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Breeding / Calving Issues
Poor mothering heifer, second chance or ship?
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<blockquote data-quote="M.Magis" data-source="post: 1722312" data-attributes="member: 14175"><p>Had a first time heifer calve last night. Noticed she looked thin this morning and she seemed to be hunting for something. Found the calf laying by the hay ring, fairly muddy but reasonably healthy, although very small. It got up and ran away when I got too close. Caught it and put it and the heifer in the barn so it could be out of the mud. She was way more worried about getting out with the other cows than taking care of the calf. She would perk up and look when the calf bawled, but every time it tried to nurse she kicked it down. Its too little to take much of that so I fed it a bottle of colostrum replacement and brought it up to the house. It will just be my younger sons 4H feeder, assuming it makes it. It's possible with more time and effort the heifer would have warmed up to her calf, but I'm not sure and it's way too muddy to be driving back and forth to the barn several times per day. My first thought is to haul the heifer to the sale once it freezes. Too hasty? I've never bothered with heifers before so not sure if she's likely to do better the second time around. Her dam is one of the best cows I've owned so I was looking forward to seeing how she turned out. But I hate the thought of her doing this again next year.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="M.Magis, post: 1722312, member: 14175"] Had a first time heifer calve last night. Noticed she looked thin this morning and she seemed to be hunting for something. Found the calf laying by the hay ring, fairly muddy but reasonably healthy, although very small. It got up and ran away when I got too close. Caught it and put it and the heifer in the barn so it could be out of the mud. She was way more worried about getting out with the other cows than taking care of the calf. She would perk up and look when the calf bawled, but every time it tried to nurse she kicked it down. Its too little to take much of that so I fed it a bottle of colostrum replacement and brought it up to the house. It will just be my younger sons 4H feeder, assuming it makes it. It's possible with more time and effort the heifer would have warmed up to her calf, but I'm not sure and it's way too muddy to be driving back and forth to the barn several times per day. My first thought is to haul the heifer to the sale once it freezes. Too hasty? I've never bothered with heifers before so not sure if she's likely to do better the second time around. Her dam is one of the best cows I've owned so I was looking forward to seeing how she turned out. But I hate the thought of her doing this again next year. [/QUOTE]
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Poor mothering heifer, second chance or ship?
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