So, here's the backstory:
We're new to cattle. We have a few hereford and hereford X semital cows. The neighbors' Angus bull escapes into our pasture on a regular basis. So far, all calves resulting from his visits have been black with white markings on the face.
Last week, we were surprised by a day-old calf in our pasture. We couldn't identify any of our cows as the mother. He tried to nurse off all of them, and they all rejected him equally. The calf is COMPLETELY BLACK, no white markings at all. We were hoping one of our cows would accept him, but we had to start bottle feeding him since he started to weaken due to lack of food.
It may be feasible that this calf is NOT from our cows and is a lost calf from our neighbor's -- however, his entire herd is in their far pasture, acres and acres away from ours with several fences in between.
What do y'all think? Is this a rejected calf from one of our cows, or an escapee from our neighbors?
We're new to cattle. We have a few hereford and hereford X semital cows. The neighbors' Angus bull escapes into our pasture on a regular basis. So far, all calves resulting from his visits have been black with white markings on the face.
Last week, we were surprised by a day-old calf in our pasture. We couldn't identify any of our cows as the mother. He tried to nurse off all of them, and they all rejected him equally. The calf is COMPLETELY BLACK, no white markings at all. We were hoping one of our cows would accept him, but we had to start bottle feeding him since he started to weaken due to lack of food.
It may be feasible that this calf is NOT from our cows and is a lost calf from our neighbor's -- however, his entire herd is in their far pasture, acres and acres away from ours with several fences in between.
What do y'all think? Is this a rejected calf from one of our cows, or an escapee from our neighbors?