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Post by chuckie on Mar 4, 2020 7:49:41 GMT -6
This is one of my biggest cows that has an undesirable udder. She has really good calves and has not passed the large bag to her heifers to date. She had twins again! She usually takes really good care of them, but for some reason, she did not keep up with them this time like she should have and when they try to nurse, she kicks them off. I am not sure if she is looking at one and then kicks the one off as it confuses her. Needless to say, I had to pull both babies off of her and bottle feed them. One is a heifer and one is a bull, and I hate that. She has had some good bulls, but I am reluctant to retain one of her bulls since he may pass that udder. She would make a good commercial cow, but my husband says that he cannot handle her in his herd if she has twins again. I can totally understand that; I just did not want to send her to the sale barn. She is out of my "Boomer" bull, and is ten years old this year. I would have kept her longer, but I just don't want to wrestle with her kicking them off with twins again. I find it stressful looking for where the other calf is laying and she swapped it back and forth on which one she would walk away from. I gave each calf two half gallons of colostrum in a 12 hour period of time and then gave them replacer every twelve hours afterwards. I finally separated them when I was walking all over the pasture having to find them. I will retain one of her heifers in the herd that has a very small udder.  |
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Post by highgrit on Mar 4, 2020 8:22:58 GMT -6
Can you hobble her or put her in the chute and make her feed the calves. Having to deal with two bottle calves at the same time is going to be fun.
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Post by angusrancher on Mar 4, 2020 19:54:54 GMT -6
It looks like she has a great plenty of milk to raise them both if she would.
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Post by chuckie on Mar 5, 2020 7:00:24 GMT -6
She does have plenty of milk. I noticed that her udder has gone down quite a bit.
I have found that if I put the bottle against the cattle panel wire, and place the nipple where it rests on the wire, they cannot pull the bottles out of my hand. They both want to eat at the same time, and it is difficult. But I can get it done.
I have put some really nice alfalfa hay in their wall feeder inside the calf hutch. Once they start eating that, then I will start them on feed.
The mud is so deep here, to get her up to the chute each day would be more than it was worth. It is easier to bottle feed them than to put her in the chute to hobble her. If I come back as a cattle rancher in my next life, I will start much earlier and begin to build things that I never dreamed I would encounter. There would be a lot of concrete poured where the cattle gathered for food and water.
Too expensive to build up a place knowing that it is just a matter of time when I no longer can handle them. Learned a lot over the years I have had them; as I now know what it takes to do it right.
I will try to get a video of them drinking at the same time.
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Post by tcranch on Mar 31, 2020 10:22:59 GMT -6
Update on your twins? We rarely have twins and have had 2 sets this year. Interesting, both sets of twins were from mother & daughter and twins have never run in that lineage so I'm blaming one of the new bulls. I was supplementing the smaller twins and the first set is now doing great, mama is taking care of them. 2nd set not so much. Bull-heifer twins and mama was really only taking care of the bull so I ended up selling the heifer to a friend that had a cow lose a calf. The adoption took less than a day so a win-win situation for all!
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Post by chuckie on Mar 31, 2020 12:30:40 GMT -6
The twins are doing great! I give them a bottle in the morning and then in the evening. They pretty much shotgun it down. They are eating Alfalfa and Bermuda hay, and I have put out feed for them as well, which they are eating on slowly.
They are growing. Raising twins on a bottle is a bit on the expensive side. They go through the milk quickly. I am going to let them get a few more months old then wean them but I will make sure they are eating plenty of grain and hay at that point.
There is some spring grass that has come up in their pen. They are always nibbling on that.
So far, so good!
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Post by tcranch on Mar 31, 2020 17:37:55 GMT -6
The twins are doing great! I give them a bottle in the morning and then in the evening. They pretty much shotgun it down. They are eating Alfalfa and Bermuda hay, and I have put out feed for them as well, which they are eating on slowly. They are growing. Raising twins on a bottle is a bit on the expensive side. They go through the milk quickly. I am going to let them get a few more months old then wean them but I will make sure they are eating plenty of grain and hay at that point. There is some spring grass that has come up in their pen. They are always nibbling on that. So far, so good! Glad to hear they're doing great. Mmmm, yeah, it gets pricey! And yet they'll always be your bottle babies!! (in one end & out another   |
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Post by tcranch on May 15, 2020 15:10:35 GMT -6
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Post by angusrancher on May 15, 2020 17:45:36 GMT -6
Glad for you that she decided to accept them both. They'll get good at robbing before you know it. We have a few sets in a lot, with nothing else. It's like a calf nursing orgy. Funny how they don't really want to be grafted after they get used to their routine. The cows are given corn and alfalfa and milk pretty good.
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Post by chuckie on May 16, 2020 7:49:26 GMT -6
I am glad that your experience with the twins is turning positive. Funny how some will accept most right after they are born without help. They sure grow off better with their moms. I hope they continue to do well and grow off to be monsters!! Did you get twin bulls or did you get a heifer too? The heifers that are FM really grow large when a person was not looking for a replacement.
My problem was the cow that had twins, would not let either nurse. Each time one would try, she would kick them off and they were not able to get milk. She may get really sore after she bags up, I am not sure. She does this each time she has a calf, but usually the calf can get it done. It was not happening in this case. I could not get it off my mind as I worried about both calves knowing that if I did not act immediately, both would not make it. To ease my worries, I brought both to the house in the calf pen. It is expensive to bottle feed calves buying milk. They are getting bigger and now eat quite a bit of feed now. They have a smaller bucket that they clean out each day. I also have given them a big part of my back yard as it is covered in fescue and clover. I will be sending this cow to the sale barn as much as I hate to, but I do not want to go through this again. She is a 10 year old cow and gives me good calves. She is also the cow that laps water like a dog. She is really long, and that is getting more difficult to find in cows now. The cattle seem to be getting shorter bodies as this is how they breed them.
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Post by tcranch on May 16, 2020 17:12:10 GMT -6
I am glad that your experience with the twins is turning positive. Funny how some will accept most right after they are born without help. They sure grow off better with their moms. I hope they continue to do well and grow off to be monsters!! Did you get twin bulls or did you get a heifer too? The heifers that are FM really grow large when a person was not looking for a replacement. My problem was the cow that had twins, would not let either nurse. Each time one would try, she would kick them off and they were not able to get milk. She may get really sore after she bags up, I am not sure. She does this each time she has a calf, but usually the calf can get it done. It was not happening in this case. I could not get it off my mind as I worried about both calves knowing that if I did not act immediately, both would not make it. To ease my worries, I brought both to the house in the calf pen. It is expensive to bottle feed calves buying milk. They are getting bigger and now eat quite a bit of feed now. They have a smaller bucket that they clean out each day. I also have given them a big part of my back yard as it is covered in fescue and clover. I will be sending this cow to the sale barn as much as I hate to, but I do not want to go through this again. She is a 10 year old cow and gives me good calves. She is also the cow that laps water like a dog. She is really long, and that is getting more difficult to find in cows now. The cattle seem to be getting shorter bodies as this is how they breed them. First set was bull calves and they're doing okay. I supplemented the smaller one for a while but she's now nursing both, quite often at the same time, and not drawing down too much. Second set was a bull-heifer and I ended up selling the heifer because while I supplemented her, she was always getting left behind. I think the first set did better because it was at the start of calving and the entire herd never strayed far from the bale area. Second set wasn't too much later but Spring came early and they were primarily out to pasture. Thought about bringing them to the barn but I was still calving out heifers in there - too much drama. And a friend of mine wanted her to graft onto a cow that lost her calf so it turned out great. The last set are both bull calves. Too bad your cow was kicking both off. Does she have mastitis? I have a 10 year old with one dead quarter and I treated the other 3 but she just isn't producing enough and I've been supplementing her calf as well. Fortunately he's a robber and is starting to wean himself from the bottle. But this is the last year for his mama. |
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Post by chuckie on May 16, 2020 20:34:15 GMT -6
No, she has never had mastitis before. She just must be a little sore with her udder being so large. But at the same time, dairy breeds allow their calves to nurse. I think she just has a bad personality and I go though this each time. Besides that, she is a kicker. Most of the cows I can reach and pat their bottom, and they are fine. But if the cow walks past me while I am carrying a bucket, she will kick the bucket out of my hand as she has done it quite a few times in the last 10 years. When feed goes scattering across the lot, my blood pressure shoots up. More times than I can count, I will slam her with the bucket once she does it. It never taught her to stop doing it. But it did give me some relief to bust her ass.
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Post by tcranch on May 17, 2020 8:52:14 GMT -6
No, she has never had mastitis before. She just must be a little sore with her udder being so large. But at the same time, dairy breeds allow their calves to nurse. I think she just has a bad personality and I go though this each time. Besides that, she is a kicker. Most of the cows I can reach and pat their bottom, and they are fine. But if the cow walks past me while I am carrying a bucket, she will kick the bucket out of my hand as she has done it quite a few times in the last 10 years. When feed goes scattering across the lot, my blood pressure shoots up. More times than I can count, I will slam her with the bucket once she does it. It never taught her to stop doing it. But it did give me some relief to bust her ass. You're waaaay more patient than me! She wouldn't have made it a year here with a bad attitude, bad udder and a kicker! Trailer time. |
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Post by chuckie on May 17, 2020 13:25:42 GMT -6
The only reason she got to stay was because she had really long big heifers. I am going to send her oldest daughter to the commercial herd. She is extra long and has a good calf like her mom. But, she is a kicker too. She does not have the best udder either, but while it works and the calves have no trouble, she will do OK over there.
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Post by tcranch on Jul 27, 2020 17:51:56 GMT -6
Sooooo. Let mama & twins join the herd. She kicked him off every time I saw them and as soon as he heard me in the Polaris he'd come running - I never had to search for him. But the twins were always together & other than not letting him nurse, she appeared to be taking good care of him (grooming, etc). And then, all the sudden, he was no longer interested in the bottle. My sweet, sweet Lily stepped up to the plate and adopted him in addition to raising her own calf. She's only 3, on her 2nd calf! The weird twist? I now have a blended family. Both mamas are co-mothering all 3 calves, they're almost always together and my life just got easier. No more bottles!!! Lily with her "twins"  Pretzel, Leonard, Lily, Peanut and Popcorn in the back  |
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