What do you do when a cow loses her calf?

[braunvieh]

If you have a cow that loses her calf at birth or shortly thereafter, what do you generally do? If we have a bottle calf we always try to get her to adopt a bottle calf, or a twin. But if there isn't an extra calf around we generally just leave them be. This spring one of our Braunvieh heifers had a dead calf in the frozen tundra and we went to the sale barn and got her a new baby. We thought it would be better for her udder to have a calf on her. It took a while for her to adopt it but she ended up raising a very nice 650 pound heifer calf! What does eveyone else do?

 

[red]

I'd hesitate to bring in a sale barn calf. Just from a disease point of view.
If the cow is worth keeping I give her the year off unless I have one w/ twins.
Since DL not around I'd also suggest a necropsy.

Red

 

[kanshow]

I agree about not bringing in an outside calf.    We'll usually graft another calf if we have one.. twin or orphan.  Otherwise, she has to be a pretty good cow to stick around.  The commercials get a one way trip to town.

 

[Endless Meadows]

It really depends on the situation. 

If the cow lost the calf:  wouldn't let nurse, didn't care for it, ect....  She's GONE
If the calf died for some other reason:  calving problems caused by the bull, freakish or rare situation, or something I did/didn't do... She may get another chance but it's not a guarantee.

If the cows gets another chance, she will stay dry for a year unless we have an orphaned calf.  For Biosecurity we will NOT buy a calf from the sale barn.  Too many variables that come into play.  There is no past vaccination history of the cow herd and it's hard to tell what that calf has for immunities or what it may be shedding.  Scours are a very rare occurrence at our place and we try to keep it that way.

 

[eisses456]

in our herd a cow has to pretty darn good to stick around if she loses a calf they usual end up at the stock yards if we do keep her around she just stay dry for the year

 

[red]

if it's because the cow just laid there & wouldn't push & calf was born dead she's gone.
I try to give them 1 loss unless there was an accident like calf getting kicked.

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