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Breeding / Calving Issues
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<blockquote data-quote="farmerjan" data-source="post: 1451480" data-attributes="member: 25884"><p>We have also found that if the cow doesn't have a chance to get to her dead calf that it seems to be easier to get her to take a graft. If she has tried to lick it and get it to "come alive" or even if it was alive then died, I nearly always take it away, out of sight, skin the dead calf and make sure the new "graft" calf has had at least one bottle of milk from the momma that I want to take the calf, then put them together in 12 hours or so when the calf is hungry again. The cows are able to tell if the calf is "theirs" by the smell and if their own milk has gone through the new calf, the manure smells right.</p><p>And often, I get lucky and after not having her calf for 12 or more hours, many of our cows have taken a new calf once it gets latched onto the teat, with little or no fuss at all.</p><p></p><p>Since I have several jerseys and guernseys and crosses, I put extra calves on them and the best way is to keep the new calves I want to graft with the cows own calf, and let them all go on the cow at the same time and in a few milkings they will let them all nurse with a minimum of fuss. So if I have 2 fresh cows, their calf and the extra one or two will be kept in a separate pen so they all stay together and become like the bobbsy twins; I have one cow now that has her calf and 2 holsteins and I call them the 3 musketeers.... I bring the cows in to the stall twice a day and give them some grain and once the calves figure out that their milk wagon has arrived, they go right on the cow and we are set. Have had an odd cow over the years that didn't want to take a calf but not often.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="farmerjan, post: 1451480, member: 25884"] We have also found that if the cow doesn't have a chance to get to her dead calf that it seems to be easier to get her to take a graft. If she has tried to lick it and get it to "come alive" or even if it was alive then died, I nearly always take it away, out of sight, skin the dead calf and make sure the new "graft" calf has had at least one bottle of milk from the momma that I want to take the calf, then put them together in 12 hours or so when the calf is hungry again. The cows are able to tell if the calf is "theirs" by the smell and if their own milk has gone through the new calf, the manure smells right. And often, I get lucky and after not having her calf for 12 or more hours, many of our cows have taken a new calf once it gets latched onto the teat, with little or no fuss at all. Since I have several jerseys and guernseys and crosses, I put extra calves on them and the best way is to keep the new calves I want to graft with the cows own calf, and let them all go on the cow at the same time and in a few milkings they will let them all nurse with a minimum of fuss. So if I have 2 fresh cows, their calf and the extra one or two will be kept in a separate pen so they all stay together and become like the bobbsy twins; I have one cow now that has her calf and 2 holsteins and I call them the 3 musketeers.... I bring the cows in to the stall twice a day and give them some grain and once the calves figure out that their milk wagon has arrived, they go right on the cow and we are set. Have had an odd cow over the years that didn't want to take a calf but not often. [/QUOTE]
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