Udder is huge

[burnettracer]

Hello, Im new to the board. I have a dexter cow that had her calf 3 days ago. I had to pull the calf from her because mom would leave calf in the sun and she would go stand in the shade. Calf was close to dieing. She is now being bottle fed and doing great, but now im not sure what to do with mom. I have had her for a few months and she is not one that has been handled much. I have a chute for her and she goes in fine, but she wants to kick when i try to start milking her. Anyone have any techniques to avoid hoof in the face. Thanks a bunch

[marion]

You could try the 'glove on a stick' trick. Hold the glove end against her udder and see if she gives up trying to swipe it away! At that point, she may put up with your hand on her teat. If that doesnt work, you can do the 'old farmer rope trick'. Get a round soft rope, make a loop in one end and put it around her body, in front of the hip bones and right in front of her udder. (Place the rope over her back with the loop hanging just below one hip bone on your side, and the loose end around in front of her udder and through the loop). Cinch it up quite tight and it will prevent her kicking forward and you should be able to milk, even if only one handed..marion

[wanette]

We just went through this too, are you anywhere close to Tishamingo, OK? There is a great guy who trained my cow. He used kickers on all his cows & mine and she did great, I had no luck with the rope, might have been my cowboy on the other end. We also tried tying a hind foot back, again cowboy failure.
Our cow was at trainers 9 days, if he had been closer I think we could have brought her straight back home after we had a lesson, came back with her udder in much better condition and reclaimed her calf and they are doing great on their own now.
Can you contact your extension agent or vets in the area to see if there is anyone close to you who milks, even machine milking, they should be able to help you because what you really need is someone with some experience to walk you through once and then you'll be fine.
Her teats are probably getting dry, before you try milking get some wet warm clothes to wash her up and then massage balm or glycerin on her udder and teats to help her relax. If she is like my cow, she'll be hard to get started, that's why the machine was a great help, and I think makes it so hard for the calf to nurse.
Hang in there and good luck.

Wanette

[burnettracer]

Glove on a stick worked great! but man shes still got attitude. how long does it take before she figures out what is expected out of her?

[Star Creek Dexters]

I totally agree, Gene. If there's anyway to get this pair back together, try that before anything else. If it's really hot, just bring the calf up out of the sun during the hot part of the day and give it to mama the rest of the time. That's no different than me share milking. Sounds like you may be creating a lot more work for yourself than is really necessary.
Good lcuk with them and let us know how it's going.

[rdoubled]

I agree with Star Creek. If you can keep the calf in a cool place and bring the mom to the calf for nursing then all will be happy. Once the calf reaches a few weeks old it will know how to find shade when it is too hot.
The challenge you have with a new born calf is there bodies do not have the ability to regulate temperatures. That takes a few days, then a few more for the them to figure out where it is cool or dry.
I deal with rain during my calving time and have several mothers that take the calf out to the back Field and leave it to come to the barn to get out of the rain. I end up with mom and baby locked in the barn during the cold wet nights and let them out on the days it is not too bad. After a few weeks the calves learn the barn is dry and warm, they will come to the barn on there own.

[kansasdexters]

We live in northeast Kansas and today's high temp is forecasted to be 102oF, factoring in the humidity, the heat index outside this afternoon will be over 110oF. That is hot enough to kill a newborn calf that falls asleep in an unprotected area in only a few hours.

We've had two calves born this past week and we are keeping them with their mama cows in our stone shed lot, where they can get out of the sun and have easy access to an automatic waterer and deep shade. I check on them several times a day to make sure that nobody gets left out in the open. In another week, it will be safe to put these cow/calf pairs in our main pasture area with the other pairs -- but right now it isn't.

So far, all is well. The calves are suckling frequently and the cows are drinking a lot of water. The reflective aluminum paint on the stone shed roof and the thick, native stone walls of the shed help to keep the animals as comfortable as possible. We are located on a ridge, so we usually have a nice breeze blowing through the trees and that helps too.

Patti