Thursday, December 29, 2011

Feeding our New Baby Calf

One of our cows had a healthy baby calf then refused to let the poor thing nurse.  Luckily we noticed this not long after he was born.  The colostrum from the mother's milk is so vitally important in the first few hours and days.  Mel decided to put the mother cow in the head-gate, feed her while we assisted the calf in nursing his mother.  Now this became our daily routine for a few days, plus we added bottle feeding the calf at noon to supplement. 
Finally, she will allow the calf to nurse while eating from a bucket of feed.  Hopefully, she will the calf to nurse whenever he chooses.  If not, she will be going to the sale soon!

The Cute Little Thing

Mel getting the Head-gate and Feed Ready

 Assisting the Calf in Nursing

 Bottle Feeding the Calf
Never a dull moment or lack of things to do on the farm!

No comments:

Post a Comment