All Swap

[Broomcroft]

I had a calf born last night which I wasn't expecting. In the pen there was a cow, with her week old calf. By the time I got there this morning the new calf was suckling off the one that calved last week, and the new mom had taken the week old calf! They were both very protective of each others calves.

So I split them up into their proper pairs and penned them up, got colostrum into the new calf and smothered the new calf in the cleansings. All a waste of time, they didn't want to know. So after a good part of the day I put them all back together and they all swapped over quite happily, so I'm going to leave it like that. I'll get more colostrum into the new calf later and tomorrow.

[wagra dexters]

Clive, at least they are a week between so you know who's who.
In 1966 I watched two dairy cows calve simultaneously and the mothers got the wrong calves. I would never have know had I not seen because the red friesian had a black calf and the black friesian had a red calf.
Margaret