Calves and foster moms??

Will a cow raise or let another calf drink milk from her. I know sometimes its easier to buy milk and bottle feed some calves but is it poss. that some mothers would raise a calf that is same age as her own?? I have had dogs or cats foster raise young but wonder if a cow would. Say if I got a calf from a sale thats almost same age as her young, within a few days the same age, would she let it milk. I know sometimes a mother will refuse her own calf.
Just wondering
Ryan

Every nurse cow I've ever owned or seen was either a Holstein, Jersey, Brown Swiss or half blood at the least. When I was a kid the older cows that gave less milk or milk lower in fat were used to raise the heifer calves, we didn't use milk replacer until the mid seventies.

(quoted from post at 10:39:50 02/12/10) Will a cow raise or let another calf drink milk from her. I know sometimes its easier to buy milk and bottle feed some calves but is it poss. that some mothers would raise a calf that is same age as her own?? I have had dogs or cats foster raise young but wonder if a cow would. Say if I got a calf from a sale thats almost same age as her young, within a few days the same age, would she let it milk. I know sometimes a mother will refuse her own calf.
Just wondering
Ryan

Click to expand...

Huge variable. I have had cows that would accept another. I have had cows that wouldn't. At the extreme, I have had two occasions where a cow had twins......would let one nurse & kick the other one away to starve to death....guess she figured she was only supposed to have one.

Usually NOT, but some things that seemed to help the times I tried it were have then pinned up together in a SMALL pin........Sounds gross but rub some of the moms manure etc all up the calfs back.......It also seems the dairy breeds were more apt to adopt then beef breeds...I once would stantion the mother cow n feed her grain and by golly the calf got to drink then. I wasnt good at bottle feeding, many tend to over feed the calf and they get the scours. When I did bottle feed a local dairy farmer had some colostrum and it seems that helped the calf do better if she hadnt gotten any from her real mom.

John T NOT a dairy or cattle man but the above worked some for me.

I agree. It"s kind of a "pig in a poke" whether or not she will claim another calf. I have had it go either way. They make a product called Calf-Claim. You rub it on the nose of the mom and all over the new calf. I used it once or twice, and she accpeted the calf once; the other time, I ended up with a bottle calf.

Iowa Farmer

My experience has been totally with beef breeds and GENERALLY speaking, many of 'em don't like twins; I've had pretty good luck putting an orphan on a cow that had lost her calf. I kept a product called O-No-More (orphan no more) on hand; it was used as described by Ioway Farmer. If the calf was weak or wasn't 'aggressive', might have to put the cow in a head-gate and 'help' the calf a few times.

my Limosin's take turns nursing calves...one of them volunteers too much tho...i gotta keep an eye on her cause she goes to a walking skeleton pretty quick with 2 calves on her.

Have had some success with cows that would not claim their own calves by applying some smelly cologne to the calf , with a abundant application to the cows nose of the same smelly stuff. Might work with an adoption too.
joe

My late dad would would take a feed bag and rub the calf of nursing mother then rub the orphan calf and then she would accept both calves. Hal

Yep,it's a real crap shoot. I had a first calf heifer and a second calf cow both loose their calves withing a day of each other a few years ago. They were both misserable and bawling,so I went to the sale barn and bought a couple of holstein bull calves. I penned the 4 of them up together. Ended up putting the cows in the chute and getting the calves to suck. I bottle fed them too to make sure they were getting enough.I left them penned for a week,then turned them out with the rest and kept bottle feeding them for another week. They did finally raise them alright.
Another time,I had a hereford loose one. Had a holstein born about the same time to a dairy cow. I put the afterbirth from the hereford calf on the holstein calf and put them together. She was pretty reluctant,but took it finally and raised it.
Oddest one was two cows calving at the same time right near each other. The one jumped right up and went straight to the other ones calf and started licking it. She wouldn't go back to her own. They both claimed the same calf and both fed it. I had to raise the other one on a bottle.
The last case I guess,I had a holstein that I kept when I sold the dairy cattle. She would feed ANYTHING. I'd seen her feeding as many as 5 different calves on any given day. Needless to say,she got awful thin and had to go down the road.

rrlund's got it right. It's a crap shoot. Just be prepared to have your religion tested while trying to get a cow to accept another calf.

I"ve got one old cow that is some combination of Angus and Jersey called Bonnie. She was previously milked and is about as dosile as they come. A few years ago, I lost a Charlais cow and started bottle feeding the calf. Bonnie eventually had her calf on the same day as red Limousin Heifer. The heifer rejected her calf for some reason so Bonnie started nursing both calves on her own. I put her in the barn with the Charlais calf and she accepted all three calves. Quite a site seeing a cow with three calves one black, one red, and one white. Raised them all up real well too.

Generally though it"s possible to get most cows to accept an orphan, it just takes a lot of work in the headgate and hand milking. My dad always put some of the cows urine on the calf, which may have helped, but the effects are definitely not immediate.

Had a cow die last year about 3 weeks after she calved. Left her calf with the cows and within two days he was bumming and he bummed all summer. Decent calf this fall.

I have had 99% succses in my method in the last 20 years or so I've used it. Only failed on one cow. If I want to adopt an orphan or twin on a cow thats lost hers I skin the cows dead calf and tie the skin on the new calf. Then start the calf nursing on the cow and by the next day the calf passes manure with the cows smell and you can cut the hide off. The cow completely owns the calf, even willy smart cows. I usually keep the cow and her new calf in for three days then turn them out with the herd. One thing for it to work tho is the cow has to lick and own the dead calf.

been down the same sorta trail here ,20yrs back had a cow that was willing to let the pigs nurse off of her ,when I sold her 450 lbscalf ,,,, did somethin stupid Last year , Thought I knew My old cows well and was certain that one was getting Poorly and did not have a calf in her or Nursing one ... so, right before Christmas I sold her along with calves headed to feedlots west of here ,come back to find a 6 week old calf bellering for its Mama ... OL' Mouse hair had plenty of milk to spare so I penned everyone up in the barn for serveral days and sure enuff she adopted it and is now nursing 2 calves ... about 5 yrs ago had a mama die with a very skittish 6 week old heafer calf that came thru winter living under a wagon windbreak /venturing out to and grazing plush green wheat ... and eventually started taking ground feed laced with a lot of powdered milk replacer,, could not get within 30 ft of that poor calf , eventually settled down and played with allother calves ,, never saw it nurse , but you never know , it probably did...