Need help with a calf killer!

[BIZIN]

Hey guys, we bought some bred horned hereford heifers from a guy and had a heifer calve last week and she beats on the calf pretty good, kicks at him, pushes him around when he is trying to suck. I think she is gonna kill him one day. I have them in the barn and the only time he can suck is when I am in the pen with them or when she is eating. We calve around 450 cows and I have never seen this go on so long. Usually the heifer becomes a mother after a few days and never hurts him again. Some cows I have seen do this and it gets the calf going and once he sucks they never do it again. Is there anything I can do with this heifer to stop her from continuing to beat on this calf?

 

[jilleroo]

What about putting hobbles on her, as detailed in other threads recently. That would steady her down a little and give the calf a chance to get on easier.

 

[dun]

We hada cow do that with her second calf. The bottle calf did real well and the weigh cow brought good money

 

[Anonymous]

Are you positive that is her calf trying to suck?

 

[randiliana]

Send her to town.

 

[jillaroo]

Here are some things that we do when a cow won't let a calf suck (most of the time, it's when we're grafting a calf):

Sedate the cow. I use Atravet IV and hobble her as well.

Throw a dog in with the pair (not your best dog) and hopefully she'll mother the calf to protect it.

As a last resort, we have choked the cow with a rope around her neck and tied to a stout post. This is not ideal, but it will work so the calf can suck. Let the cow fight it until she's almost out of air, then latch the calf onto her and give her slack. If she start screwing around again, grab the calf and take out the slack. You may have to do this a couple of times a day for a few days and it is a two person job.

Good luck!

 

[piedmontese]

well if i had 450 cows to calve i would load them both up and take em 2 the sale.should b a pretty good check too.

 

[tytower]

Man, she probably has cracked teats or is sore for some reason -have you checked ? Try some vaseline if so and hand soften her for a while . If mastitis put the injectible in and strip each affected teat for a while then let the calf on after or give it the bucket but keep the milk flowing .
Put the cow on a post and tie back the back leg

 

[Angus Cowman]

Man, she probably has cracked teats or is sore for some reason -have you checked ? Try some vaseline if so and hand soften her for a while . If mastitis put the injectible in and strip each affected teat for a while then let the calf on after or give it the bucket but keep the milk flowing .
Put the cow on a post and tie back the back leg

I didn't think you were supposed to interfere

 

[tytower]

Man, she probably has cracked teats or is sore for some reason -have you checked ? Try some vaseline if so and hand soften her for a while . If mastitis put the injectible in and strip each affected teat for a while then let the calf on after or give it the bucket but keep the milk flowing .
Put the cow on a post and tie back the back leg

I didn't think you were supposed to interfere

What you gonna run a vendetta or something ?
Clearly I avoid passing on heredity defects - you'd be one who does not
If you have an argument to debate the benefits of pulling out calves and calves that can't find the teat please go right ahead and put it.

 

[Ruark]

First thing to do is attempt to figure out "why." As AC stated, maybe the sucking is painful for some reason - a sore or injured teat, mastitis, whatever. Or maybe the calf is sucking in a wrong way, or has some mouth feature that makes it painful (e.g. a thorn in the lip, perhaps). If it turns out to be entirely behavioral, I'd cull the cow and make a decision about bottling the calf or finding it a surrogate. There are some posts somewhere else here about people keeping a Holstein handy for this purpose.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Man, she probably has cracked teats or is sore for some reason -have you checked ? Try some vaseline if so and hand soften her for a while . If mastitis put the injectible in and strip each affected teat for a while then let the calf on after or give it the bucket but keep the milk flowing .
Put the cow on a post and tie back the back leg

I didn't think you were supposed to interfere

What you gonna run a vendetta or something ?
Clearly I avoid passing on heredity defects - you'd be one who does not
If you have an argument to debate the benefits of pulling out calves and calves that can't find the teat please go right ahead and put it.

Firts of All you Know nothing about my operation and how I cull or select cows
All I did was mention that you said not to interfere if a cow is calving because it is a way to cull them
and coming from a person with this attitude it seems like a cow that tries to KILL her calf would also be a reason to cull becaus it is for me
as for calving problems I have only pulled 6 calves out of the last 800-1000 calves and 5 of those were hfrs that just needed a little tug never got the pulllers out did it by hand
the one that was a cow was a 100+ lb calf that was upside down and backwards

if I have a cow that won't accept her calf or let it nurse then she gets a oneway ride
I don't have time to mess with an idiot when I have cows that will produce and do it on their own
so quit being a whine a$$ and getting pissy when someone brings up something you said when all they were doing was trying to understand why you interfere for one thing but not another

 

[I luv herfrds]

Bizin we had a heifer do the same thing. Only way the calf could suck is to put her in the head catch and put my Kick Stop stick on her.
Sold the calf as a bottle calf and shipped the cow just like dun did.

You just get that one that will not be a good mother no matter what. She is just not worth losing sleep over.
Let us know what you do.

 

[msscamp]

Is there anything I can do with this heifer to stop her from continuing to beat on this calf?

Yeah, pull the calf and either sell him or raise him as a bottle calf. Ship the heifer. Some cows were never meant to be mothers, only dinner.

 

[pdfangus]

again.....as many ways to do it as there are cattle owners.

 

[Nesikep]

I'll interfere when necessary every time.. I'm only hurting my own pocketbook by not doing it, now wether keep the cow after, that's an entirely different question...

I have a similar cow, doesn't care about it's calf when it's born, but will kill you if you go near it.. I'm excited about the day I get to load her on a truck, but running a small herd (22 cows), I'll keep her until I have a good replacement since she still pays bills... shipping a couple cows when you have a couple hundred is different than shipping a couple when you have 20... this year I have one that injured it's knee in a fight and after 3 weeks still can't walk on it, so she's out, and a heifer that had a 120 lb calf and has serious tears inside from it, so she's probably out too, and last year I only had 2 choice heifers to keep, so I'm at my quota for culls... however, this year it looks like I'll have LOTS of nice replacement heifers, so next year will be some hard culling.