zephyrhillsusan
member
Caught Dexteritis in Dec. 2009. Member of this forum since Oct. 2013.
Posts: 1,502
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Post by zephyrhillsusan on Oct 31, 2014 13:35:47 GMT -5
I was looking for something else & found this on FB. For those of you who can't access Facebook, here's the web page. Just for the record, I'm not sharing this because I'm an animal rights activist. I know many of my Keeping a Family Cow friends immediately remove calves from their dams, and some even operate commercial dairies. I purposely didn't share this there because I don't want to step on anyone's toes. I decided to share it here because I know that most Dexter owners do let their cows raise the calves, and in fact, good mothering is one quality we value in our Dexters. I just thought this story was incredibly touching, as well as a testament to the intelligence and reasoning power of cattle. And maybe an encouragement that letting our cows raise their own calves really IS a good thing--more so than we knew!
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Post by lonecowhand on Oct 31, 2014 18:11:22 GMT -5
You did it again Susan, this is up there with your horse tale. Animals have more depth that we want to admit.
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Post by marion on Nov 1, 2014 8:14:55 GMT -5
Susan, I cannot bring myself to separate a calf from it's dam. I have a favourite cow who will willingly share her milk while raising her calf. I sold her first calf off her at only five months and swore I'd never do it again. (He had to truck with another older calf and we couldn't delay due to the approach of winter weather). She was a panicked sweating nervous wreck. That first time, I milked her OAD for the full ten month lactation then again this spring after more than a four year gap. She acted as if we'd never missed a day! :-) Have you read 'The Secret Life of Cows' by Rosamund Young? www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-Cows-Rosamund-Young/dp/0954255550/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1414847640&sr=8-2&keywords=secret+life+of+cows It has some amazing stories, guaranteed to make you cry... Weaning here is done late and gently, with the calves in an adjoining pen, where the dams can see them, touch noses and know they are ok. I can do this as I have such a small herd..marion
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zephyrhillsusan
member
Caught Dexteritis in Dec. 2009. Member of this forum since Oct. 2013.
Posts: 1,502
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Post by zephyrhillsusan on Nov 1, 2014 8:33:05 GMT -5
That's a great story, Marion. I haven't read that book, but I'll definitely get hold of it! Our experience with weaning here has been widely different. For our first calf, I didn't even realize WE were "supposed" to be involved. The old gal did it herself without me ever thinking of it, and I couldn't even tell you how old her heifer was. That heifer, Siobhan, was far from being able to do it herself. She was kicking at her calf, but only half-heartedly, and the calf was not taking "no" for an answer. So I used a weaning ring (the yellow tab) on her. That went very well. This current heifer (almost 7 months, she's being sold) I'm weaning is a very smart, stubborn little gal, and I was pretty sure she'd get around the weaning ring. So I resorted to a not-so "kinder, gentler" method and put her in the barnyard 22 feet from the pasture her mom is in. There was a lot of hollering for 3 days, and even a little after that, but at least they could see each other. We're keeping Wellie for beef, so I'll let him nurse quite a while longer. (He's five months old now.) When it's time to wean him, I'll give the weaning ring a try because he's so laid back, like Macree, I don't think he'll try to get around it. An aside about our first cow, Sara. After we sold her back to the people we got her from with her heifer at her side, they told me a cool story about her. One day she was letting the calf nurse as usual, and then the next day she kicked the calf off. The next day she let it nurse. The next day she kicked it off. Now THAT's a smart cow! So I guess that's how she weaned Siobhan, even though I never saw it happen.
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Post by stephanie on Nov 18, 2014 5:27:31 GMT -5
As a dairy farmer....born and bred - I HATED taking the cows from the calves, felt guilty as they yelled for them, usually right in my ear in the back of the parlour and it echoed well too! However I reminded myself that none of them or the previous generations would have been born if it weren't for my dairy farm and all the others in the world. Our calves were always treated with kindness as were the cows and there are ones that stick in the mind!!! Thankfully back then the bull calves were reared for beef here which was much nicer.
(Mine were predominantly British Friesian with just a little influence of Holstein and the poorer milkers would go to a beef bull.) A shocking memory for me was when a cow had Charolais twins, big and beautiful, I was so pleased, a little triumph as my husband had just left me and my two small children BUT they wouldn't suckle, no interest whatever, so I milked her and tried to give it by bucket...I was used to bucketing over 100 calves a year, no luck, bottle no go, trickle it in, they wouldn't swallow!!! These were huge calves, so I tubed the one for a week and the other for 10 days before they would swallow for themselves, awful thing to have to do I hated it!
Then there was Camelia - bless her, she should by right have gone for beef as a youngster as she had summer mastitis when she was a bulling heifer but I loved her! So I milked her for the first 2 months until her first flush of milk was over each year, then gave her 3 calves, she was so natural, I just turned them in, she mooed softly to them, gave them all a good wash and just fed them, if only ALL suckler cows were like Camelia! She would feed several bunches a year, I would call her with a bucket when her calves were big, she would load in a trailer, come home and have another set of babies that she would be equally delighted with....wonderful cow!
Another favourite memory is Cinderella. Very quiet and like Camelia, she like her dewlap being stroked and would lift her head right up and shut her eyes if I stroked her for long enough. One night Cinderella calved at the top of a steep field, it was her 5th calf and she could not get up. I was devastated. My mum said it would be OK. So every day a few of us went up and rolled her over. Mum would rub the side that had been down and looked all flat and horrible and then would you believe - milk 4 gallons of milk off her!!! She wasn't too bothered about her recumbent position, seemed happy enough. We thought a few days and she would be up, it took over 3 weeks, we were about to give up on her, Dad was talking about getting the knacker man and I was getting desperate but she was still eating, drinking and milking well, we had left the gate open and she just walked up and into the farm yard. A bit lopsided, pronounced limp and very slow. She always sloped more on the one rump than the other after that but never had a problem walking or calving and lived many contented years.
The day Cinderella had to go was one of my worst as a farmer, it was over 30 years ago and I still hate thinking about putting her on the lorry....I refused to send Camelia!
Stephanie
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zephyrhillsusan
member
Caught Dexteritis in Dec. 2009. Member of this forum since Oct. 2013.
Posts: 1,502
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Post by zephyrhillsusan on Nov 18, 2014 7:30:41 GMT -5
Those are sweet stories, Stephanie! What lovely cows! It shows the depth of cows that you find such generosity of heart and affection among them.
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Post by stephanie on Nov 18, 2014 15:58:22 GMT -5
There is something about cows, I couldn't agree more. When I was a child if I was feeling upset and it was wintertime with the cows in cubicles I would go out and see the cows, their calmness and contentment with a full belly of silage whilst chewing cud was often enough to cheer me up. I loved to hear the long groan, followed by a puff of an overstuffed cow as she was lying in her cubicle, they were so greedy! The quieter ones would allow me to use them as a seat and I would plonk myself down and have a chat. If it was summer I would go for a walk in their field and the friendliest ones would come over for attention.
Yes they do have a brain, once they had a few calves mine would wait at the calving pen door when they were within a few hours of calving, which I found quite charming and very useful and some could open one of the sliding doors here with their noses.
However I don't think The Friesians are anywhere near as clever as the Dexters whose clever antics never cease to amaze me. My favourite clever moment was when Woodmagic Petrel mooed and mooed, I just couldn't understand why, her calf was about a week old and I had been away for the weekend, someone had been coming in to do the feeding. I had thrown her some hay from outside and seen the calf nestled in the straw, so what was the problem? I changed into jeans and went to look. The calf was cold as ice and breathing dreadfully, it had pneumonia very badly, she kept mooing until the vet came and injected it, then she stopped. Now she is an old timer, did she know that I had got the right help and that her calf had been treated??? The vet said the calf had less than a 50/50 chance...she survived and is gorgeous!
Stephanie
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zephyrhillsusan
member
Caught Dexteritis in Dec. 2009. Member of this forum since Oct. 2013.
Posts: 1,502
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Post by zephyrhillsusan on Nov 18, 2014 20:08:00 GMT -5
That's fantastic! Such a smart mama! You should put your stories into a book, they're great.
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Post by stephanie on Nov 19, 2014 2:58:58 GMT -5
People do take cattle for granted when they have been around them for years, they can end up treating them as if they are machines not living things which is very sad but not so surprising when in this day and age to make a decent living you need so many animals and so much machinery.
Back when I was a child I used to watch the cows and wonder what they were thinking, especially when they had to come into the parlour for the first time, accept the indignity of a milking machine etc. It takes some of the stress away if they come through the milking parlour for a few weeks before they calve for the first time, they can stay outside if they want to, only coming through when they feel ready, so there is no need for force and you can handle them a little and rub the udder, so they are used to being touched. However by mixing with the milking herd and coming through the parlour they are more likely to come into contact with mastitis so there are also strong arguments against this practice.
Stephanie
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Post by littlecowfl on Nov 20, 2014 5:23:26 GMT -5
I had one cow whose calf was stepped on and died shortly after birth. I left the calf in with her for a full day so she would know it wasn't going to get up, but she still mourned her loss for days. By day five, she was still going strong, so I picked up a dairy Holstein calf for her to mother. It wasn't long before he had to kneel to nurse from her. Funniest thing to watch, but she was satisfied.
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zephyrhillsusan
member
Caught Dexteritis in Dec. 2009. Member of this forum since Oct. 2013.
Posts: 1,502
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Post by zephyrhillsusan on Nov 20, 2014 10:58:01 GMT -5
She seems to be the exception to the rule about them grieving for a few days. So great that you realized she really needed to be a mother and gave her a chance to do it!
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