Pics of my new cow!

Willow:

I want to add my two cents to the thought that Bitey would be better treated if she were allowed to calve again and put to work feeding 4 calves for you.

Under your care, with clean handling, good feed and no stress she will soon be in good shape. If she is not already bred, have her AI'd to a beef bull and let her calve.--in the meantime, put some calves on her and use the milk she is giving now. A 7 or 8 year old cow is only middle aged--she has several good years ahead of her and her whole life is dedicated to raising babies--don't cheat her out of that. It is not unusual for a rancher to have a 20-year old cow who is only beginning to fail, though most fail earlier.

What did you treat the foot rot with? I have an English preparation that works like a charm, a dip that requires immersing the foot for ten minutes a day for a week. An antibiotic works too.

Also, to put a strange calf on a cow you can rub vicks vaporub on the cows muzzle and along the calf's back. Jeffers, the Vet supply house, sells a product that is used the same way. You have to restrain the cow for the first milking or two, but let her smell the calf and get acquainted. Once her milk passes thru the calf you are generally home free.
Ox

Hey, I have a GREAT idea for the saggy udders! Why don't you just take a sheet or something and turn it into a bra that has holes for her teats? I have heard of people using them on goats that have udders that sag REALLY far down, it is some type of udder problem in goats but hey. I REALLY think that it would work. Well I am now done, bye.

Willowgirl, for grafting a calf or two on her I would bottle it a few days so it has some coordination and can find a low hanging udder without too much trouble. You'll have to hitch it on the teat the first few days and perhaps tie her up until she accepts it, but after a calf figures out where the milk is coming from they don't forget! Reminds me of a story in one of the James Herriot books about the really old cow with the sagging udder whose tests kept getting stepped on. The farmer sends her off to slaughter with a herder and she comes running right back into her old spot in the barn. And he decides to keep her to raise calves because after serving him for so long and being so loyal he just can't bear to send her away.

As for keeping an ox- one they are fully grown they are fed far, far less then a milking cow or a growing steer- like 1/3 of a bale of hay a day in winter and limiting grazing to a few hours in spring and summer. You have to keep them lean- if they get fat at all they can overheat when working.

Hey everybody! Thanks for keeping this thread going; it has been interesting reading for sure.

Ox, it wasn't foot rot, it was an abcess ... I used 30 cc of penicillin 2x a day for 3 days as per Doc's instructions. Seems to have done the trick! When I took the dressing off, her foot was clean and dry (not oozy or smelly) and she is walking on it again!



I think if the calf could figure out how (where?) to nurse, I don't think I'd have too much trouble raising one on the Bitemeister. Heck, Christine adjusted to Beefy, her sale barn calf, with minimal difficulty, and she did NOT like being milked (at least by human hands!). Alternately, since I'm already milking her, I could raise a bottle baby. I almost hate to buy a calf this time of year, though ... when it's cold! The 2 bull calves where I work were sick this morning, and I heard coughing coming from the heifer pen too ... when I looked in to see who it might be, I noticed a dead heifer in there! She has been there awhile, she was all blown up ... ewwwwwwww!

(Hopefully we will have a new barn, all new facilities, in the spring and things will be SO much better there!)

Pygmy, I have often wondered why farmers don't keep an old worn-out cow in with the babies to mother them. Surely the expense wouldn't be too great (especially if she were a marginal milker, and could be milked for awhile right after freshening at least). One thing I have noticed in hutch calves is that they are desperate to suck on ANYTHING ... I watched one trying to 'nurse' a section of iron pipe the other day ... it seems it would be so much less stressful for them if they had SOMETHING to nurse on! Hey maybe I should invent a calf pacifier eh>!

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

I had to sell a little heifer back to her original farm because she was a desperate suckler.

I, too, have wondered why farms don't keep an old cow or two who will nurse anything to raise calves. Especially the organic farms who have to cull if the SCC count get's too high and complain that organic milk replacer is too expensive. I bet a good Holstein could handle 3 calves at a time easily, wean at 3-4 months, you could raise 9-12 calves a year off one cow.

I do test at some farms who keep the milk from the high SCC girls to feed to the calves (they put them on the bucket) ... it's a shame they can't just chuck the cow in there with the little ones and let her mother them, too!

I suppose most farms aren't set up to accommodate that, though.

I think it's sad when calves have to live in those little domes ... where they can't even see another of their species! Or have any interaction ... they ARE herd animals, after all! A human baby will die if it isn't held and touched ... why do we think a calf will thrive under such circumstances. Of course, they survive and grow, but ...

Another thing is F&L, specifically muscle development. I have seen some farms where hutch calves are raised on, basically, a leash ... just long enough to lie down (but not so long they can get tangled up and hang themselves). These calves cannot run or play ... how can their feet and legs develop properly?! Sure, when they're older they'll be in bigger pens or turned out, and they'll get exercise, but ...

My calves run all the time ... in fact, sometimes it seems they go through stages where all they do is run! There is no speed between "standing still" and "dead run"!

I just think if we made an effort to replicate more natural conditions, we'd get better results ... animals that were socialized properly would do better in a herd, no?! Less stress? Better feet and legs, stronger pelvic ligaments?!!!

I dunno, these are just some random thoughts from my observations ...

All I know is that both my little bulls, who have been raised on their mommas, in a small pasture where they can run and play and snooze outdoors or indoors as they please ... are HUGE!

I was just looking at Boo today, and marveling at how big he is ... the top of his back comes up above my waist (OK, I'm short, but he isn't even 4 months old yet!). Now, granted I am not all that familiar with bull calves (because only the heifers are kept on commercial farms) but even the vet commented, when he was here, how big and stout the boys are.

Maybe I will get some heifers next time around and can prove my theories by raising some exceptional girls. We can only hope, eh?!

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.