I have a heifer that calved 8-26-07........

[3rdgeneration farmer]

She rejected a beautiful bull calf. This is the first one to be pulled or rejected since 2004. Calf is fine, but the heifer's udders are so full and she acts as if she feels bad. Is there something that farmers give to dry her udders or is she just in a bit of shock?

 

[bigbull338]

She rejected a beautiful bull calf. This is the first one to be pulled or rejected since 2004. Calf is fine, but the heifer's udders are so full and she acts as if she feels bad. Is there something that farmers give to dry her udders or is she just in a bit of shock?

all you can do is wait for her to dry up on her own.an thats if your not going to try to get her to take a differant calf.now it could take her 2 or 3 weeks to dry up.

 

[hillrancher]

Milk the heifer and feed the calf the milk. In about three days the mother will at least let the calf nurse while in the chute. Most of the time when the calf is two weeks old it nurse even if the mother doesn't want. The milk going through the calf gets her smell on the calf.
This works most of the time. If this does not you have a bottle calf.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Had a first year heifer this spring reject her calf. We would put her in the head catch and put on a Stop Kick and get the calf to nurse her. She never took that calf.
You could try that, but if she tries to kick the calf to death then get rid of her. She'll never make a good mom. We never keep them. If you can get her to take the calf that would be good.
You could try milking her, but that just brings on more milk.

 

[3rdgeneration farmer]

you're right on sending them down the road. Although, I toughed it out once and the heifer turned out to be a good momma cow. I still have her now with 4 successful, good lookin calves in a row. I see your point though, cut losses now.

 

[rockridgecattle]

BUT, and it's a big but. If you send the cow and calf down the road you are sending your problem on to someone unsuspecting and that is not what a good cattle farmer does. Why shift your problems and grief to someone else.
The way i see it and it's JMO, you have three choices,
1 work with both the cow and the calf and try to make it work and then ship both at weaning, do not keep the calf for a replacement,
2 milk the cow so as not to spend a fortune on milk replacer, but if the cow will beat the calf it's a good chance your body will take a beating if the cow is not restrained.
3 ship the cow and bottle feed the calf.
Unloading your problem on some poor sap is not good business sense in the long run. Just hurts your rep and the rep of cattle producers big and small.
I've worked with a heiffer for almost 3 weeks. It took patience, pannels, no mat pen yet at that time, calf claim, sugar, and the handle of a hay fork over the head several several times.

Good luck

 

[rockridgecattle]

I have a day job and so did my husband up until the end of june. i also run a honey operation and a farm gate egg business. I still have time to clean up my problems and not shift them on to someone else. That is just plain and simple not right. Gotta take the good, bad and the ugly and deal with it.
It's a responsiblity to each other to sell good quality whether it be weaned calves, bred cows, bulls, cowes with calf at foot, culls, and orphan calves. Anything less is just plain not right.

 

[I luv herfrds]

rockridge a majority of people I know would ship the heifer and have the auctioner tell the buyers that she is for slaughter only and not replacement. We have done that before. the feeders bought her.

 

[rockridgecattle]

absolutely i agree, but to ship a cow/calf that has not bonded and just be done with it that is another story. Cause the person who buys the pair is going to have to fight a now stressed cow and have a calf who might not have gotten the colostrum, stressed from fighting the cow and stressed from shipping. what happens next is someone who posts on this board..." I bought a sale barn cow/calf pair, the cow doesn't want the calf and the calf is sick looking, will not take the bottle, what do i do?"

 

[msscamp]

She rejected a beautiful bull calf. This is the first one to be pulled or rejected since 2004. Calf is fine, but the heifer's udders are so full and she acts as if she feels bad. Is there something that farmers give to dry her udders or is she just in a bit of shock?

Did you try putting her in the chute and helping the calf nurse? A lot of times that will do the trick to getting her to accept the calf - especially after a hard pull, but sometimes it won't. If it doesn't work, I wouldn't worry about her drying up - she would be shipped.

 

[CUZ]

She rejected a beautiful bull calf. This is the first one to be pulled or rejected since 2004. Calf is fine, but the heifer's udders are so full and she acts as if she feels bad. Is there something that farmers give to dry her udders or is she just in a bit of shock?

Did you try putting her in the chute and helping the calf nurse? A lot of times that will do the trick to getting her to accept the calf - especially after a hard pull, but sometimes it won't. If it doesn't work, I wouldn't worry about her drying up - she would be shipped.

That's what we tried earlier this year with our (stupid idiot bad momma) heifer. She didn't take to it and won a trip to McDonalds-land. We did give her a couple of weeks to dry up and recover a little condition. Bottle fed the calf.

 

[cashcattle]

you could try giving the cow a shot or two of banamine. If you say her bag is big, maybe it's tender and it hurts when the calf nurses. could be a cheap fix?

 

[msscamp]

you could try giving the cow a shot or two of banamine. If you say her bag is big, maybe it's tender and it hurts when the calf nurses. could be a cheap fix?

Putting her in the chute and helping the calf nurse is cheaper, and produces the same results. ;-)

 

[3rdgeneration farmer]

absolutely i agree, but to ship a cow/calf that has not bonded and just be done with it that is another story. Cause the person who buys the pair is going to have to fight a now stressed cow and have a calf who might not have gotten the colostrum, stressed from fighting the cow and stressed from shipping. what happens next is someone who posts on this board..." I bought a sale barn cow/calf pair, the cow doesn't want the calf and the calf is sick looking, will not take the bottle, what do i do?"

the calf did get (two) colostrum, and if somebody gets a calf that wont take a bottle, tube it! This was a question about the cows udders, not a question of my character. I'm takin care of the calf. Question the people sayin ship, not me. I would beef the cow myself before any of the above suggestions.