Milk production question

[CWT Angus]

Hello All

I have a 2yo registered Angus cow that had her 1st calf 4 days ago. All went well, she had an easy delivery & the calf was healthy & vigorous from the start. She had a good size bag w/ full teats & the calf nursed withing 20 minutes. All 4 quarters seemed to be nursed pretty evenly. Now I have noticed that he seems to nurse often, and switches teats often. He seems to drink mainly from the front 2 quarters more. The back 2 look fine, just bigger than the front & the teats don't get huge like he is completely ignoring them. I also don't notice him having milk on his face like the other calves do, (but they are 3 1/2 weeks older). I don't expect her to have the volume of milk that the older cows do so I don't know if this is a common situation or not. The calf is active & plays with the others & doesn't seem hungry or frustrated & I see him urinate regularly. It just seems like their nursing habits are different than the other cows, but I don't have a lot of experience with 1st calf heifers, so maybe this is normal?

Any ideas? Is this common? Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

 

[randiliana]

When we have a cow that we think may not have enough milk, we will separate the cow and calf overnight, and then headgate her, tie her leg back and milk her out. Now, I can't tell you how much she should be producing, but use your own judgement on whether or not you think she is milking enough or not.

Of course, the calf may just like switching from teat to teat, but when you are wondering already and the calf is only four days old, it is probably worth checking her out.

 

[Dave]

It could be that she is just a slow milker. Some cows just don't let their milk down as fast as others. It could be that he drains one teat and switches to one that he can get something from. When he drains that one he comes back to the other one which now has milk available. Not all cows will milk out at the same speed.
Dave

 

[Victoria]

I wouldn't worry about it unless he is hungry and/or not fat and healthy.

 

[jcarkie]

if he is acting healthy and energetic i wouldn't worry yet. cows don't let down thier milk right away and she probably has some swelling. udder size is not always a sign of the amount of milk. you can tell how she is doing after a couple of months by the condition of the calf.

 

[CWT Angus]

Here's an update...
Called the vet Tuesday & he said the try & suppliment him with some milk replacer & hopefully her milk will come in. We had put the herd on a new field w/ grass & they would rather eat that than the $125/ton alfalfa. Of course. This doesn't do much to help a 1st year cow w/ milk production. Calf was getting cold in the rain & starting to look wobbly so we brought them in. Had the vet out today as I have been wearing more milk than he has been drinking & he wasn't really getting much. I can struggle with him for a hour with no luck & then he runs to his mom & tries to nurses on her. The vet shot him up w/ BoSe & told me to give him whole milk if he will take it. Also took a notch to test him for BVD to be safe. Not what I wanted to hear. It's a wait & see game now. He did drink 2c. of whole milk just now which is way more than he has taken from me. We'll try again in a couple of hours .