Well , I would like to know about my cows calf she is going to have it SOON I am not experenced with young calves first I would like to know when i should take the calf away I thing it is three day so it can get clostrum . If i ween the calf after 2 months can i put her back with her mom . David

-- David (DoVe@EPIX.NET), March 19, 2002

Answers

You can milk the colostrum out and bottle feed it, you just need a larger hole in the nipple to accomodate the thicker liquid. If you're talking dairy cow, you may not want the calf to nurse momma at all, unless you have the ability to keep them separated for quite a while. If the calf gets the notion that momma is where the milk comes from, you will be forever trying to teach it otherwise. One of ours couldn't be broken of trying to steal a sip, and had to be kept separated through the entire lactation cycle. The only thing that put a stop to it was the momma cow refusing to nurse, and that didn't happen until after the next calf.

If it's a beef cow, this won't be nearly as much of a problem, momma will dry up fairly quickly, and then will put a stop to the silliness herself.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), March 20, 2002.

Over the years we have tried several different ways!!! But have always left the calf with her for afew days. You can also take it away and bring it to her after your done milking, as long as you leave enough. We leave the calf for the maximum of 3-4 days only, then after 2 to 3 months they can go in the same area, if you have the room separate for the longer time. If they steal milk then you'll have to start over on the separation... Our cow is better behaved once we take the calf away!! We also bucket feed our calves when we take them away from Ma......

-- Suzanne (weir@frontiernet.net), March 20, 2002.