Grafting calves on a dairy cow?

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Sniper338

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How rough is it getting a dairy cow to put calves on vs bottle feeding?

Id imagine its probably all up to the cow and how receptive she is taking calves on?
 
All seams to depend on the cow but I have had a lot of luck with jerseys my one raised five plus her own last year
 
Sniper338":1xrkaary said:
How rough is it getting a dairy cow to put calves on vs bottle feeding?

Id imagine its probably all up to the cow and how receptive she is taking calves on?
Use to raise a lot on dairy cattle that were not giving enough milk to be profitable. Would keep the calves in a small pen and bring the cow to them twice a day. After calves learned to nurse her and she accepted them would move them to a small corral for about a week then turn out into a pasture. Had 30-40 calves at a time nursing cows. Eventually just went to bottle feeding.
 
I've got a crate for the cow. Some cows take the calves easier than others. If there is an issue I crate the cow. Usually after three days of nursing the calf has the cow's scent and I can turn them out to pasture.
 
Yes it does depend on the cow. That said, I usually bring the cow in to the calvesfor a week or two and once her milk has gone through them, they smell right to her and she usually will take them. If she has her own calf plus some others, they will learn quick to go nurse her when her calf goes on her.
Just had a jer/hol cross heifer calve. Got 2 more holsteins to put on her, 4 days later. She let them nurse from the first as long as she was eating grain. Knocked them off the first 2 days after the grain was done, now is tolerating them pretty well. I'm leaving her in the pen all day with them and she isn't bothering them too much, then turning her out at night. By next week I am sure she will be okay with them. I just want them up and real active when they go out so they will stick with her calf and follow right along.

Most holstein cows make alot of milk and can scour calves if you don't have enough. Used to put 6 on my one 3/4 holstein. Put 4 on her, then pulled 2 off and put 2 more in there and made sure they all got enough...started leaving her with them for 6-8 hours a day and they were learning to go and get a little, watched that none got scours or looked like they were being shortchanged. After about 2+ weeks, they were all looking good and they went out with her. She was always milked out and they all grew but that was an extremely good cow.
 

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