Calf 5 - 110's

Cow #110 had her calf yesterday.  A black little male calf.    Cow 110 is the reluctant mother.  Every year she won't let her calf drink and will head butt or kick the calf to keep it away from her.  I always have to put the cow and her calf in a small area of the loading ramp part of the corral and the calf then can drink from the cow.  After a half day to a day the cow will then bond with her calf and let it drink.

Yesterday when I went out to feed the cattle at 5 pm cow 110 was standing near the corral gate and I could see her head butt her calf.  A few times the calf went flying.  He kept getting up and trying to drink as he was hungry.  I called Donna to come and help me. But the time she arrived I had gotten the mother and her calf into the loading ramp area, and with Donna's help, we were able to get the cow and calf in a smaller area where the mother couldn't move much.  The calf then was able to figure how to drink and then drank.

Because the temperatures still go down to the lower 20s overnight I wanted to have the cow and calf be in the roofed area next to the barn overnight.  We herded them over there and I put out hay for the cow to eat.

I fed the rest of the cattle in the rest of the corral and then reloaded hay into the pickup for tomorrow morning's feed.   The cow occasionally would head butt her calf even though he wasn't trying to drink anymore.  Donna watched and prevented the cow from head butting her calf.  But it was getting close to dark and Donna had to handle her pet turkey before dark. The hay bale was very tightly wrapped and it took longer to load hay into my pickup.   When I was done and went to check on the calf I seen the calf laying in the corner and against the metal corral panels in the hay the cow was eating.  I wondered if the cow had head butted the calf into the panels.  The calf was alive and after a while stood up and wandered over to the other end of their laying area.

The cow would occasionally give a dirty look at the calf.  I got some long boards and divided the laying area into two.  One area the calf could lay and he could walk under the boards while the mother could not.

Time had passed and it was about four hours since the calf last drank.  I tried to get the calf to drink in their laying area but the cow would kick and move and try to prevent the calf from drink.  After several attempts we herded the cow back to the loading ramp area.  I then got the calf over there too.  The calf didn't want to walk and would lock his legs and not move them.  I had to push him all the way over, at times lifting his back end and pushing and the calf would try not to move his front legs.  I was breathing heavy and tired but the time I got the calf back to his mother.

The mother didn't try to fight the calf as much this time and the calf drank faster.

It was 11 pm now and four hours would make it 3 am.  I decided to leave the cow in the loading ramp area as she could handle the cold temperatures.  And the wind was blowing which made it colder.   This time I tried to carry the calf and was able to do so and get it back under the roofed area where he could lay in the straw and out of the wind.

At 3 am Donna came over to wake me up and help me with the calf.  All went smoother and this time I was no longer complaining and talking to the cow or the calf telling it what to do or not do like I did repeatedly earlier as I was annoyed at the cow's behavior.  Earlier Donna was trying to get me to stop talking to the cow and calf as she said they didn't understand what I was saying.  I was hungry and cold as I hadn't eaten since noon and I was upset at the mother as she was head butting or kicking her calf as I was afraid she would hurt or kill her calf.

We were done by 4 am.  At 8 am once again.  It was light outside now and everything went better.  The cow knew I wanted it to stand in the restricted area and would now walk there to feed her calf without me having to push her into there.

After 8 am and during the day I left the calf in the loafing ramp area.  I wanted the two to bond so the cow would get over her bad behavior.  I got some boards and a piece of plywood to make a small area in one corner so the calf could lay under there if he wanted to get away from his mother.  But she seemed to bond and stop pushing the calf around.

I went back into the house after I fed the other cattle and then slept until noon.

Still, by the end of the day the calf didn't seem to drink easily.  After 5 pm the cow mostly stood still but the calf stood the wrong way and ended up trying to find the udder between the cow's front legs.  The cow would push her head against the calf slightly to encourage him to back up.  The calf would but only go halfway, then look under the cow's belly before once again moving back to the front legs.

I figured he would figure out to turn around or go backwards.  But not really.  A few times he moved back far enough but ended up pushing against her back leg and not the udder whereby she would kick her leg and the calf would move away.

Finally I went in there to turn the calf around but then the cow would turn around.  She seemed to want to go to the restricted area so I opened the gate to that area and she walked in.  I moved the calf next to her making sure I turned him around so he would back in and then face the best way to drink from her udder.

I checked again a little while ago.  The calf was awake and not laying under the protected area I made earlier in the day.  The cow was standing but the calf must have drunk as he didn't want to get up to drink but just lay there.  When I petted him to encourage him to stand he laid there and her mother then came over to gently moo and sniff and lick him to check him out.  He continued to lay.   I'll check again just before I go to sleep later.

Since the wind is calm and tonight's low temperature is suppose to be in the upper 20s I plan to leave the calf with his mother.  He didn't seem cold when I checked a little while ago.