skyline
Well-known member
OK, here's my newbie question of the week. I had a heifer have her first calf sometime yesterday, as a new calf showed up for feeding this morning. Nice little heifer calf. The mom was acting real jumpy and wasn't really mothering like I thought she should, but I decided to give her a little time and see what happened. It looked as if the calf had nursed, since it's nose had that wet look. Went to work and came home at lunch. It's been in the low 30's and drizzling here all day. At lunch, I searched the pasture in the rain and the calf was by itself in the brush away from the herd. Mom was with the herd. I got the calf up, called the cows, the mom claimed the calf and walked away with it. The calf had an orange BM (colostrum, I understand) when I got it up, so I felt good that it had some milk. I came in tonight, 33 degrees and light rain, and the calf was not with the herd at the hay rolls. The mom was. I drove around in my muddy pastures and finally found the calf, got it up, called the cows, mom claimed the calf, and the calf started nursing.
This isn't the first time that I have had cows act this way, but it worries me that they lay their calves down and go about their business with the herd on opposite ends of the pasture. Is this normal? Am I worrying too much? (Go easy on me, I can imagine some of you crusty old-timers rolling your eyes on this one.)
This isn't the first time that I have had cows act this way, but it worries me that they lay their calves down and go about their business with the herd on opposite ends of the pasture. Is this normal? Am I worrying too much? (Go easy on me, I can imagine some of you crusty old-timers rolling your eyes on this one.)