This calf is very intelligent.
A first calf cow’s milk dried up after only one week.
Her heifer calf was found roaming the herd looking for a free meal and ended up in the steer lot.
It took two grown men to catch her. One to distract her while the other approached in her blind spot to grab her tail. As expected, as this was her first contact with humans, she was somewhat wild and resisted but calmed right down when she was placed on the front seat of my truck and I explained the facts of life and the rules of her new home to her during the ride home.
She let me carry her into my infirmary with no resistance. I checked her over and found her to be in excellent health. So I placed my finger in her mouth and she began to suck, which told me she was hungry, so I went home and mixed her up a 2 qt. pitcher of milk.
Now the question was: do I feed her with a nipple and bottle, a pale with a nipple or a pale with no nipple and teach her to drink her milk.
Well, as she was only a week old I decided to take the bottle and pale with nipples and try both.
I hung the pale on the fence as I always do and put the milk in it.
I also put a pint of milk in the bottle (quart Mason jar).
I went over to her placed my finger in her mouth again and she sucked, so I coated the nipple on the jar with milk and stuck it to her mouth and she sucked and took the pint, totally unassisted.
I then led her to the pale hanging on the fence, coated the nipple with milk and pushed her mouth against it and she sucked and consumed the other 3 pints, totally unassisted again.
Now here is where the intelligence comes in.
That was at around 10 AM, and at 6 PM I brought her two more quarts of milk in the pale with the nipple. I placed it on the fence, but she just stood off and watched me, until I squeezed the nipple several times to prime it and to get milk to coat the nipple.
When she heard the clicking of the nipple she ran over to the pale and began sucking all on her own. I was amazed as this as it was only the second time in her life she had every heard this noise but she had already associated it with food.
Now it gets better.
The next morning I decided to see if a cow who had lost her calf to coyotes yesterday would adopt her, so I carried her across the road and placed her in the pasture with the cow who had been bawling for 24 hrs over her lost calf, which she thought I stole, as she last seen it in the back of my truck and was waiting at the gate for me to return her calf.
Well, she refused it, but a young heifer that never had a calf let her nurse, but she had no milk. And the young heifer soon grew tired of that BS and kicked her off also.
So I went into the pasture and held the pale while the little girl drank her breakfast.
I let her remain in the pasture with the cows and calves for the day, as she seem to be having a lot of fun and didn’t seem stressed like she was in the imfermary by her self.
Well, come her 6PM feeding time, it hit me. “How in he11 am I going to catch her by myself to put her back in my day care center to protect her from coyotes?
When I got to the gate, she was lying down about a 100 yds out in the pasture with some other calves.
So I placed the pale on the gate, called to her “little girl it’s dinner time” and primed the nipple and she came running and began to suck, so I took the pale off the gate and away from her and “walked” across the road with her behind me and back into the barn where she selected the same pen she was in the day before and entered it and stood where I had placed the pale on the fence the day before.
While she was drinking I placed a pan of dry food, with milk starter sprinkled on top, next to her. When she was finished drinking I reached down got some dry food and placed it in her mouth. After chewing it she reached down and took another bite of the dry food all on her own.
This morning the dry food was almost all gone.
Now this may not sound like much for some of you but this calf’s ability to learn absolutely amazes me. She, at one week old and 70 pounds, is truly a record maker for me. If they all were only this easy.
What should I name her?
I was thinking "amazing" or “keeper” because she is defiantly a keeper.
SL
A first calf cow’s milk dried up after only one week.
Her heifer calf was found roaming the herd looking for a free meal and ended up in the steer lot.
It took two grown men to catch her. One to distract her while the other approached in her blind spot to grab her tail. As expected, as this was her first contact with humans, she was somewhat wild and resisted but calmed right down when she was placed on the front seat of my truck and I explained the facts of life and the rules of her new home to her during the ride home.
She let me carry her into my infirmary with no resistance. I checked her over and found her to be in excellent health. So I placed my finger in her mouth and she began to suck, which told me she was hungry, so I went home and mixed her up a 2 qt. pitcher of milk.
Now the question was: do I feed her with a nipple and bottle, a pale with a nipple or a pale with no nipple and teach her to drink her milk.
Well, as she was only a week old I decided to take the bottle and pale with nipples and try both.
I hung the pale on the fence as I always do and put the milk in it.
I also put a pint of milk in the bottle (quart Mason jar).
I went over to her placed my finger in her mouth again and she sucked, so I coated the nipple on the jar with milk and stuck it to her mouth and she sucked and took the pint, totally unassisted.
I then led her to the pale hanging on the fence, coated the nipple with milk and pushed her mouth against it and she sucked and consumed the other 3 pints, totally unassisted again.
Now here is where the intelligence comes in.
That was at around 10 AM, and at 6 PM I brought her two more quarts of milk in the pale with the nipple. I placed it on the fence, but she just stood off and watched me, until I squeezed the nipple several times to prime it and to get milk to coat the nipple.
When she heard the clicking of the nipple she ran over to the pale and began sucking all on her own. I was amazed as this as it was only the second time in her life she had every heard this noise but she had already associated it with food.
Now it gets better.
The next morning I decided to see if a cow who had lost her calf to coyotes yesterday would adopt her, so I carried her across the road and placed her in the pasture with the cow who had been bawling for 24 hrs over her lost calf, which she thought I stole, as she last seen it in the back of my truck and was waiting at the gate for me to return her calf.
Well, she refused it, but a young heifer that never had a calf let her nurse, but she had no milk. And the young heifer soon grew tired of that BS and kicked her off also.
So I went into the pasture and held the pale while the little girl drank her breakfast.
I let her remain in the pasture with the cows and calves for the day, as she seem to be having a lot of fun and didn’t seem stressed like she was in the imfermary by her self.
Well, come her 6PM feeding time, it hit me. “How in he11 am I going to catch her by myself to put her back in my day care center to protect her from coyotes?
When I got to the gate, she was lying down about a 100 yds out in the pasture with some other calves.
So I placed the pale on the gate, called to her “little girl it’s dinner time” and primed the nipple and she came running and began to suck, so I took the pale off the gate and away from her and “walked” across the road with her behind me and back into the barn where she selected the same pen she was in the day before and entered it and stood where I had placed the pale on the fence the day before.
While she was drinking I placed a pan of dry food, with milk starter sprinkled on top, next to her. When she was finished drinking I reached down got some dry food and placed it in her mouth. After chewing it she reached down and took another bite of the dry food all on her own.
This morning the dry food was almost all gone.
Now this may not sound like much for some of you but this calf’s ability to learn absolutely amazes me. She, at one week old and 70 pounds, is truly a record maker for me. If they all were only this easy.
What should I name her?
I was thinking "amazing" or “keeper” because she is defiantly a keeper.
SL
.Better not spoil her too much or next you'll be posting that little " " likes to watch TV with her meals.
