New cows- not eating.

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okiewoman90

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Hi, I just bought 6 bred cows and a cow calf pair off a guy. They were on wheat straw only and in OK shape. I knew if I put the groceries to them they would be pretty good cows. So we got them sunday night and turned them into our corral. The grass there is knee deep and we also put 50lbs of feed out for them only a couple of them touch the feed but they were eating grass when we went to bed. Yesterday they wouldn't touch the feed at all and didn't looked like they had made a dent in the grass. I am just worried I got SCREWED! I can't really afford that. I don't know if I should be worried or not.
 
How big is your corral with the grass? I bet they are eating just fine.
Make sure they have fresh water and a mineral supplement.
 
okiewoman... this sounds pretty typical. How far did these cattle travel? Cows can get really stressed out when you move them and it will take them a couple of days to settle into their new environment.

Keep an eye on them, make sure that they have plenty of fresh water, and they should come around in a day or so.
 
:welcome: From one Okie to another.
I tend to agree with TNCAttleman. They may be stressed, and I bet they eventually eat the feed, and they are probably eating more grass than you think. Give em time.
 
Thank yall for the advice. I have been around cows all my life but its a lil bit different with your own herd. (especially when you have a payment you know you have to make lol_ :lol: I am sure they will come around. They are bred and had to travel about an hour and a half. So they would make me not want to eat either.
 
Are they poopin? If they're poopin, oods are they are grazing but Watch them on that tall green grass if all they previously had was straw.
If it's a well used corral where there's been a lot of manure deposited before, they may not go after the grass very hard--cows don't generally like to eat grass from manure mounds.
 
They may take a day or 2 to get accustomed to a new forage. But unless it's contaminated with too much manure they'll get into it fairly quickly
 
some cows aint used to feed. i sell it and some folks tell me they wont eat it. they will..eventually and then theyll stay with it..everythings new..theyll get hungry and theyll eat
 
The corral is closed off so it is never used. I am going to check them tonight and report back. I hope that it will be a good thing. Or I will have to track someone down. lol
 
What kind of feed did you put out there? I think 50 lbs for 7 cows not used to grain is a little much. Are you sure they were just being fed straw? There's just not much food value in straw, they'd starve on straw if that's all they ate for a while.
 
Well the report on the cows.They are doing well we turned them out into our lil nursery corral and they were eating the grass like crazy. Thank you for all your advice. Now I feel good about how they are going to turn out..
 
okiewoman90":295jgk7c said:
Well the report on the cows.They are doing well we turned them out into our lil nursery corral and they were eating the grass like crazy. Thank you for all your advice. Now I feel good about how they are going to turn out..

New diet and a new environment often requires a period of adjustment. Glad all turned out well.
 

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