Orphan no more? Picture posted pg 3

[Little Cow]

Hi there,

Haven't been around in awhile. Been busy with our 15 month old son (napping right now) and we're at the tail end of our calving season. I raise those little "ankle-biter" cows. You know, Dexters. :lol2:

Has anyone used Orphan-No-More when introducing a calf to a foster cow?

My other option is to give her a little Ace before introducing the new calf.

My scheme is to pick up a local five day old bottle calf for $25 and put him on my cow that just had a stillborn calf. She lost her calf yesterday. I left the calf in with her so she could figure out he was gone vice run around looking for it. I just buried it this morning and she is out there still bellowing for her calf. She's my best momma cow and a great milker but we have no time to milk her. It would be nice to get a freezer calf though. Anyone see a hole in my scheme? :idea:

 

[angie1]

What kind of calf are you getting for $25?

 

[Little Cow]

Good point!
Dairy cross bull calf. They are normally that cheap around here if under a week. Go up to $75 at two weeks.

 

[angie1]

No LC, I cannot anticipate a problem if you are successful in getting her to accept the calf, I think it is a very good way to make the best of a bad situation. Just make sure that your baby gets enough to eat, I am wondering if a momma dairy cow does not have a whole lot more in the frig than a momma dexter cow. Good luck!

 

[Little Cow]

I was wondering that myself. Don't want to overtax my good cow either. I think I'll start that creep feed sooner rather than later. ;-)

 

[jilleroo]

Skinning the dead calf might have been a good thing to do, then you couldve tied the hide onto the foster calf. You probably couldve salted the hide a little to hold it until you got the new calf.

 

[Little Cow]

jilleroo- You know, I thought about that AFTER the calf was buried and the momma cow was still bellowing for her calf. I thought 24 hours with her calf would've been enough time for her to realize it wasn't going to get up. It always seemed to work at the big ranches I worked at in college. I do believe these little Dexters have an extra dose of "momma" in them. I am familiar with the skinning technique but it's just been so long since we lost one (we only have five cows).

Live and learn, I suppose.

 

[farm36]

I would look for a Jersey calf they seem to do a bottle better . If you can contact a dairy they might have a newborn fresh off mom and had colstrum .

 

[randiliana]

If you want to adopt a calf on, the best thing you can do when you lose a calf at birth is to remove the dead calf BEFORE she ever has a chance to sniff it. Then when you get a new calf for her she hasn't bonded to her dead calf, and she should pretty much accept the new calf without a fuss. Otherwise, she will keep looking for her 'real' calf and will be harder to get her to adopt the new calf.

 

[jerry27150]

neighbor up the road claims that stuff for mothering works real well

 

[3waycross]

We used it with pretty good success.

Also used it with a first calf heifer that wouldn't let her calf suck.

Pretty good stuff

 

[kenny thomas]

Have used it for years and every time it has worked well. Usually turn them out the next day.

 

[Little Cow]

Thanks guy!

The ranches I worked on actually had the opposite problem. Since the cows are moved into pens before turning them out with the mommas and babies, we could put them in a pen with their calf until they figured it out. If we just took their calf and turned them out they seemed to run the fence line trying to get back to where they last saw their calf. If they had some time, they gave up and went about their business once the calf didn't get up for a long time.

I should've know this cow would be different. She was still around and the calf was very clean.

I really didn't think about getting a feeder calf until after the calf was buried and the momma was still bellowing for it.

I ordered that stuff. It should be here Thursday. We'll try hitting her with a little Ace tomorrow and if that doesn't work, I'll bottle feed him until I can try that Orphan-No-More stuff on Thursday. Gotta ask the dairy what they are feeding and make sure he's banded.

 

[Little Cow]

Jersey? I'll ask. Not sure what they use down here in Florida.

 

[novaman]

You should have skinned the calf. We used to use O-no-mo and had mixed success. We switched to skinning the calf with nothing else and have very good luck. Sometimes it takes a couple days in a smaller pen but with a little patience they take the calf. The other thing I've done is got the spiker calf's hair slightly wet and put ground feed on its back. The grain sticks to the calf's back and the cow will at least smell and lick on the calf a bit. Again this had mixed success. Good luck.

 

[Little Cow]

Novaman- Buying a feeder calf wasn't even on my radar. I just wanted to get the thing buried to keep unwanted creatures away. I'm still new to this area and there aren't any dairies close by. My husband grew up here and remembers many that have since gone out of business. The biggest one trucks in milk from out of state and packages it here.

If I hadn't finally thought about the university and called their dairy unit I wouldn't have been bothering you kind folks. :wave:

 

[Little Cow]

Well, no bull calf located yet. Tara is still calling and her udder is still full.

Didn't get a callback from the dairy supervisor. They were having some sort of event. All other dairies are more than an hour and a half away. We might be just plain out of luck.

 

[kenny thomas]

You may have to milk her out a few times to keep the milk flowing. If she does not get milked or sucked for a few days she will start drying up.

 

[Bez+]

Should have, could have and would have is done - so no matter now.

In fact it may be easy to graft the calf and it may not be.

Get your calf asap and be prepared to bottle feed if it will not be accepted

Anyone who has never had a failure has never grafted many calves or they have been very lucky - some cows will and some cows will not accept a new one.

Use what ever you want - some use salt and molasses, some use the dead calfs skin or some afterbirth.

The stuff you are talking about comes in many different names and with many different ingredients - they all contain a lot of salt and sugars.

So - be it Easy Graft, Orphan No More - or whatever - grab it and use it. They are all pretty much the same and what is sold in your area may very well be the same as what is sold in another area under a different name.

Be prepared to see all sorts of surprizes. She may want to kick the schitzen out of the calf, she may love it immediately.

Be aware - I will repeat the warning - there ARE failures in this. It all depends on your set up and your determination AND the cow.

I have seen nothing happen for days and I have seen them take over night. I have also seen complete failures. None of these would surprize me as it is a crap shoot at best.

Good luck

Bez+

 

[Little Cow]

Thanks, Bez!

I used to be a calf feeder at a dairy, so luckily, I can take over if she rejects. Her udder is still full so I'll give the calf search one more day. Vet checked her out today and she is clean, so that's good news. I have a nice swing gate setup that will work for the intro and/or milking, if I have to go that route. I'll try the Orphan-No-More and then the "dog method". Hehehe! Someone told me about bringing a dog around to see if the cow's protective mechanism would kick in. Our cattle dog will be perfect as she is wise enough to know how close she can get.