cow neglecting calf/ drying off process

ronman

Had a lim heifer calf down 2 weeks ago to angus bull. she was not able to calf herself so had to pull calf at 4am i mite add but was not overly stressful on heifer. straight away we put them in the straw pen but she tried to pin calf up against wall when he would go near her. we got her head in the lock gate and began feeding twice daily and have since left them alone together as she has calmed but she has still no interest in calf whatsoever and still kicks when hes trying to nurse with her head in gate. many people are saying GIVE HER TIME but i know cattle and there is no hope on earth she will take to him now and its very time consuming. all our other heifers have calved down fine with no probs i mite add. i have decided to give up this game as its not even fair on heifer as shes eating very little silage and is mad to get out. As hes been sucking her is it ok just to let her out in bad grass and shel dry up naturally or do u put in tubes "very dangerous with this particular animal i would imagine". any advice welcome as am not experienced with this and could do with a handy way out. i am not really worried about calf as bottle feeding will be a lot easier than what ive been doing and hes in great shape and very tame. he might even take to one of our older sucklers as i have seen this happen before with calves who wernt gettin enough of there own mother. any help welcome.

bbam

I'm no expert on drying off cows but I'd think she's at the worst possible stage to try and dry her off naturally, just Sucked enough to bring on her milk.
You could try but risk loosing a quarter on a heifer which would be a shame.

If it were me I'd tube her and dry her off just to be safe. If you can't manage get someone familiar with tubeing a cow to give a hand.

simx

ronman wrote: »

Had a lim heifer calf down 2 weeks ago to angus bull. she was not able to calf herself so had to pull calf at 4am i mite add but was not overly stressful on heifer. straight away we put them in the straw pen but she tried to pin calf up against wall when he would go near her. we got her head in the lock gate and began feeding twice daily and have since left them alone together as she has calmed but she has still no interest in calf whatsoever and still kicks when hes trying to nurse with her head in gate. many people are saying GIVE HER TIME but i know cattle and there is no hope on earth she will take to him now and its very time consuming. all our other heifers have calved down fine with no probs i mite add. i have decided to give up this game as its not even fair on heifer as shes eating very little silage and is mad to get out. As hes been sucking her is it ok just to let her out in bad grass and shel dry up naturally or do u put in tubes "very dangerous with this particular animal i would imagine". any advice welcome as am not experienced with this and could do with a handy way out. i am not really worried about calf as bottle feeding will be a lot easier than what ive been doing and hes in great shape and very tame. he might even take to one of our older sucklers as i have seen this happen before with calves who wernt gettin enough of there own mother. any help welcome.

i usually feed straw to dry off

ronman

ya think thats best option for me if u saw the way she was tryin to kick poor calf last night. how much straw do u feed her a day and how long do u keep her in. i was thinkin about a week should be ok and then let her into low grass.

simx

ronman wrote: »

ya think thats best option for me if u saw the way she was tryin to kick poor calf last night. how much straw do u feed her a day and how long do u keep her in. i was thinkin about a week should be ok and then let her into low grass.

i usually feed till theyre dry,or feed for couple weeks and let her out to a feild other cattle were in