If I may, I would like to offer some reassurance to you since I went through a similar scenario.
Young charolais purebred female, delivered Monopoly calf and mothered it very well. Unfortunately, the calf died within a week, and as has been said earlier, she did dry up just fine and went on about her business of being a cow and settled with another pregnancy with no issue. Delivered another Monopoly this year, calf is fantastic, and she is raising it just fine. She did not suffer from not having a calf to raise in the least bit, either in mothering ability or milking ability or volume. Many do not give this breed the credit they deserve as far as mothering ability. They DO know how to raise a calf and your heifer will not lose any ground by not having raised a calf this year.
Having said that, if you like the challenge and enjoy the sense of accomplishment of putting your female to work doing what she was designed to do--raise a calf--then by all means give it a go. Bottle feeding one is not all that hard if she simply won't take the calf and you do get stuck with a baby you have to hand raise. Around here, we think it's kind of fun.
Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes. I've made the mistake of listening to some crusty, grumbly old farts who can really be discouraging and deflating when you are enthusiastic about learning a new thing because they think they know it all. Everyone's work ethic is different and what some may have found to be too difficult may be easy for others. Know what you have in your barn and what you are capable of personally doing, and give everything your best effort and you will surely succeed and learn things along the way. Sometimes even when it doesn't work out, the lesson learned is invaluable.
