I am new to this board and also to the cattle business (if that is what you want to call it, with only 2 big cows) I have a Holstein cow that gave birth on Thursday night to a little (I mean little) baby girl. She only weights about 35# and understand she should weigh over 85#close to 90# and she is less than 24 inches high. So here is my question, Could she be a twin where the other twin died and was reabsorbed or could she be a dwarf? Either way how can you tell if she is dwarfed and if she is a twin how can you tell if she is a freemartin. She is just as cute as she can be. I have heard that most dwarfs are girls but it is not very common in dairy cattle mostly found in beef and especially Hereford. I am having to bottle feed her because her mother is close to 1500# and she will step on her or lay on her but I am feeding her the milk from momma.
new calf
- Thread starter mulecreek
- Start date
Jake
Well-known member
mulecreek":2geqw93g said:
Your cow shouldn't lay or step on her. unless you have a miniature holstein which assumably you don't with a 1500# cow the calf is mighty small. let the cow raise the calf, it's her job.
Thank you Jake for the reply but I guess I should have said why she is being bottle fed and why we took her away. The cow is 1500# and she is very tiny that is one reason and reason enough but the farmer that the cow came from told me when I bought her that she has a habit of smothering her babies between her and the barn walls and to remove the calf if it is that small. Apparently she has had 3 babies before and only 1 survived to adult hood (squished). That is why she was for sale, the farmer did not have time to mess with bottle feeding calves. At his dairy he leaves the cows with the mother (stange but true). Just to give you an idea on how tall she is when she stand next to my Boston Terrier she is about 4" taller at the back. Actually I just measured her and she is exactly 22 1/4" and the front shoulders.
