Pet Cow Keeps Going Into Milk

[Little Cow]

Fiona is our son's pet cow. She has given us some great beef over the years (she has a bad udder). However, when we wean her steer calf for 30 days+, she dries up for awhile, then starts producing milk again! We have played the separate-her-from-her-calf game several times now, with the same result. She does this with every calf, but it has never been this bad. Kept him separate for two months this last time, still, she's back into milk. He's a yearling, btw, so too soon to slaughter. The worst part is that 1) she loses too much condition, and 2) he is old enough to damage her already cone shaped udders. She is locked up now, but it is not feasible for us to separate and feed one of them hay until he is old enough for slaughter next spring. I have a plastic nose ring with spikes on it I am considering trying. I have no idea if that will work.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

We have started to wean with nose blabs. I have yet to have a calf be able to nurse once it is put in. We leave it in for a week, then remove the calves from the pen and you hardly hear a squeek out of them. I bet you could leave the nose blab in until he was butchered. These are the ones we use...

https://quietwean.com/

 

[Redgully]

We have started to wean with nose blabs. I have yet to have a calf be able to nurse once it is put in. We leave it in for a week, then remove the calves from the pen and you hardly hear a squeek out of them. I bet you could leave the nose blab in until he was butchered. These are the ones we use...

https://quietwean.com/

Good to see someone using them the way they are meant to be used. If you leave the calves with mothers they figure out how to drink around them. But i have found it also depends how much patience mum has too!

 

[Little Cow]

I think I like that better. The one I have is used more in the dairy industry. Our calves are too smart. Dang little twerp would probably use the spiky nose ring to get more than his share of food! He'd be out there wielding it like a lightsaber.

 

[Little Cow]

Fer crying in a bucket!

The bull was sold. She was separate. She has Franken-udder. How, for the love of puppies, did she get pregnant?

Yep, while Ms Fiona WAS feeding her not-quite-a-yearling calf, she also had a trick up her sleeve. Serious changes under the tail indicate calf on the way. Aaaaaaah! Why don't these creatures follow The Plan? Did we not talk about downsizing with them? And, why, after all these years, did she breed back so soon after her last calf? Makes me wonder if the calf is coming early. Unenthusiastic baby watch set. Our son will be thrilled. She's his cow.

When I call this cow a pet, I mean it. She leads, loads, gives hugs, takes treats from little kids gently, and I take her for walks down the road to clean up fence line weeds. She is the Educational Cow and the Nativity Cow for our local church/school. She was supposed to be retired and not worrying about any more beef calves for us (her conformation isn't the kind you'd want to pass on, bless her). I swear she looks smug. She wants to be a mama.

 

[Little Cow]

Those nose flaps arent meant to be left in for more than a week or 2. The calf with start to develop sores in the nose. Just fyi

Thanks the tip!

 

[Little Cow]

Healthy little dun calf born Saturday morning. I treated her for mastitis in one quarter, two others are questionable, and the baby is emptying the fourth. I am worried about how much milk she is getting, so we are supplementing with milk replacer. Today's bottles with have electrolytes mixed in to combat scours. She had a little bit of a messy tail and it's been brutally hot. We created a Dexter sized creep feeder last night and we are hopping the older calf will teach her to use it when she is older. Just got to get her through these next few weeks.