Post by laane on Sept 1, 2010 23:51:43 GMT -5
I had a new cow arrive on Sunday, and its taken me a few days to post here, just because I was so overwhelmed at the condition she is in.
I was offered an 8 y/o Holstein cow by some people we know as they heard that we had lost our Doris. I had seen this cow previously, maybe a year ago, and she was in bad condition then. They had no feed on the ground and they wanted a good home for her rather than send her off to the saleyards. I said I would take her. She arrived on Sunday by truck (I had not seen her recently prior to arriving) and when she got off the truck I was shocked, I don't know what I was expecting, especially since they called her Skeleton, but this poor cow was basically just skin covering bones. Her (big) calf was going to the sales, along with 2 others that were born to other beef cows in the paddock with her that also used to feed off her.
We are calling her Skelly, and for the moment she is in our barn with 2 calves. One is our bottle fed poddy heifer, the other is a bull calf we were also given on the same Sunday whose mother was dying. We were trying to bottle feed him, but he is a few weeks old and not accustomed to humans, I didn't want Skelly to take him on but she has, with no inticement from us. I think I need to learn to say no to people! I am happy to have the cow but this calf is a pain in the backside but it seems we are stuck with it for now.
Anyway, she is in the barn and we have given her a round bale of grassy lucerne hay to pick at whenever she wants. She is also getting a biscuit of good quality lucerne hay once a day and a small quantity of dairy meal twice a day which I plan to increase gradually. The morning after we gave her the round bale, she looked so much better, filled her out a little.
As I am new to all this, is what I am feeding her okay? Any other tips, pointers and advice would be very welcome.
I should add she is in my opinion, very small for a Holstein, not because of her condition, but she seems rather short. I thought generally Holsteins were big, tall cows? My Doris, who was a larger framed jersey, was taller than her.
I was offered an 8 y/o Holstein cow by some people we know as they heard that we had lost our Doris. I had seen this cow previously, maybe a year ago, and she was in bad condition then. They had no feed on the ground and they wanted a good home for her rather than send her off to the saleyards. I said I would take her. She arrived on Sunday by truck (I had not seen her recently prior to arriving) and when she got off the truck I was shocked, I don't know what I was expecting, especially since they called her Skeleton, but this poor cow was basically just skin covering bones. Her (big) calf was going to the sales, along with 2 others that were born to other beef cows in the paddock with her that also used to feed off her.
We are calling her Skelly, and for the moment she is in our barn with 2 calves. One is our bottle fed poddy heifer, the other is a bull calf we were also given on the same Sunday whose mother was dying. We were trying to bottle feed him, but he is a few weeks old and not accustomed to humans, I didn't want Skelly to take him on but she has, with no inticement from us. I think I need to learn to say no to people! I am happy to have the cow but this calf is a pain in the backside but it seems we are stuck with it for now.
Anyway, she is in the barn and we have given her a round bale of grassy lucerne hay to pick at whenever she wants. She is also getting a biscuit of good quality lucerne hay once a day and a small quantity of dairy meal twice a day which I plan to increase gradually. The morning after we gave her the round bale, she looked so much better, filled her out a little.
As I am new to all this, is what I am feeding her okay? Any other tips, pointers and advice would be very welcome.
I should add she is in my opinion, very small for a Holstein, not because of her condition, but she seems rather short. I thought generally Holsteins were big, tall cows? My Doris, who was a larger framed jersey, was taller than her.