Weaning calves immediately after birth.

[OwnedByTheCow]

Okay so I see this happen a lot in bigger dairy's where they take the calf away immediately after birth, I was never to pleased with that idea but is there any other reason to take the calf way after birth besides for quick access to milk for large farms. The dairy where I bought my Holstein from does it as well. Should I be doing this as well in a couple years with my cow.

 

[millstreaminn]

With dairy, you are selling the milk to pay the bills. Given that a good holstein will produce in excess of 100 pounds of milk a day, she will make WAY more than her calf needs. Easiest way is to machine milk her, feed the calf and put the rest in the tank. The separation of cow and and calf is the best way to do that.

 

[OwnedByTheCow]

Well, I don't really need the milk for myself but I have heard about a cow used to nurse other calves is that possible? i have heard that people separate them because of illness that could spread , is that something I should be worried about having only one cow?

 

[millstreaminn]

When I had my holsteins I never kept a cow as a nurse cow because I was set up to milk them and sell their milk. You have to remember that a holstein giving even 60 pounds of milk a day is gonna EAT. 40 pounds of corn silage, free choice of your very BEST hay and 35 pounds of 16% feed was not uncommon for my best cows. Mastitis is common with holsteins, a lot has to do with the stress they are under pumping out large volumes of milk. They are NOT durable like beef cattle.

 

[OwnedByTheCow]

yes I am prepared for the feedings she has constantly rotating pasture that never runs out and that will be there two years from now. Could I use her as a nurse cow? Is there anything that I should be worried about?

 

[milkmaid]

The calves aren't weaned at birth - they're just fed on a bottle until they're ready to wean (5-8 weeks).

You could put another calf or two on her - I wouldn't take her own calf away though.

Diseases - just test for them if you're concerned. Johnes, BLV, TB.

 

[OwnedByTheCow]

At what age do I test for them?

 

[LauraleesFarm]

Olivia,
What the other responses are trying to say is that, you have to feed a dairy cow a very large amoun t of special feed in order to have her produce enough to raise extra calves like you are wanting to do. Dairy cattle are not as durable as beef cattle. They can get very sick very quickly if they are not managed to the "T". It is probably not a good project for a beginner. Additionally, foster calves are just looking for a place to die. They do not want to live and they will get sick real quick and you can lose them. Calves are not meant to be weaned immediately after birth, except in certain situations. As a rule, I would not do this to my cattle unless there was a really good reason.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Well explained Lauralee. :clap:

For those of you that do not know Olivia, she is a 13 year old in 4H working with her own little heifer calf.
So she is not ready for big time ranching yet, she just wants to keep her girl healthy.

 

[suzorse]

I do not pull my dairy calves, I leave them with the cow and milk 2 times a day till the little sucker is taking it all, then I separate for 12 hours and milk what I want then let the calf have the rest and then turn them loose for the day or night , if I am having let down issues I pull the calf till she lets down
or like this year I was having let down issues and edema issues with a first calf heifer so I pulled and sold her bull calf at 2 weeks old, as it was not good for her, calf prices are to high and out of my
reach for getting her a decent foster, so I sell what milk I can and feed pigs and chickens with the rest
as she is giving 7 to 8 gal a day and this is a Jersey / Brown Swiss X same size as a Jersey, and when I finally got her to let down she had a touch of mastitis ,so it was for her health that I got rid of her calf
and have been bottle feeding the heifer from the cow I sold at the same time
works for me at this time Suzanne

 

[milkmaid]

So she has a young calf?

I wouldn't worry about how to raise this calf's offspring yet - you're easily 2 years away from that. 4H will cover many of the management topics so you should get many of your questions answered that way. Do feel free to ask however as often multiple opinions are beneficial.

 

[OwnedByTheCow]

Oh, I was going to rely this information back to my friend who is 15 she has one Holstein who is calving soon and she is going to take the calf away immediately. I don't know why, it makes no sense she would still have milk even if she did not pull the calf. I just want to get other people's opinions before I go telling her.

 

[Bez__]

Okay so I see this happen a lot in bigger dairy's where they take the calf away immediately after birth, I was never to pleased with that idea but is there any other reason to take the calf way after birth besides for quick access to milk for large farms. The dairy where I bought my Holstein from does it as well. Should I be doing this as well in a couple years with my cow.

You show your lack of knowledge.

These calves are not being weaned - you need to think on this a bit before you speak

Removing from the mother and weaning are ENTIRELY DIFFERENT things and you need to NEVER forget that

Bez__

 

[milkmaid]

There's a lot of reasons to remove the calf immediately after birth even though there's enough milk for the calf and people. Health of the calf (improved) and health of the udder (improved) are two of the reasons...

Ask your friend what her reasons are before you consider attempting to change what she's doing.

 

[Chris H]

Okay so I see this happen a lot in bigger dairy's where they take the calf away immediately after birth, I was never to pleased with that idea but is there any other reason to take the calf way after birth besides for quick access to milk for large farms. The dairy where I bought my Holstein from does it as well. Should I be doing this as well in a couple years with my cow.

You show your lack of knowledge.

These calves are not being weaned - you need to think on this a bit before you speak

Removing from the mother and weaning are ENTIRELY DIFFERENT things and you need to NEVER forget that

Bez__

Bez, I saw on a previous reply that she is 13. You are a wealth of knowledge but if you put her off by being too blunt then she might not come back and hear what you have to say.

 

[regolith]

Oh, I was going to rely this information back to my friend who is 15 she has one Holstein who is calving soon and she is going to take the calf away immediately. I don't know why, it makes no sense she would still have milk even if she did not pull the calf. I just want to get other people's opinions before I go telling her.

If your friend, and in time you, are going to be keeping one cow around for family milk or as a nurse cow, there's no reason why you can't let the calf nurse off her mother, though you may want to control access (either so you can take the cow's milk first, or to prevent the calf overfeeding, or to let the cow graze without also needing to round up the calf at the end of the day).

If I ask one of my cows to be a nurse cow I quite often take her own calf away and give her some new ones, simply to reduce the risk that she might favour her own calf and reject the others. But I have lots of bottle calves anyway so making one more isn't any more work.
Your better option might be to loan the heifer to a dairy to be milked when she calves and raise the calf on a bottle. Keeping a milk cow is a lot of work. Fostering calves onto a nurse cow can also be quite tricky; most will take a few days to accept the new calves and one or two never will want them.

 

[tigeralumni2011]

a big factor is removing the calf and tubing them quality colostrum - many dairies will freeze high quality colostrum and use on new calves....they know the calf will get the start it needs to be healthy -- after about 24hrs a calf cant absorb the major nutrients in colostrum anymore -

 

[TexasBred]

We always left newborns on the dairy cattle for 3 days. It was usually that long before mama's milk would be ready to go into the tank. Gave the baby a good jumpstart.

 

[JoyfulJerseys]

At our dairy we also take the calves away straight after they're born, within 12 hours. Many dairymen choose to leave the calves with the dam for the first five days, since the milk the dam gives for the first five days is still basically colostrum and unfit for human consumption - in other words, it can't be sold, so the baby might as well drink it.
From a financial point of view, it more or less makes sense, but in our experience the cows and calves suffer from terrible separation anxiety if their bond is allowed to strengthen over the five days. Removing the calf so early prevents any real bonding from taking place and very few cows and calves will pine for each other when they're taken away that quick. Also gives you a better opportunity to monitor mother and baby for illness.
With the old Jersey cows who are prone to milk fever, we'll sometimes refrain from milking them out for the first day or two, to keep their calcium levels up a bit. Also something you can't do when she's suckling a calf.

 

[Chris H]

At our dairy we also take the calves away straight after they're born, within 12 hours. Many dairymen choose to leave the calves with the dam for the first five days, since the milk the dam gives for the first five days is still basically colostrum and unfit for human consumption - in other words, it can't be sold, so the baby might as well drink it.
From a financial point of view, it more or less makes sense, but in our experience the cows and calves suffer from terrible separation anxiety if their bond is allowed to strengthen over the five days. Removing the calf so early prevents any real bonding from taking place and very few cows and calves will pine for each other when they're taken away that quick. Also gives you a better opportunity to monitor mother and baby for illness.
With the old Jersey cows who are prone to milk fever, we'll sometimes refrain from milking them out for the first day or two, to keep their calcium levels up a bit. Also something you can't do when she's suckling a calf.

You have an excellent point there to support a commercial dairyman taking the calf immediately. And for the owner of a family cow, there's no reason they can't leave a calf on and still milk the cow.