no milk heifer

[Lazy M]

Heifer calved almost 3 weeks ago and it's milk still hasn't come in. Poor calf is nearly starved to death. She is a good mother and lets the calf nurse, but it doesn't look like she's producing much at all. The calf is pretty weak. It spends about all of its time nursing the mama or trying to steal milk from others. I've been supplementing the calf with a bottle about once a day, but I'm afraid if I give it much more than that it wont keep nursing the heifer. I've put the cow and calf in the barn and have been feeding the cow some grain hoping that that will encourage some more milk production but she is really in good condition anyway.
Any ideas?

 

[Aaron]

2 litres of milk replacer twice a day for the calf and start introducing it to calf starter ration. Ship the heifer. No milk means no milk - which means zero value as a productive cow - but big value as a piece of ground beef.

 

[Lazy M]

That's what I thought too. I figured that if her milk was going to come in it would have by now..

 

[Rafter S]

That's what I thought too. I figured that if her milk was going to come in it would have by now..

The milk should have arrived at the same time as the calf, if not sooner. I agree. Sell her. If she's thin from having the calf, and if you have grass, you might want to go ahead and pull the calf off of her and hold her until she gains some weight before you sell her, but I wouldn't give her another chance.

 

[msscamp]

Is this a heifer that you raised? What kind of condition was she in when she was bred? The reason I ask is because when heifers are over conditioned they tend to develop fat deposits in their udders that interfere with milking. Unfortunately, the fat deposits are difficult to get rid of and are usually a lifelong problem.

 

[Nesikep]

I think they have to be really fat before it really hampers milk production. There are just some poor milkers. If she can't even supply a survival ration, there's something really wrong. I had one heifer this year that didn't produce a whole lot of milk, but the calf wasn't starved, it just was never full... it gained about 1.2 lb/day average, which is less than half of what I expect... One thing she didn't have going for her is that I noticed late in her pregnancy that my yearling heifers were nursing her, and I think it may have thrown everything out of whack in her hormones, etc... I have 2 full sisters and 1 maternal sister and they're all excellent cows.