no luck w/newborns

[Anonymous]

most of the time we find our babies already sick, we lose them. last Sunday we found a newborn, maybe three days old. I have been giving her 2 quarts am day of walcos milk replacer 1 cup, and two tablespoons of colostrum suppliment. She is doing great for a happy change. But the two bottles dont seem to be enough so we are now giving her three bottles 1 1/3 cups of milk replacer and 3tablespoons of colustrum. she weights about 100# I cant seem to find any guidelines on when to bump the bottles up to 4 bottles a day or more replacer. The babies usually dont make it or are sent to market. This one is a really nice black beef heifer calf. can someone advise me?

 

[Anonymous]

You have me confused. Are you running beef cows, or dairy cows? Sounds like maybe you are running dairy cows, and milking the cows & raising the calves. First, colostrum is only good for the first 12 hours of birth. Well up to 24 hours, but they do not utilize very much of it after 12 hours. Finding sick/dead calves is unacceptable around here. Other than losing a calf during calving, all calves should be able to be saved. Jeanne

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[Anonymous]

Are you buying half dead calves? When they sell at the local sale like that there usually is a reason!! Momma cows ought to be abl to raise a healthy calf..if you are buying these "culls", you should expect at least 50% mortality
> You have me confused. Are you
> running beef cows, or dairy cows?
> Sounds like maybe you are running
> dairy cows, and milking the cows
> & raising the calves. First,
> colostrum is only good for the
> first 12 hours of birth. Well up
> to 24 hours, but they do not
> utilize very much of it after 12
> hours. Finding sick/dead calves is
> unacceptable around here. Other
> than losing a calf during calving,
> all calves should be able to be
> saved. Jeanne

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[Anonymous]

The first thing you need to do is make sure they are getting their first milk. If you are not on a dairy, find one nearby, and ask if they will sell you some of the first milk.(the dairies near us do) no powder is as good as the real thing. I,ve also found that leaving them just a little hungry(not stuffed)kept them going a little better. I usually increased the amount they were given every week if they were eating good. The other person was right about the salebarn, the only way you see a little baby calf is if something went wrong. I understand the fustration we took in baby calves but gave it up, the best we could do was about a 75% survival rate

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