Well I Am Stumped

[Caustic Burno]

This heifer calved a couple days ago and there is no calf to be found anywhere.
I have walked the creek three times it is only 6 inches deep. Me and DD have crawled through
every thicket no calf. No buzzards, no sign of dogs or coyotes calf is just gone.
Cow knows the calf is dead just laying by the hay rack last couple of days in mourning.
I have checked every pond on the place. There is no sign of anything anywhere.

 

[TexasBred]

Dang that's a kick in the "shin"....check the neighbors..one might have a new "bottle calf".

 

[Hook]

Predator drug it off would be my guess

 

[Craig Miller]

Is that picture recent? None of mine are slicked like that still. Maybe it got through a fence.

 

[MudHog]

False pregnancy? Could she "think" she was pregnant? Do you know she was in fact pregnant?

 

[TN Cattle Man]

CB, is she balling for the calf at all? I have had situations where I thought the calf might have died because I couldn't find it... mom up at the hay rings like nothing is wrong, turned out she had it hid VERY well. I would think that if she lost it, she would be tearing the place up looking for it. How does her bag look?

Just hoping for the best.

 

[J&D Cattle]

Lost one like that for two days last year and the third day I showed up and counted it was there. Had to be in the brush somewhere and I didn't have brush anywhere near the paddock they were in. It went way off and hid or was runn off and finally came back. Good luck.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Udder is strutted and not been nursed still has some afterbirth.

 

[cowboy43]

I have had calves born dead, the next morning it is not even a hair left, predators have completely removed the calf.If i had not know the calf was there, I would not have known it was ever born. When you live with nature many strange things are seen. Like the time I saw my hound dog playing with a bunch of coyotes one morning.

 

[TN Cattle Man]

Udder is strutted and not been nursed still has some afterbirth.

Not good news... sometimes we just never know what happened.
Sorry about that CB.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I have had calves born dead, the next morning it is not even a hair left, predators have completely removed the calf.If i had not know the calf was there, I would not have known it was ever born. When you live with nature many strange things are seen. Like the time I saw my hound dog playing with a bunch of coyotes one morning.

They still leave sign and buzzards will show up hoping to get a scrap.
I have found were they have torn them up and drug them off I always find sign
and can determine the kind of varmit that needs to meet his maker.
There is absolutely nothing here.

 

[MO_cows]

That stinks! Nice looking momma cow. Something must have carried it off.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Sorry to hear that.
Do you have cougars? They will pick them up and carry them off. On my OR place, they would stack whole deer and cover with leaves.

 

[M5farm]

Had the same thing happen this year. Last week my dad shot a doe with his bow. No blood and found some hair she went thru the fence on somebody else's property. He called the guy and asked if he could loom for her the next morning and he said ok. He searched and searched and a bunch of crows were up in a tree making a racket so he checked there. Found where she bleed out and a little bit of hair and the maul that's it the carcass was no where to be found he walked the whole 40 acre block . It was like aliens landed eat the deer and took everything with them no drag marks, no blood, nothing but the maul.

 

[hurleyjd]

Had one last week looks like she had calved with after birth hanging. Got her up to the vet dead calve inside her.

 

[Deepsouth]

Had one last week looks like she had calved with after birth hanging. Got her up to the vet dead calve inside her.

I would definitely check for this.

 

[Deepsouth]

Sorry to hear that.
Do you have cougars? They will pick them up and carry them off. On my OR place, they would stack whole deer and cover with leaves.

Don't underestimate the strength of a big Bobcat to be able to do the same thing.

 

[Caustic Burno]

That stinks! Nice looking momma cow. Something must have carried it off.

Yep it does and the yotes have moved out neighbor has killed two on the deer stand
and I have killed three. They are like hogs put some pressure on them they will move for a while.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Had the same thing happen this year. Last week my dad shot a doe with his bow. No blood and found some hair she went thru the fence on somebody else's property. He called the guy and asked if he could loom for her the next morning and he said ok. He searched and searched and a bunch of crows were up in a tree making a racket so he checked there. Found where she bleed out and a little bit of hair and the maul that's it the carcass was no where to be found he walked the whole 40 acre block . It was like aliens landed eat the deer and took everything with them no drag marks, no blood, nothing but the maul.

I can't find the maul or drag marks. Nothing again nothing, just got off the phone with the neighbor.
He said if you can't find it or what got it nobody else is as you are the one we call when one goes a miss.
Everything leaves sign.
I am going to run her in the chute in the morning and glove up.
By appearances she has calved.
We don't have anything larger than a bobcat here, I even checked up in the timber as there is a first
time for everything .
Here is my question as I have no knowledge of this creature can a bald eagle carry off a calf?
I wouldn't think it could.
We are starting to get a population here.
I know the calf is dead what I want to know what to hunt down.

 

[Hook]

An eagle can't carry off a calf