Grafting a calf

Help Support CattleToday:

it looks like the calf knows where lunch is. heifer seems pretty relaxed and willing to let calf nurse. I think you will be fine. helps if the calf is persistent and returns after getting kicked. some members say that if you have a dog close to the cow will instinctively will protect the calf and help the bonding process. I have not tried that yet.
 
View attachment 2694
Heifer lost her calf. Then I had another heifer prolapse and die while calving.. trying to turn lemons into lemonade. Only been kicked twice so far..
That's one way to do it! Got 'er tied up good!
Dunno if you've read my posts about grafting or not. I'm pretty stubborn....
 
I skin out the dead on and put on the new one.... a little vicks or strong perfume on the nose of the cow and butt and head of the calf so it smells right. Keeping the calf separate from the cow except for nursing for 2 feedings.... Cows recognize their calf by smell ..... and the smell of the manure. Once the cows own milk gets through the calf to come out as manure, they will smell more "like theirs" and be more willing to take it too. I put calves on nurse cows and only letting them nurse for the first 2-3 days while the cow is eating, til they get up and going good so they are really going right on the teat... then the cow says "oh well, I didn't think I had that many but they smell right"...... But on a beef cow, the skin is my best trick and keeping the calf away for the first day or 2 except for feeding time makes them want the udder relief too.
 
I used to buy high somatic cell Holsteins and graft Holstein bull calves onto them... had about 5 cows with like 20 calves running on them. When you're doing that many, the cows just give up. But the first ones are the hardest, cause the cow wants to refuse them. I just tied them up good a couple of times a day and kept them all together in a small pen for about a week. Eventually, they give in.

Had a Simmental that I tried to make that work with too though, and she had her own calf as a part of the bunch.... eventually I had to take her calf away and give it to a different one, or she wouldn't accept the others.
 
I have had very good success by rubbing vanilla extract on the cows nose and lip area and lightly all over the calf. My Vet gave me this trick and I must say, it works better than anything else I have tried. Plus it's quick and cheap.
 
Two or three days ago I had a cow in the chute and was pulling a calf that was DOA. I had a twin in my hotbox that I was about to turn into a bottle calf, so before I finished pulling the dead calf I put the twin underneath and let the fluids pour all over it, rubbed it in, and slid the twin around to the front of the chute. Instant bond. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it not.
 
Two or three days ago I had a cow in the chute and was pulling a calf that was DOA. I had a twin in my hotbox that I was about to turn into a bottle calf, so before I finished pulling the dead calf I put the twin underneath and let the fluids pour all over it, rubbed it in, and slid the twin around to the front of the chute. Instant bond. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it not.
We've found a wet calf is more likely to get licked and accepted by a cow.
 
Two or three days ago I had a cow in the chute and was pulling a calf that was DOA. I had a twin in my hotbox that I was about to turn into a bottle calf, so before I finished pulling the dead calf I put the twin underneath and let the fluids pour all over it, rubbed it in, and slid the twin around to the front of the chute. Instant bond. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it not.
That was a great idea!
 
Back in the early 70's, when Charolais and Simmental 1st came to Georgia, folks had to do this a lot, breeding their little Angus and Hereford cows to them. We used Hai Karate or Brut, covered the cows nose and the calf's body.
 
Two or three days ago I had a cow in the chute and was pulling a calf that was DOA. I had a twin in my hotbox that I was about to turn into a bottle calf, so before I finished pulling the dead calf I put the twin underneath and let the fluids pour all over it, rubbed it in, and slid the twin around to the front of the chute. Instant bond. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it not.
That's how we used to do it with the sheep. We were selecting for triplets, and if we had one that only had a single, we'd graft one of the triplets or a quad onto her this way... if you saw a massively big lamb, you just kind of had to assume that she wouldn't have more than two... but you'd get fooled a lot of times guessing that it was going to be a single and then she'd have two, and that triplet you just made would've been a lot better off on its own ewe than as a triplet grafted on... but once you covered it with that other ewe's fluids, there's no going back to the "real Mom" again.
 
How's she doing with her "new baby"?????
Doing decent but I'm not ready to turn them out of the barn yet. I don't have to tie her anymore but I don't think she let's the calf nurse if I'm not there hollering at her.. if I'm there she grudgingly let's it nurse if I give her a little grain.
 
View attachment 3845
Update: took a while longer than desired, but I finally turned them out together about 2 weeks ago.

how long did it take before your cow gave in? I have one here that I put a calf on her a few days after she lost hers and I didn't bother with skinning her old calf she didn't seem to care for it anyways. A week of locking her up twice a day to let calf feed and it's getting to be an old chore. Maybe put hobbles on her soon. Don't wanna give up on it yet. If this goes on another week though I might have to accept defeat
 
how long did it take before your cow gave in? I have one here that I put a calf on her a few days after she lost hers and I didn't bother with skinning her old calf she didn't seem to care for it anyways. A week of locking her up twice a day to let calf feed and it's getting to be an old chore. Maybe put hobbles on her soon. Don't wanna give up on it yet. If this goes on another week though I might have to accept defeat
I've spent 3 weeks. Two different times.
I leave em penned together.

I'm pretty sure both of my animals were letting the calf nurse b4 that but I wanted to be sure.

I'm pretty stubborn
 
I have a pair that I have been working on for about 6 weeks. I can put them in a small pen and give her a little grain. She grudgingly lets him suck. Still kicks at times. When the grain is done so is she. Next trip to the sale they both go. Her to the kill pen. Him to the young calf pen. I have another kill cow and 2 bottle calves. I think they will all leave together.
 

Latest posts

Top