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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:14 pm
by dizzydex
Hi all following a night with no sleep I need some advice please. Our lovely cow calved last night between 12-1.30am. I had checked her but as always when I went out again there was the calf. On advice I had not brought her in and the calf although a little cold was soon up and looking fine. This is where my inexperience came in. I had imagined that the calf would suckle straight away but when it did not I became concerned. I tried expressing the teats but could not get them started. Phoned everyone I knew and they were fast asleep in bed! I then tried to put the calf to the teat but still no luck and so it went on until 5am when I rang someone I thought might be up for milking. They came straight away and soon identified the problem. The udder was very large, still is, and is on the floor practicaly. The calf had been looking for the teats but could not find them. He expressed colostrum and fed it from a bucket with a teat. This was after getting the cow in the crush with lots of fuss. The calf fed and I had reasoned that now the calf would look for the teat again but it has not and so I called another neighbour to help and we managed to express about 1 litre. The calf took about 1/2 a litre and went to sleep. I have some left but I'm exhausted. I am not sure how much the calf should have and how often and if it will try to suckle. Can anyone offer advice please
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:27 pm
by Saffy
If it was being bucket fed it would need about 2 to 3 pints 2 to 4 times a day depending on how big it is. Can you give us an idea of weight?
A friesian calf has about 4 pints twice a day and weighs about 75 to 100 pounds give or take.
If the calf was huge I would give a little more tiny a little less and more often.
When you want to hand milk your cow to feed back to the calf, warm your hands and give her a little food.
The calf may be more likely to suckle if you bottle her say half a pint first, to get her looking for it. The other thing is get your knees behind the calf so she can't back away a hand under her chin to hold her head in place and open her mouth and milk the teat into her mouth.
The calf starts to suck when she is standing on your foot and your back is breaking!!!
Anything else PM me.
Stephanie
Edited By Saffy on 1239460154
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:35 pm
by Broomcroft
We have some short leg cows where calves have had problems finding the teats. In the last year out of 5 such cows, 1 has got mastitis because the back two quarters were near the floor and the calf left them, and with another we just (for the first time ever) could not train the calf to find the low-level teats. It constantly looked for where the teats ought to have been, somewhere much higher! All the other calves eventually found the teats unaided.
What I have done before is tether the cow or get her between gates and just keep on training the calf to find the teats. Sometimes, where the udders are really low, this has involved flipping the calf on it's side. Mostly this has taken say 3 or 4 sessions. Another trick where I couldn't do this because the cow was too protective, was to bottle train the calf but only give it enough to get it interested and keep it fit but still hungry. That succeeded but took nearly a week, and occasionally I would give it a good feed.
Good luck!
Edited By Broomcroft on 1239464391
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:03 pm
by dizzydex
Thank you for responding. Word around here has spread and another farmer came up to take a look. After shaking his head he agreed that the calf needed to be trained to find the teat. He lay it on its side and hey presto a sucking calf. I feel tearful because I am so whacked but that was a lovely site to see. I know we are not out of the words completely and this lovely farmer Paul is returning at 7pm to help me again. Some folk are just lovely and obviously really love their animals. I will update a bit later.
Oh the bit I missed out is it is a red heifer with a lovely pink nose perfect in everyway 
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:22 pm
by Colin
A friend had a similar problem with a short leg who's udder was huge and very close to the ground. We took some colostrum off the mother and fed that to the calf to get him going. We kept him in an enclosure with his mother and once he got his strength up he started feeding off her himself and all ended up well.
Dexters have strong natural instincts, so keep them closely together, keep a close eye and you may find everything clicks. Bear in mind you may not see the calf feeding, but if it looks lively and bright, and its dung is light brown he probably is.
Colin
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 8:21 pm
by ann
Poor Julie
The joy's of calving, hopefully once your calf starts sucking in earnest your cows udder should reduce in size, take care not to give her extra food as other wise she will just turn it into more milk. It may be a good idea to try and see if you can get her back in calf sightly earlier, so that next year she calves earlier, as the first flush of grass may produce more milk than your calf can handle so you might have to restrict her access to good grass slightly.
good luck
Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:06 am
by Inger
This is one of the reasons that I prefer long legged Dexters. You don't get the complications of teats near ground level.
Is there anyway of getting the cow to stand on a platform? Then the calf can get hold of the teats a lot easier. A bit like a dairy goat stand.
Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:53 am
by Saffy
Well Beryl got hers to put their back feet up on blocks to be milked and keep the machines up off the floor - it tells all about it in her book, complete with a cartoon illustration.
Stephanie :D
Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 1:22 pm
by dizzydex
Hi all, I needed that sleep! All is well today. She has not yet got the hang of the teats but at least mum is standing still when we put the calf to her. I will bear in mind the advice concerning the grass and hard feed as our grass can be lush. I do have a small paddock though that will be suitable. At least I will be more prepared next time and know a lttle more. I'm not to sure that Karenza would co-operate with her being at another level but its an idea. I'm not put off yet!!!!!!
We have all fingers crossed that by tonight or tomorrow she will have got the hang of the milk bar and can then go out in this glorious sunshine.
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:22 am
by AlisonKirk
Hi there - We've had the same problem. It took a week before our calf was suckling on its own (using the same system as Clive), but it still prefers one teat, so is now being taught to tackle the other three (calf now two weeks old), which he will suckle off if he's given a clue as to their whereabouts.
Mother (short) and son (long leg) won't be turned out until he can cope entirely on his own.
Good luck
Alison
Boram Dexters
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:56 am
by dizzydex
Hi I think if I had been better prepared I would have coped ok but it was the initial not knowing what to do and my lack of experience. I went into the stable this morning and the calf had suckled one side so I showed her the other side and she was delighted. I decided to put them in our small paddock for a few hours today. Watching the calf run around and mum trying to keep up was lovely. Its going to rain later and because, like you, I want to make sure she is ok feeding on her own, I'm going to bring them back in. This will no doubt be a bit difficult but Karenza should follow her calf.
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:04 am
by Broomcroft
Julie - I'm fascinated by your auction website. Is there any chance you can you tell us about it? Have you thought about auctioning livestock online? People do it.
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:36 am
by dizzydex
Hi Clive, the concept for Fields of Food came about when I initially put my pork on eBay. As this is not what you usually buy from eBay it did not sell. I then came up with the idea to create a website just for smallholders selling their farm food and produce online. I did lots of research and asked Trading Standards lots of questions before investing in the site. I decided to make the site totally free to list items and although it has taken a while for it to get off the ground word is now spreading. We intend to have leaflets at the Royal Cornwall Show this year and have been lucky in securing a grant for advertising so things are looking good. I have sold my pork using the site and I know others have also sold their items. Its free advertising if nothing else. We have 97 current members and receive approx 17,000 page hits a week at present. If I can tell you any more please contact me
ps I hope to put pics of our lovely calf on the forum later today
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:41 am
by dizzydex
Sorry Clive I forgot to answer your question about listing Livestock. I have given this lots of thought and know from others that it would be useful. Would anyone list livestock if I offered it as a category?
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:27 pm
by Saffy
Hi Julie,
I am quite sure people would list livestock and poultry as well, if it was offered as a category!
At the moment we have several pairs of dutch bantams we would put on if it was available but I am sure people would put their animals on as well.
Hope it all works out.
Stephanie