Calf 13 sucking

Donna called me this morning at a quarter to 7 am.  Naturally she woke me up.  She was on her way to her therapy appointment at 7 am and stopped by to check on the little calf.  Apparently he was bawling up a storm and was hungry.  He was going from cow to cow - even a small calf - in an effort to get some milk.

So it appears he didn't get any milk yesterday.

Donna would be back in an hour after her therapy was over.  After a bit I pulled myself out of bed.  I got the calf and his mother back into the loading corral ramp and most of the other cattle - especially Mama and Clyde - locked out in the pasture.


While waiting for Donna....

Calves are so curious.  This calf is biting a wire to see if he can eat it.

Once Donna showed up I herded the mother cow into the middle of the loading corral ramp then carried her calf in next to the mother and then shut the mid gate.

After turning around the calf and positioning the calf back to his mother's udder he quickly got the idea and latched on.  The mother didn't really object.  Her only real objection was when the calf would head-butt her udder in an effort to shake loose more milk into the nipple.

The calf was starving.  He drained both sides of her udder and still wanted to drink. The nipples were all shriveled up after being drained of milk.  Once he couldn't shake any more milk loose he laid down for a nap.  I am very happy the calf got some milk from his mother.  Calves need to drink milk within their first 24 hours to get colostrum.  That activates their immune system and keeps them healthy.

Finally being a good mother and standing still while her calf drinks.

I left the mother and calf in the loading ramp area.  I wanted to see if the mother would object when the calf went to drink later.

During the afternoon, every time I checked, the calf was sleeping.  Finally late afternoon I grabbed a magazine to read and sat in the wooden hay feeder and waited for the calf to drink.

While waiting I heard a board break.  A cow was standing outside the corral, and to get a good sniff of her, Buddy pushed against one of the thinner corral boards and broke it.  I chased off the cow teasing Buddy and replaced the broken section of the board (the board spanned several railroad ties).

Buddy below the broken board.

I had to fix the board from above as Buddy decided to lay down where it was the easiest for me to fix the board.   Here I am sawing off the board at the section that was broken.  I had to nail the new board from above also.

Buddy and the new board.

As soon as I finished fixing the broken board the calf got up to drink from his mother.  He seemed to be having trouble.  He wasn't quite getting a hold of a nipple.  The mother wasn't fighting him, but since he couldn't quite latch on, she started to move.  The calf gave up and laid back down.

Trying and failing to get a hold of a nipple.

So I herded the mother back into the middle of the loading ramp, got the calf up and walked him into the area with his mother.  I positioned the calf near the udder and this time he latched on to a nipple after several tries.

Success!

He didn't drink for as long as in the morning and didn't appear to have drained the udder before he laid back down.


Later I let mother and calf out of the loading ramp so they could be with the rest of the cattle.  I wonder if the calf isn't a little developmentally behind where the other calves were at this point.  Then, the other calves usually drank milk within the first hour of their life and not 15 to 18 hours later.

Here is a 1 minute 28 second video of:

1.  the calf drinking milk,
2. the mother briefly tries to kick the calf off,
3. his tail wagging as he drinks,
4. using her head the mother tries to push the calf off her udder,
5. Clyde and another calf watching the new calf drink.

 https://youtu.be/V-K7c53OEyY

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