Post by Shawn on Aug 17, 2021 9:53:18 GMT -5
Monday, my sale barn guy bought me a BA heifer calf. She's got a dried umbilical still, so can't be too awful old. No ear tag. I've never bought something from the sale that didn't have an ear tag. (more on that later)
DH helped unload her yesterday afternoon. They put her in the "nursery" which is a straw bale lined enclosure inside the barn. DH said she promptly began throwing herself headlong into the panels. He shut every gate/door he could in an effort to contain her if she managed to get out somehow. She was even trying to crawl up the panels.
He checked her later and she had calmed down and was resting.
So, I bring cows in last night to milk. She is up watching, was interested when the cows passed by her pen. I asked DH to help and it took both of us to get a dog collar on her and a lead. Then she fought and I worked with her. I finally gave up on the bottle and sat on a straw bale and pulled her toward me. Released a little pressure and worked on being a friend. Once I got to her brisket and started pulling on that, she relaxed the most. At one point I was standing up and she jumped one hop towards me like she was going to bash my leg with her head. Then she did it again.
After she had "calmed down" (using that very loosely) we got her into the corner and I got the nipple in her mouth. It took about 5 minutes of patiently working with her and then she drank almost the entire bottle.
When I turned her loose she commenced throwing herself at the fencing and actually got her head stuck in a combo panel. I had to go to the other side and force it back through.
So this morning it took slightly less of a struggle to get a lead on her. I was by myself. I sat down on the bale again and we "talked." At one point she stepped forward and put her nose on my hand but I just had an uneasy feeling so I stood up and she launched herself at me. We had a discussion about that behavior. Then she eventually took the bottle without being in the corner. Let her loose and same frantic behavior again.
I'm going to give her 2 weeks and see how she comes around. My thoughts are either she's from a crazy momma (hence no ear tag, mom wouldn't let her be tagged and the reason mom/baby were at the sale) OR she's just extremely traumatized from the whole experience.
I bought a Dutch Belted steer at the sale last fall and he rammed the trailer when my DD got up on the fender to look at him. He is much calmer, but still high headed and gets very nervous if anything unusual happens. But he's workable.
I hope she's just scared and will straighten out.
My future plans for her are only to be a milking machine all winter, then she's going to the sale in the spring. I wanted something that would sell good, thus bought BA. So no worries, I'm not breeding her.