[msscamp]

Hunny,
dont worry about msscamp, she gets alittle excited every once in a while. i think the salt thing was a great idea.

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

 

[Hunny Do Ranch]

I wasm't offended as I know everyone has their opinion as it is a forum.

Thanks for all the advice. She has had the calf with her since Monday night and It is now Friday morning so hopefully she will take her soon. The calf wants to suck from her the heifer just won't let her let. She won't stand still. Or she tries to kick a bit. We will see.

 

[dun]

I wasm't offended as I know everyone has their opinion as it is a forum.

Thanks for all the advice. She has had the calf with her since Monday night and It is now Friday morning so hopefully she will take her soon. The calf wants to suck from her the heifer just won't let her let. She won't stand still. Or she tries to kick a bit. We will see.

Good grief, ship the heifer and be done with it. If she hasn;t accepted it by now the odds of her accepting it are getting to be a pretty long shot.

dun

 

[rockridgecattle]

We have used calf claim works great. put it under the cows nose to smell, then on the calf from head to butt in a line. (not the whole bottle).
Give the cow time and quarantene the cow and calf (atleast 3 weeks) because of disease. When she goes out of the barn or pen, disinfect that stall before you put anything in there.
good luck

 

[Hunny Do Ranch]

We have used calf claim works great. put it under the cows nose to smell, then on the calf from head to butt in a line. (not the whole bottle).
Give the cow time and quarantene the cow and calf (atleast 3 weeks) because of disease. When she goes out of the barn or pen, disinfect that stall before you put anything in there.
good luck

How old was the calf when you did it and how long had it been since she had lost a calf?

 

[rockridgecattle]

we have done several. Sometimes the cow just calved and so did one with twins. those are the easiest.
There was one she had calved two days pervious and was a heiffer. She took a newborn realitivly quickly with the calf claim.
Last year we had one cow calve with twins Cow 66. We had another cow 96 that had calved with dead twins and she got a bit sick. She had had a big calf that was dead and we did not think to go in a check for a twin. Day and a 1/2 later we realized she was kinda sick. So we checked her out cause we were not 100% sure she had cleaned. Sure enough a dead twin inside. After all that and we also gave her a day to get her bearings and got this idea about putting the one of 66's twins on her. They were a little over a week old.
So the cow 96 had calved what 2 days and the twins were over a week. the calf claim was used several times the cow 96 and the calf 66 were both stubborn. Took about a week and hard work and they bonded.
We have used it several times even with a cow that has had troubles accepting her calf or not licking the calf when it was born. Works great.
Good luck.

 

[Hunny Do Ranch]

Just a update on the heifer. She is more concerned about the calf and I think the calf has been sucking when I'm not there as her bag isn't as full anymore and she is fully of beans. I am going to put food colouring on the heifer so I can tell if the calf is sucking. Shouldn't be long now.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Sounds like you're over the hump. Got to say, you were persistant!

 

[Hunny Do Ranch]

Well I think they are gonna go out today. That food colouring was sucked off in about an hour and she hasn't stopped eating. I think what made that heifer take her was we hobbled her for a day and just gave up kicking her. She wasn't kicking bad though.

 

[Hunny Do Ranch]

Well she excepted her about 4 days ago. She is now very protective of her.

 

[MoGal]

Congrats!! You certainly had patience and perserverence.

I have a 4 yr old cow that lost her calf and I tried to get her to accept another as she's a good momma, has plenty of milk and good disposition............ don't know if it was because this calf was black (all 3 of hers have been gold or red) or she is just one that won't accept another, but after putting her up in the chute twice a day for five days and she still wanted to kick him or if he got close to her head butt him, the hubby said to take him home as a bottle calf.

So again, congrats!.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I'm curious what ended up working to mix with the food coloring? We always keep teat tip on hand which is blue in color and VERY thick. I load it up with food coloring & white teats will be Easter Egg blue :shock: Black teats don't work. Haven't figured out what to use to turn them white!

 

[Hunny Do Ranch]

The food colouring idea is awesome. I just put it on a sandwich baggy on my hand and got it rubbed on. It really stains them so you know they are really really sucking when they get it off (hahahaha). I think it would work on black teats a bit if the calf isn't black. The food colouring rubs off on their face and you can see it pretty good. I was gonna get some pics of it but you know how it is.

I'm curious what ended up working to mix with the food coloring? We always keep teat tip on hand which is blue in color and VERY thick. I load it up with food coloring & white teats will be Easter Egg blue :shock: Black teats don't work. Haven't figured out what to use to turn them white!

 

[Chuckie]

Hunny, Thanks for sharing your story. I would never have thought of using food coloring.

I have been told, after you get the milk from the new cow into the calf, and the cow can smell her milk coming out the other end, it makes it easier.

Congratulations on the transfer!
Chuckie