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ottertail co mn | I have had 3 bottle calves so far this year to start, well sort of. The weather has not been ideal, the first one was -25 f and born probably right after I checked , I told the story already about that in a previous post. I had a feedlot heifer that I got from a buddy and I was going to take her to butcher and was like swelling and bagging going on so I left her home. She calved at a friends and we penned the calves and mother together, after a day she would not claim the calf. So I took the calf home and bottle fed it for 2 days. The feedlot heifer wanted everyone’s calf now and tried to claim them all. So I brought her home and penned her up and put her calf on her, crazy enough after 3 days she wanted the calf.
The other night was 8 degrees and I had a cow calve in the snow. After the calf stood I took it up to the straw. After 4 hours of watching I gave up on the mom and calf trying to connect. The calf stood for the whole time and showed no interest in sucking. So I brought it to the shop to warm it up because it was shivering and it’s mouth was cold. The calf would not suck so I got up early the next morning and gave it a bottle of colostrum and it took it well. After lunch I had a friend hop in the back of the pick up with the calf , he bellered and the cow came on a run. We took the calf to a small pen and the mother went right in with it. She didn’t really claim it real well but after a couple hours all things were better. The cow wouldn’t let the calf suck so I gave the cow some feed and she forgot all about the calf sucking.
Now tonight all mother and calves are paired up and going good. Sometimes spending a few hours trying to get things to work pays off. Currently down to zero bottle calves and could have easily had 3.
Usually don’t have this hard of time but with all the snow and cold I am not going to be as patient. I would rather have a bottle calf than a dead calf.
When all the cows are on a 50 acre pasture but can only use 2 acres it makes it a lot harder with all the other cows wanting to know what’s going on.
I know these are small problems compared to many but thought I would share.
Prayers and thoughts to all you ranchers with weather problems | |
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Good and bad luck
