Cow hid her calf

[nubie]

We have a cow that calved the night before last and each time we went near she would find the calf and they would take off in the opposite direction. This afternoon when we went in the pasture to check on them mom met us with no baby in tow. We searched everywhere to find no baby but mom is not distressed. My parents said they have had this happen in the past where the cow will hide their calf but it's been a long time since it's happened on our farm. My husband and I are a tad distressed. I would love to hear of others who have had this happen and how long before mom will bring the baby out of hiding and introduce her to the herd????

[Awnry Abe]

Always. Absolutely nothing to worry about. There are two things I look for. 1) Vultures. 2) A distressed cow with an engorged bag. What you have is one of those "good mother cow" situations.

If you hang out with them 24/7, you'll catch the calf at meal times. The cow is doing a great job, IMO. When they are several days to a week old, you'll find them defying mom's orders to stay down. If you are really wanting to spend some precious time looking for it, I would suggest looking at the egdes, and against stuff.

[randm]

We had this happen recently, she was hiding her calf deep in the woods, she would only go to the calf to feed it, otherwise she was with the herd. It didn't last long, only a few days. She is an older cow, maybe she thought it was safer hid than in the pasture.

[gone-a-milkin]

I have found that if you walk around out there making the sounds of a new baby calf,
the mama will often call out in reply....then the calf will answer her.

Really bawl and holler. Its fun.

[Jersey/guernsey]

Most tines with ours its the calf that wants to hide.
As long as the cow is being sucked we don't worry, in fact we just had a first calf heifer whose baby hid for ten days!
Now admittedly she did go get him at milking time, or I probably would have had a search party out.

[gone-a-milkin]

Right now we are really trying to keep the springers up close to the barns because it is almost time to chop.
The corn is 8-10 feet tall out there and we don't want to find any calves the hard way.

[nubie]

My son said the same thing...there's no vultures so the baby must be fine. We also noticed that she was so relaxed and thought she would be carrying on if there was something wrong.

[nubie]

Thank you all so much! After all the concern last night I walked out early this morning and there is mom with her calf around the rest of the herd. She looked at me as if to say "I had this all under control"!

[Awnry Abe]

Originally Posted by gone-a-milkin

Right now we are really trying to keep the springers up close to the barns because it is almost time to chop.
The corn is 8-10 feet tall out there and we don't want to find any calves the hard way.

Ugh. That would make me sick. I end up doing goofy things with my mowing and rotation schedule to avoid mowing a pasture that cows just left, or one that is adjacent to their pasture. I would never get the big blue beast stopped or turned in time, and it would be the most dreadful thing.

[MDKatie]

I have had the unfortunate experience of cleaning up after an accident with a calf and a haybine.

[idigbeets]

I think most of us have hit an animal wild, or otherwise with the haybine at some point

[MO_cows]

Normally, the momma cow has just hid the calf and all is well. Like others said, if momma isn't bawling and her bag isn't engorged on all 4 quarters, most likely no reason to worry.

However, this time of year, if she didn't hide the calf in the shade there could be a problem. We found a day old calf, born to a first time mother, laying in the full sun on a 90+ degree day. It was panting like a dog after a long run, in obvious distress from the heat. We ran water over him and put him in the nearest shade. He survived and is doing fine now. But if we had left him, I don't think he would have made it until she came back that evening to nurse him.