Cow attacking her calf

krazyfarmer wrote: »

Thanks Lads. Have tried the nuts on the calf. No joy there. She will kick the calf and head butt him. she pushed him through a gate this morning. have him shut behind a pallet in the same pen as her. she will let him suck in the crush.

have a cow, she is probably 6 or 7 years old at this stage but every year when she calves she acts like a springer, this year she nearly killed her calf, had the calf knocked out under the gate a few times, i actually had to take calf away from her initially, she was pure mad about calf but overly so, then when the calf would touch off her she would kick like she never remembered any of her other calves sucking her..anyway calf was born on monday and it was thursday morning before i got her to let the calf suck, i nearly gave up on her, in the end had to tie her legs in the crush and knock the calf and get it in under cow, once she started going though the cow just stopped kicking, in fact she let other calves suck her after so its weird how some of them carry on

a man beside me had a whitehead cow and she killed two calves belonging to two diffent cows one year after another.he had to put whitehead cow and calf in to a field with no other cows and calves. he then got rid of her.

It's probably man's interference with nature, messing around with selective breeding and all that. A cow that rejects her calve.....well that genetic line aint going to last is it?

have a cow, she is probably 6 or 7 years old at this stage but every year when she calves she acts like a springer, this year she nearly killed her calf, had the calf knocked out under the gate a few times, i actually had to take calf away from her initially, she was pure mad about calf but overly so, then when the calf would touch off her she would kick like she never remembered any of her other calves sucking her..anyway calf was born on monday and it was thursday morning before i got her to let the calf suck, i nearly gave up on her, in the end had to tie her legs in the crush and knock the calf and get it in under cow, once she started going though the cow just stopped kicking, in fact she let other calves suck her after so its weird how some of them carry on

Why would keep a cow like this for so long?

I saw one of the other posters mentioned the dog trick. This really does work, just bring the dog to the shed, have him stand at the gat looking in while you go to the calf and put the calf near the cow. The cow will be loking intently at the dog to bother with you but will instinctly want to protect the calf. Have seen this work many times with sheep and occassionally with cattle

Dear lord, don't be suggesting bringing dogs near new born calves unless you know your cattle very well, as in they are well handled and won't react.
One of my saler crossbreds would go through a calf/gate/wall to get at the dog.

OP I have only had this happen once, it was a Charolais heifer.
I find that it was a sudden burst of estrogen, i seperated the calf from the cow with a barrier, but still let the cow smell the calf, after a couple of hours all had settled. Then I gradually reintroduced the calf 2 or 3 per day for sucking, all was fine and cow and calf were fine together.

If she is still giving hassle after a given period, get a replacement animal if possible or hand feed and get rid of the cow. It is just not worth going through that with her again next year.