Separated Cow & Calf

[A6gal]

My neighbor moved his cattle from his cattle lease down the road last Wednesday and left a 3 month old calf behind. I found it laying along my fence line next to my cows late Sunday night and ran it off the county road into my front field so he could pick it up. This morning it was stuck in my cattle guard. We got it out of the cattleguard and put it in the pens and called the neighbor. He came to pick it up and was taking it to reunite it with it's momma.

My question is how long can a calf that age be away from it's momma without her drying up. The calf was weak and exhausted but still had fight in it.

 

[A6gal]

Thanks, TN. It's good to know the cow won't be dried up. Maybe all will turn out okay for the calf. I stayed up all night worrying about the poor thing.

He moved three trailer loads and noticed the cow bawling and looking for her calf after he had dropped off the last load. He went back and couldn't find the calf.

I know I would have noticed but I only have 30 head to watch after. He probably has several hundred scattered out on leases across the area.

 

[hopalong]

If he is running several hundred head in several different pastures it would be easy to miss one calf.
If i were to check my cattle everyday and actually count and match each cow up with her calf I would never have enough time to do anything else and even then i could not do it properly!
Then there is the terrain to take into consideration, checking
100 head on flat land would be pretty easy, that same 100 head on rolling hills would require a lot more time, the same 100 head in high hills and canyons and trees would be extremly hard to account for every day.
I know for a fact that because of the country I run cattle in and the amount of acres involved I might not see some of my cattle from one yr to another except at branding, culling,and sale time.
So to condem someone for not missing a calf and not knowing all the facts before condeming is irresposible.

 

[dun]

Friend of mine had the same problem a month ago. He, his dad and brother all were hauling trailers and moved the cows from 2 places and split them up to 5 smaller places. Took a week to get the right cows with the right calves, and that was with ear tags in both the cows and the calves

 

[msscamp]

If he is running several hundred head in several different pastures it would be easy to miss one calf.
If i were to check my cattle everyday and actually count and match each cow up with her calf I would never have enough time to do anything else and even then i could not do it properly!
Then there is the terrain to take into consideration, checking
100 head on flat land would be pretty easy, that same 100 head on rolling hills would require a lot more time, the same 100 head in high hills and canyons and trees would be extremly hard to account for every day.
I know for a fact that because of the country I run cattle in and the amount of acres involved I might not see some of my cattle from one yr to another except at branding, culling,and sale time.
So to condem someone for not missing a calf and not knowing all the facts before condeming is irresposible.

I tend to disagree. If the cows are in a situation where they come into a corral to be fed, the gate is closed and the cows are loaded, then I can see where it would be possible to miss a calf - provided the cow was among the first to be loaded. But I'm thinking it should be fairly obvious at unloading that a cow is missing her calf - providing the owner is paying attention. In the case of cows grazing pasture, those cows would have to be rounded up somehow, and it would be fairly difficult to miss a cow running around and bawling for her calf since the natural reaction for a cow upon being 'disturbed' (for lack of a better word) is to find her calf. There is the added factor that when hauling by trailer, most people match calves and cows up beforehand to prevent this very problem. Calves go in the front of the trailer, cows go in the back so the cow is there to meet the calf when he/she gets off the trailer.

 

[hopalong]

If he is running several hundred head in several different pastures it would be easy to miss one calf.
If i were to check my cattle everyday and actually count and match each cow up with her calf I would never have enough time to do anything else and even then i could not do it properly!
Then there is the terrain to take into consideration, checking
100 head on flat land would be pretty easy, that same 100 head on rolling hills would require a lot more time, the same 100 head in high hills and canyons and trees would be extremly hard to account for every day.
I know for a fact that because of the country I run cattle in and the amount of acres involved I might not see some of my cattle from one yr to another except at branding, culling,and sale time.
So to condem someone for not missing a calf and not knowing all the facts before condeming is irresposible.

I tend to disagree. If the cows are in a situation where they come into a corral to be fed, the gate is closed and the cows are loaded, then I can see where it would be possible to miss a calf - provided the cow was among the first to be loaded. But I'm thinking it should be fairly obvious at unloading that a cow is missing her calf - providing the owner is paying attention. In the case of cows grazing pasture, those cows would have to be rounded up somehow, and it would be fairly difficult to miss a cow running around and bawling for her calf since the natural reaction for a cow upon being 'disturbed' (for lack of a better word) is to find her calf. There is the added factor that when hauling by trailer, most people match calves and cows up beforehand to prevent this very problem. Calves go in the front of the trailer, cows go in the back so the cow is there to meet the calf when he/she gets off the trailer.

If is the key word, none of know the entire situation to be able to judge.
I have loaded using temporary corrals out in pastures where we rounded up as we loaded onto a pot belly and not been picky about how they were loaded. moved them to a different section and headed back for another load letting them head for the hills, done that with several pot's and still missed a few!
Now I admit that someone that only has a few head on a few acres could pretty well tell if one pair was not together but try it with 3 or 4 pot loads field loaded and shipped to another section there would be some mass confusion of pairs for several hours,