Can't believe that coyotes are getting 3 week old calves. Unless they are very small, even still, they are old enough to be able to run and if there are several mommas in the field, most always some of them will go to defend a calf that is being run or bawling. The last 5 calves out of our first calf heifers have weighed in the 60's so fairly small which I like. But at 2-3 days, they are up and running fast enough that I can't catch them and let one holler and more than one momma will come running. Sounds more like a possible cougar, or a bear carrying them off. But anything is possible. I do think the game camera is a good idea....
Sorry for your loss. We've had a crappy week; one had a dead fetus about 6 months I guess, no hair and she was dead also. Don't know if she had another in her or what. Doesn't matter, dead is dead. Then had one get into the only mucky spot on the place under an old barn, get stuck, had to pull her out and didn't get up and died 3 days later. She was a bought one, had had a dead calf, and was real young and didn't bag up so we dried her up and decided to just breed her with the fall group. Wrong decision.
It's been a not very good start to the fall calving season. Gonna weed out some that we didn't plan to get rid of. Plenty of hay but not going to carry any dead weight this fall and winter. Grass has dried up and maybe rain by next week but it won't bring it back much. Probably won't see any fall regrowth this late in the season now, should've been getting the fall growth this month.