Post by hoperefuge on Apr 13, 2014 17:38:03 GMT -5
I'm so aggravated with Redhead! She calved Mar. 2, and she has horrendously huge balloon teats (if I'd had any idea, I wouldn't have bought her...Grrr). The calf, Annie, only really "found" two teats at first, the right front & left rear. I tried to get her on to the other two the first few days, but to no avail, she just wouldn't use them. And Redhead is NOT tame, I can't even touch her, so was certainly not going to try to milk her. Annie seemed to be getting enough at first just using her two preferred teats, so I decided to leave well enough alone & hope she would start nursing the others eventually.
That didn't happen. In fact, she ended up nursing pretty much just on the right front by about 2 weeks out, and Redhead would kick her off if she tried any of the other three. I was getting concerned, but then the other week I noticed that Annie had nursed things down on the left side, front & back, so I hoped that was a good sign. She's been growing well & acting normal.
The last couple days I've been trying to pay closer attention to the situation. It appears that the left front quarter is probably dried off, and Redhead kicks Annie off it consistently IF she tries it, which she barely does. The left rear she is nursing now, but it doesn't seem to have much milk anymore, likely due to not being nursed for nearly a month. The right rear is still full & untouched since birth, so I doubt she'll have any production there. Annie completely ignores it anyway. The right front is still her preferred source & seems to have decent production. So, at this point I think Annie basically has only 1 and a half quarters to get milk from.
Keep in mind, we're talking about a Dexter cow here...not high production to start with. I just don't think this is really going to be enough to keep the heifer growing well as she gets bigger. Is there any hope of Red's production coming back at this point, because I'm rather doubting it? Am I correct in thinking the heifer is going to need supplemented?
I want to keep her on mom if I can to get as much real milk as possible, but I went ahead & got a bag of milk replacer to try to start bottling her as well. I'm barely getting enough milk for the house from the girls I can milk, so I don't have extra to feed Annie. She hasn't been real keen on the bottle yet today, but I have her penned up away from Redhead today in the hopes she'll get hungry enough to give it a go. I think I will try some of Tulip's milk instead of the replacer this evening & see if that's more interesting to her.
Will it work to leave her with mom & give her one bottle a day, or some such arrangement? What would be the best way for me to handle this? I need to know if I'm totally off my rocker here, or heading the right direction. Stupid cow! I don't think I've ever been this aggravated with one!
Thanks in advance for any advise you can give.
Kim
That didn't happen. In fact, she ended up nursing pretty much just on the right front by about 2 weeks out, and Redhead would kick her off if she tried any of the other three. I was getting concerned, but then the other week I noticed that Annie had nursed things down on the left side, front & back, so I hoped that was a good sign. She's been growing well & acting normal.
The last couple days I've been trying to pay closer attention to the situation. It appears that the left front quarter is probably dried off, and Redhead kicks Annie off it consistently IF she tries it, which she barely does. The left rear she is nursing now, but it doesn't seem to have much milk anymore, likely due to not being nursed for nearly a month. The right rear is still full & untouched since birth, so I doubt she'll have any production there. Annie completely ignores it anyway. The right front is still her preferred source & seems to have decent production. So, at this point I think Annie basically has only 1 and a half quarters to get milk from.
Keep in mind, we're talking about a Dexter cow here...not high production to start with. I just don't think this is really going to be enough to keep the heifer growing well as she gets bigger. Is there any hope of Red's production coming back at this point, because I'm rather doubting it? Am I correct in thinking the heifer is going to need supplemented?
I want to keep her on mom if I can to get as much real milk as possible, but I went ahead & got a bag of milk replacer to try to start bottling her as well. I'm barely getting enough milk for the house from the girls I can milk, so I don't have extra to feed Annie. She hasn't been real keen on the bottle yet today, but I have her penned up away from Redhead today in the hopes she'll get hungry enough to give it a go. I think I will try some of Tulip's milk instead of the replacer this evening & see if that's more interesting to her.
Will it work to leave her with mom & give her one bottle a day, or some such arrangement? What would be the best way for me to handle this? I need to know if I'm totally off my rocker here, or heading the right direction. Stupid cow! I don't think I've ever been this aggravated with one!
Thanks in advance for any advise you can give.
Kim