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Cows Rejecting Calves

B

Ben H

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
1,738
Location
Gorham, ME
My herd size is starting to pick up, my calf crop about doubled this year over last (22 this year, 12 last year). I've had a problem with cows rejecting calves, never had a problem with this before. It has caused me to spend a lot of time dealing with the problem. There have been 4 cows, these are not first time calving cows, never had problems with them before. 2 were cows with twins. It seems like they have the second calve and ignore the first. I'm not sure if there is something I'm doing wrong, like I said I never had a problem before and this year it's taken a bunch of my time. As of right now, these "bad" mothers are on the "list".

Advice?
 
Step back and don't instantly blame the cow.


She's doing it for a reason.


You're just getting mad and assuming it's not something you've done.




What have you changed in their world, location.....what?


There's got to be something.
 
How close are these cows confined? Sometimes, if cows don't have enough room and two cows calve at the same time, they'll try to
take the wrong calf and sometimes if another cow wants her
calf in that situation, they'll just leave.

Often times with twins, a cow will take one and
not both. Many will take both calves, but not all.

Just because they did it this year doesn't necessarily mean they
will do it every year. We had a cow that refused to take her calf
3 years in a row; and she got free ride. Mr. FH would tie her back
leg to the corral pole so she would let her calf suck. As she got nicer, he
let her have more rope until things were okay and then he'd turn
her out. About the third year, we thought, this ole' gal has done
this too many times!!

Good luck!!
 
Cows are easily distracted.


May what you see as " moderate" density....may be be just too much commotion and investigation by the other cows for the cows to bond with their babies. Nosey neighbor theory


Maybe when they are close to calving.....just have one or two in a lot/pen to themselves
 
Yeah Ben, don't go getting so MAD!!!! Like it's all over your post!!
:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: NOT!!

I think Ben has enough experience that he knows what has worked in the past and something has changed.

We have cows calving almost on top of each other sometimes and seldom had anything like he is describing.

On the rare occasion that we have had rejection issues, it was usually with one twin being left behind and it can take a lot of effort to get them to take that 2nd calf. Usually it means putting the cow in a small pen with the rejected calf for about a day.
 
I should probably have mentioned this, but the first cow without a twin has a lame front leg, the problem is somwhere in the shoulder. I would have put her on the meat wagon but I was waiting for another calf, was hoping for a bull. She has produced the best calves on my grass finishing system. Excellent rate of gain, good flesh, great confirmation and probably grading at least choice, all on grass.

The other cow without twins has been on my list, she has had less condition then I like, doesn't shed out well, HUGE teats, overall just a poor cow. I've been waiting for her to be open. Now that she doesn't want to take this calf she has no reason to stick around.

A portable maternity pen is the only option, I would prefer to elminate bad mothering ability, it makes me wonder when so many do fine.
 
That can happen Ben. Separate pen might work. Hobbles might work. Sometimes you are left with an orphan. Having said that make for sure she doesn't claim it. We had a cow one year that was kicked out in a 2 section paddock after calving with her twins that we though she had claimed. She kept a calf at each end of the 2 mile long field. I kept thinking she had abandoned one but she was with a different one each time I checked. Darned cows just won't comply sometimes.
 
Of course, I don't know anything ( once having under reg. over 5k bovines :roll: :roll: :roll: )......but if we had a cow that was acting like she didn't want her baby she was put up in a pen/lot/barn/etc with just herself and her baby.

That gave them time to bond. Once that first milk gets into the baby---either by her or your help---and passes thru....she smells it on the calf....all is peaceful.
 
I know how to get a calf to take a cow, I've grafted a twin onto a cow who lost her calf, I understand the scent from the milk and so on. I am more interested in preventing dealing with it in the first place. Some of the pastures don't have a pen or barn available on the farm. That's why a portable unit could be the only option.
 
Ben H said:
I know how to get a calf to take a cow, I've grafted a twin onto a cow who lost her calf, I understand the scent from the milk and so on. I am more interested in preventing dealing with it in the first place. Some of the pastures don't have a pen or barn available on the farm. That's why a portable unit could be the only option.
Click to expand...


If you've got your heart set on sending them down the road and not taking the time to try & work it out......then send'em packing and quit worrying about it.

Here , on the homeplace, as a cow gets close to calving...she is moved out of a ' pasture' and gradually moved to a smaller lot near the barn.


Maybe you should consider some refencing or layout of your pastures.
 
Ben, We have had 5 sets of twins this year and this is the first year we left all the twins on the cows... IMHO..... And remember this is free advice too.... Is that it's just the cow... Now saying that what we did was get them in by themselves and make sure everyone got some milk from the cow and compensated the calves with milk replacer. And we fed the heck out of the cow with grain and second cutting... WATCH FOR SCOURS... And feed accordingly.. And as time goes on they get to doing well for themselves and we turned ours then out to pasture and they are all doing well.. Our plan is to get them in early and wean them so they will be on feed earlier before the grass goes down hill.. This feeding job was our ten year olds job and when we sell the calves they will be his for college.
Good Luck and let me know how you turn out... It's always a learning thingy around here.......
 
kolanuraven said:
Ben H said:
I know how to get a calf to take a cow, I've grafted a twin onto a cow who lost her calf, I understand the scent from the milk and so on. I am more interested in preventing dealing with it in the first place. Some of the pastures don't have a pen or barn available on the farm. That's why a portable unit could be the only option.
Click to expand...


If you've got your heart set on sending them down the road and not taking the time to try & work it out......then send'em packing and quit worrying about it.

Here , on the homeplace, as a cow gets close to calving...she is moved out of a ' pasture' and gradually moved to a smaller lot near the barn.


Maybe you should consider some refencing or layout of your pastures.
Click to expand...

Do you realize what refencing would cost? Mother nature does strange stuff to cows some years. I think it is a fluke, or just 2 cows that calved too close together and some grannying went on. We calve in a 20 section pasture and you will some years find a few bum calves at branding and other years none.
 
ranch hand said:
kolanuraven said:
Ben H said:
I know how to get a calf to take a cow, I've grafted a twin onto a cow who lost her calf, I understand the scent from the milk and so on. I am more interested in preventing dealing with it in the first place. Some of the pastures don't have a pen or barn available on the farm. That's why a portable unit could be the only option.
Click to expand...


If you've got your heart set on sending them down the road and not taking the time to try & work it out......then send'em packing and quit worrying about it.

Here , on the homeplace, as a cow gets close to calving...she is moved out of a ' pasture' and gradually moved to a smaller lot near the barn.


Maybe you should consider some refencing or layout of your pastures.
Click to expand...

Do you realize what refencing would cost? Mother nature does strange stuff to cows some years. I think it is a fluke, or just 2 cows that calved too close together and some grannying went on. We calve in a 20 section pasture and you will some years find a few bum calves at branding and other years none.
Click to expand...


Ben H is in Maine. I'm in Ga.


9 times outta 10 , we work on and in much smaller areas than you do.

Sometimes, all it might take is moving one fence or gate in our case.
 
Ben: In my reading this - It seen to me that some people are ready to lay the BLAME at your feet _

In my 60 years, in the Cow Business, a big part of the enjoyment was Learning to be Smarter Than The Cow _ that's not always easy _ in many cases it takes TIME...

Reading between the Lines - it sounds, to me, like TIME might be your problem.

Good Luck to you and your Cows!
 
As far as the twins that is a crap shoot. It is enough work for mom to calve and clean, nurse one calf as soon as it's born let alone two. The four sets of twins I had this year I made sure mom knew that she had 2 and kept moving the stray forgotten one back, eventually they clued in and were happy to have two. The first cow to have twins was attentive to both right away.

The other 2 that did not claim them ,if they had a hard long labor that is sometimes all it it takes to not claim them or if they are a little under the weather I think it takes away some of their mothering instincts. The best thing you can do is get colostrum into that calf immediately and try to keep mom and calf together in a smaller pen until she clues in that it is her responsibility.

Now if they are to the point of not only ignoring the calf but almost trying to kill it if it tries to nurse there are other tricks to the trade as well.

Cows are not predictable at all.
 
So, four problem cows. Let's see.

Two with twins. Did they at least accept one calf? If so, I wouldn't worry so much about it. I'd be really worried if a cow had twins and abandoned both. Some cows just don't get it when two calves show up. If one does it to us, unless she calved in the yard where we can monitor it, we just take the rejected calf and put it on a bottle. If someone else should lose a calf, then we do an adoption. If a cow calves early enough in the season that the barn is an option we will just put the three of them in a pen and leave them there until she darn well takes them both. Once the calves get to a certain size, the cows opinion of it becomes a lot less important. That calf will find a way! :wink:

As for the lame cow, it could be that she just didn't feel up to the job once the calf was born. If the cow doesn't stimulate the calf and give it a good loving when it's born, the calf doesn't bond either.

Then comes the cow with the bad udder. It could be that the calf just couldn't handle it for that important first suck. Then it gives up and quits trying, and it's a slippery slope to losing interest in each other after that. This would be another cow you'd want not to calf in the pasture. We've milked and babied and helped pairs like this in the past, and once the udder gets over it's first big after calving spell, the size comes down to where it can be managed. If it happens in the pasture, though that's another story. If a bad uddered cow calves in the pasture here, and the calf can't handle it, then the cow goes down the road.

We've had all these problems ourselves. I don't think you've got a big problem here. Just four cows who managed to time it so it seems like one.
 
The cows with twins did take to at least one of the calves, I was able to separate them into an area that separated them from the herd and eventually they took to the second calf. One of them I tied her up every morning and night on my way to/from work.

I'm disapointed with the lame cow, like I said her calves have been absolutely amazing animals, the best I've seen in an all grass system. I have considered flushing her and sending her down the road.

The cow with the big teats, I took her calf home last night. She'll be heading down the road. Yesterday morning I tied her up in my sweep tub with some hay and water with the calf in there. I released them with the herd after work. The calf tried to follow her the best she could but the cow ignored her.
 
Ben H said:
The cows with twins did take to at least one of the calves, I was able to separate them into an area that separated them from the herd and eventually they took to the second calf. One of them I tied her up every morning and night on my way to/from work.

I'm disapointed with the lame cow, like I said her calves have been absolutely amazing animals, the best I've seen in an all grass system. I have considered flushing her and sending her down the road.

The cow with the big teats, I took her calf home last night. She'll be heading down the road. Yesterday morning I tied her up in my sweep tub with some hay and water with the calf in there. I released them with the herd after work. The calf tried to follow her the best she could but the cow ignored her.
Click to expand...

It is not unusual for a cow to take one from the twins and ignore the other - seen that happen

Also seen one twin left in one part of the field and the other in another part of a field and the cow goes back and forth between the two - making it APPEAR she has left one abandoned.

BC
 

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