Going to be one of those years.

notjustair

Well-known Member
Three cows have calves so far and two of them are sets of twins. The first set died - I think they were too early. That mud didn?t help things. The second calf was good after mama went in the chute and decided to be a mom and then a set of twins up and running around this morning. If they will take them and I don?t end up with orphans I?ll be fine with that. Today?s cow also twinned last year and wouldn?t take one so I had a bottle calf. This year she seems fine with her kids. I haven?t even tagged them yet so I have no idea whether there?s a girl that will have to go.
 
Once they get up and nurse they are usually good to go. I hated calving in mud! In my stock cow herd all females were related. I lost a cow shortly after calving. She did manage to nurse her calf before she died. I was about to bring the calf in and bottle feed it when I saw another cow that had already calved and would have been this orphaned calf Grandmother get the calf up and nursed it. That cow raised the orphan and her own. I have never seen that happen. Anyone else have this experience?
 
In our dairy herd we ran dry cows with the milkers. We had one old holstein cow that claimed every calf born on pasture. I have known barn cats to mix litters.
 
I lost a cow and also lost a calf. I penned them together and stanchioned the cow allowing calf to suck. In about a week I turned them out and the calf would come up behind the cow to nurse, the cow didn't like it but tolerated and raised a good calf.
 
Had two litters of jack russell pups last year. First litter only one made it. Second litter three of the four made it, but the girl was struggling a week in. Pulled her off and put her with the singleton. The moms were related, but way off. She started gaining weight no problem.
 
Hello I have fall calfers sold the dairy heard in 14 and the only beef cows I could find were breed for fall, the man I bought them from had both spring and fall calving said he like fall better no mud no snow to deal with, last September the first cow to calf had twins one smaller but she feed them both she moved one to a different pasture by my corn field and would go between the two pastures and feed them both she did this for about a week then one night the one in the pasture by the corn field was gone ( coyotes or cat we have both here ) don't know but she would walk and ball for it for days, I should have pulled it but she was doing a good job with both just couldn't be in two places to protect both of her calves
 
I've had a few cows orphan their calves for no apparent reason. They always had prior calves and were good mothers. The only common denominator for me was that the calves were born in a lot of mud and or a rain storm. My hypothesis is that the scent somehow is diminished and the cow just doesn't recognize it for whatever reason or can't establish a scent. Not enough sample size to publish a thesis on it however.....
 
Just this afternoon I went over to give the cows a bale of hay and noticed one off to herself,looks like she had twins 2nd one had just been born.Probably pull one and let the wife bottle feed it this old cow should have been sold years ago I guess she is over 20 years old but raises a good calf every year doubt she'd have enough milk to raise two.Tough old Angus cow.
 
When I was a lad growing up our small dairy farm, we had one cow (jersey/shorthorn mix) that would take every calf we put on her--just put 'em in the pen with her. She probably raised 30 calves over the years. She was nothing to look at, but my dad said she was the most valuable cow he owned.
 

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