do you take calves off cow as soon as they are born

whelan1

just wondering, i normally leave them on the cow for a week but this morning i have 8 freshly calved cows in the calving paddock and its an ordeal to get the cows in to the parlour to milk them .The cows have all got rotavec corona and the calves have to get this for a week at least after birth, was thinking i could just feed it to them in the pens. Being on the cow gives them a good start but its pure hardship getting the cows in once a day

polod

Lad i did my placement with never let the calves suck the cow he milked the cow in the palour for the colostrum and kept it for the calf .....after that he just came them whole milk. a lot less hassle

stanflt

calves never suck their mothers here-milked out about half hour after calving and stomach tubed-calves taken away and put in hutches for about 3week-bit of a pain when loads of fresh milkers come in together as we dont let the colostrum be pooled together in the dump line

babybrian

usually leave them for a day as my dad feels its more natural to suck the cow and get her colostrum so who am I to argue

When I was in australia the calf was taken away straight away, cow milked and sent on her way with the other cows. One time I even brought in a cow who had the feet out and milked her in the rotary, drafter her out and pulled the calf and then off she went and the colostrum was already there and waiting... different set up over there!!!

whelan1

i like to see the calf on the cow its great to see them together... i suppose the time i am saving not feeding the claf i am spending bringing the mothers in , also not helped by the 2 pet lambs that are in the paddock also:rolleyes:

pakalasa

What do ye all do with the excess colostrum, store and feed to calves over a few days?

whelan1

i feedexcess colostrum to calves, have a good bit in the freezer for my neighbours:rolleyes:

5live

I usually let them with the cow till next milking then feed them. If they dont suck they get tubed. Some lads using buckets dont let them with the cows as they feel its harder to train them to drink but most of mine are on the jfc feeder by the 4th feed

snowman707

we don't vaccinate the cows,

being a spring calving herd ( with the exception of a couple of pedigree lm cows)

the calf gets colostrum from a bottle and teat, and 1 birth tube, asap after calving

the calf is left with the dam until she has cleaned or 24 hours max.

dar31

5live wrote: »

I usually let them with the cow till next milking then feed them. If they dont suck they get tubed. Some lads using buckets dont let them with the cows as they feel its harder to train them to drink but most of mine are on the jfc feeder by the 4th feed

yup. till the next milking, be it 12 hrs or 12 min. or depending how long the que is to get into the calving shed.

try to keep things as easy and stress free as possible.... dose nt always work out that way though

Bactidiaryl

theres no need to vaccinate all the cows for rotavec.its over a tenner a cow and i do maybe every second cow and pool the vaccinated cows milk for calves. also i use tri-vactin instead and its much cheaper(€6-7) and can use it up too 3 weeks pre calving so i give them a shot when they start too spring up.

whelan1

Bactidiaryl wrote: »

theres no need to vaccinate all the cows for rotavec.its over a tenner a cow and i do maybe every second cow and pool the vaccinated cows milk for calves. also i use tri-vactin instead and its much cheaper(€6-7) and can use it up too 3 weeks pre calving so i give them a shot when they start too spring up.

having lost an awful amount of calves with crypto/rotavirus anything that can stop these diseases is very welcome around here, any cow who for some reason doesnt get the rotavec the calf in my experience does meet the challenge. So now i have biestings stored in the freezer that has the antibodies in it. Each calf here is done with halocur , vecoxan and then has to get the rotavec milk if any of these are missed we loose the calf. Also shed are disenfected with oocide. The reason i have all these diseases is that i bought in from different farms when i was building up and i also bought in their diseases, took a long time to sort the whole thing out but thankfully we are getting there

keep going

usally take them away quick enough just find any suck makes the the cow and the calf more restless

funny man

at the next milking, compact spring caling so i batch the calves together on the milk bar with colostrum teats from birth in what i call the colostrum pen and then on to batch of 8, this year turned out at 3 weeks, never looked back.

milkprofit

Why calve cows now
Is this not the most un-profitable month to calve
Long time to next springs grass

whelan1

milkprofit wrote: »

Why calve cows now
Is this not the most un-profitable month to calve
Long time to next springs grass

they also have after grass for august, september, october and november! when they will not be getting silage hopefully - welcome increase in milk volume tbh, also afair from my ag college days these are also well boosted at turn out to make their yield better than spring calvers

funny man

whelan1 wrote: »

they also have after grass for august, september, october and november! when they will not be getting silage hopefully - welcome increase in milk volume tbh, also afair from my ag college days these are also well boosted at turn out to make their yield better than spring calvers

maybe this one was used here before but i think it's worth repeating

YIELD IS VANITY
PROFIT IS SANITY.

dar31

aug and sept are the two most expensive month to calve cows.
teagasc have the figures done if some one wants to dig them up.

whelan1

each to their own, is this the same teagasc that said there would be no superlevy again:)

dar31

whelan1 wrote: »

each to their own, is this the same teagasc that said there would be no superlevy again:)

yup, the same teagasc, that with out, farming in ireland, would be going no where. dont agree with every thing the say. but would very sorely miss them if they weren't there.

every one shouted "no superlevy", the problem was every one jumped.

whelan1

ye i have alot of time for teagasc, its just knowing when to close your ears