Heifer not letting calf drink

grazeaway

Have a heifer that calved last week. Calved herself in the cubicle shed so put her and the calf into one of the pens. She was a little flighty but that's to be expected with 1st time mothers. Anyway she made no attempt to lick the calf of show any mothering instinct and kept walking. Away for the calf when it went to drink. In the end we had to bale her up and get the calf to drink her.

Have been leaving her in the pen with the calf and while she has warmed a bit tot the calf no way will let her drink. We have to bale her up every morning and evening and put 2 kicking bars on her and stand next to her. The calf if hardy out (like her mother) but there is no way we could let the out to grass as it is.

Have had 3 more heifers calf this week and they are all great mothers, quite out and no problems with the calf, will look to let them off today.

Anyone go any advice? Have often had flighty heifers but never one that didn't take to her calf. If it comes to it'll dry her off and try to get the calf adopted by another cow, buts that's far from ideal too.

onyerbikepat

A suckler, I take it. Have you tried bringing a dog into the pen? Throw some bran or meal on the calf when he's lying down. She might take to licking it then. Also rub your fingers and thumb up and down each side of teh cows backbone when you have her tied up. It really calms the cow. You might chance her then without the kicking bars. After that you will need patience and more patience.

893bet

onyerbikepat wrote: »

A suckler, I take it. Have you tried bringing a dog into the pen? Throw some bran or meal on the calf when he's lying down. She might take to licking it then. Also rub your fingers and thumb up and down each side of teh cows backbone when you have her tied up. It really calms the cow. You might chance her then without the kicking bars. After that you will need patience and more patience.

Time and more time. Calf died on during birth last year and we bought two to put under the cow as she has plenty of milk. Took 3 weeks or more. Even near the end she was kicking at them but bawling at them concerned while we were handling them. Keep her bailed and keep at it. She will break!

whelan2

Have me similar at the minute. Putting her down crush. Holding her tail and calf drinks. She has a blind spin and calf keeps going for that. Patience and time

Greengrass1

I hear putting salt on the calf is a brilliant job as cows love salt.
Have never had to try it though

GrandSoftDay

Had one heifer do it a fortnight ago and another yesterday. The penny dropped when I threw the dog on the first calf and the one yesterday seemed to be getting fond of the calf when I introduced the dog this morning. (dog doesn't appreciate it much though)

grazeaway

GrandSoftDay wrote: »

Had one heifer do it a fortnight ago and another yesterday. The penny dropped when I threw the dog on the first calf and the one yesterday seemed to be getting fond of the calf when I introduced the dog this morning. (dog doesn't appreciate it much though)

No need for the dogs as she is fine with the calf when in the pen but as soon as the calf try's to drink she goes berserk jumping and kicking. Had her baled up and she'll swing straight around to try to pen the calf to the barrier.

Figerty

Have to train her to accept that the when she gets nuts, the calf sucks.. after a while she will forget the trouble.

dzer2

Figerty wrote: »

Have to train her to accept that the when she gets nuts, the calf sucks.. after a while she will forget the trouble.

this

and if you have a real strong calf that wont be bullied let him in hungry We have one here wonldnt let her own calf near her. We had a 3 month old that was weaned and let him in to the pen, Jasus he lifted her in the air with a puck when she went to kick him he really hurt her as she has never kicked since you could hand milk her now.:D:D

mf240

Calf to mart, cow to factory, job done.

grazeaway

mf240 wrote: »

Calf to mart, cow to factory, job done.

Tried a hardy fr calf on her during week no luck.

She gave the calf a awful kick and nearly broke my arm this morning so going to admit defeat and she ll be dried off and I ll look to see if I can get one of the other cows to take the calf. Have one with lots of milk and as her own calf is the same colour it might work easy enough.

whelan2

we are giving up on our one, calf will drink bottle no problem, cow will now let him drink but he will only keep the cows teat in his mouth for about 10 seconds and you have to put it back in, where as he will drink the bottle in 1 go. Sucklers are alot of work

Sheep breeder

Spancill the cow and she won't be able to kick the calf or you and the calf will manage her then, we put on the set for a cow with the splits and adjusted the chain that she could not kick

Good loser

Sheep breeder wrote: »

Spancill the cow and she won't be able to kick the calf or you and the calf will manage her then, we put on the set for a cow with the splits and adjusted the chain that she could not kick

That will work.

onyerbikepat

Milk the teats a little bit too and rub the milk over them. It will hurt the cow less too, when the calf goes to drink.