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Breeding / Calving Issues
Obsessive/Compulsive Sucking Disorder in Calf
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<blockquote data-quote="Katpau" data-source="post: 1168155" data-attributes="member: 9933"><p>Three to four months is about the age I turn mine out with the herd. I don't feed them any different than the rest after that. They will be behind the other calves, but will eventually catch up. Since you are not looking to sell or butcher him, there is no reason for maximizing his growth right now. I haven't had a bottle calf in quite awhile. I have a nice set-up now, and have always been able to graft one onto another cow or get his mother to take him. It's not always easy but better for the calf. I bet if you had penned this calf with his mother for a few days she would have come around. I know it is natural to feel panic when the calf is not able to nurse immediately, and I think you did the right thing getting him colostrum right away, but I bet if you would have left him and the cow penned together in a small area, that the cow would have been ready to take him once her bag was full. It might have helped to milk her and give the calf the milk.</p><p></p><p>Many years ago I made the same mistake when I first began raising beef cattle. I found one separated from his heifer mother and when she did not recognize it after I brought it to her, I brought it home and ended up feeding it. I kind of wanted a bottle calf at the time and I didn't have a good pen with shelter to bring them into, so I know now that I acted too soon. Now I have a small pen with a roof at one end that I use as a sick pen or nursery. If a cow or heifer seems to be confused and not accepting the calf, I pen them where she can't get too far away. This happens mostly with twins, where the cow takes one and leaves the other. I once had a cow whose couple day old calf went missing. She ended up in a pasture a mile away, and started nursing an older calf. We found her calf a week latter where we had seen it earlier with the cow. It was down in a ravine by a creek and still alive. We took it home and fed it and went and caught the cow. We put them together, but she did not recognize the calf. She wanted the one she had stolen. We milked the cow and fed the calf again and left them overnight. By morning the hungry calf had managed to convince that cow to feed him. I was able to turn them back out with the others a few days latter. We have since split the ranch into smaller pastures and we rotate through them. I keep the cows in pastures under 40 acres until the calves are old enough to band together and keep up with the cows.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Katpau, post: 1168155, member: 9933"] Three to four months is about the age I turn mine out with the herd. I don't feed them any different than the rest after that. They will be behind the other calves, but will eventually catch up. Since you are not looking to sell or butcher him, there is no reason for maximizing his growth right now. I haven't had a bottle calf in quite awhile. I have a nice set-up now, and have always been able to graft one onto another cow or get his mother to take him. It's not always easy but better for the calf. I bet if you had penned this calf with his mother for a few days she would have come around. I know it is natural to feel panic when the calf is not able to nurse immediately, and I think you did the right thing getting him colostrum right away, but I bet if you would have left him and the cow penned together in a small area, that the cow would have been ready to take him once her bag was full. It might have helped to milk her and give the calf the milk. Many years ago I made the same mistake when I first began raising beef cattle. I found one separated from his heifer mother and when she did not recognize it after I brought it to her, I brought it home and ended up feeding it. I kind of wanted a bottle calf at the time and I didn't have a good pen with shelter to bring them into, so I know now that I acted too soon. Now I have a small pen with a roof at one end that I use as a sick pen or nursery. If a cow or heifer seems to be confused and not accepting the calf, I pen them where she can't get too far away. This happens mostly with twins, where the cow takes one and leaves the other. I once had a cow whose couple day old calf went missing. She ended up in a pasture a mile away, and started nursing an older calf. We found her calf a week latter where we had seen it earlier with the cow. It was down in a ravine by a creek and still alive. We took it home and fed it and went and caught the cow. We put them together, but she did not recognize the calf. She wanted the one she had stolen. We milked the cow and fed the calf again and left them overnight. By morning the hungry calf had managed to convince that cow to feed him. I was able to turn them back out with the others a few days latter. We have since split the ranch into smaller pastures and we rotate through them. I keep the cows in pastures under 40 acres until the calves are old enough to band together and keep up with the cows. [/QUOTE]
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