A new baby, now what?
38April 16, 2012 by dairycarrie
I, like just about everyone on facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest and every other form of social media, tend to post a lot of pictures. No real surprise that instead of kids, cats, dogs or shoes my pictures are mostly photos of cows, calves and farm life. Cats, dogs, shoes and other random photos do make the cut but it’s mostly all about the cows. If you follow me on twitter and were to look back on my tweets you would see lots of bad, blurry snapshots of wet calves late at night, usually with their mother’s muzzle in the frame licking the new calf off. The next morning you would see photos of a cute, dry, fluffy calf cuddled up in it’s calf hutch. But i’ve never really posted much about what happens between the photos. So I decided to take some photos from start to finish (mostly, I thought of this idea part of the way through) and share them with you.
So here it is…. How baby calves go from wet and squishy to soft and cuddly.
Hey look! It's a new baby! Gentle the heifer is now Gentle the cow.
When we have a new calf born the first thing I do is make sure that the new mama gets up and shows an interest in her baby. Calves need the stimulation of their mother licking them off to get their bearings after being born. If the cow doesn’t show an interest in the calf I will grab a towel and start to rub the baby dry myself. Thankfully Gentle had the instinct to lick off her calf. The second thing I do when we have a new calf born is lift up it’s back leg and check the plumbing. While we do use Ultrasound to check gender of our calves before they are born sometimes we get a surprise. Gentle had a heifer (girl) calf.
She got up on her own! But she sure looks wobbly.
One of the most common questions I have from people about calves is why we don’t keep baby calves with their mothers on a dairy farm. Or why we keep calves in those little houses and not with their moms. My answer is that we do let the mama cows lick off their babies, but after that we take over care of the calf. We do this for many reasons. The first is that our cows calve in a group pen, if you have ever been in a situation where you have a pack of baby hungry women and a newborn you can imagine what the calving pen is like after a calf is born. Often times a cow other than the one who gave birth will want to claim the new calf as her own. Some times several cows want the calf to be theirs. This usually upsets the actual mother of the calf and since cows can’t use their words, a lot of pushing and head butting comes into play. The problem with this is that these cows get so caught up in wrestling that they forget that there is a brand new baby in the area and the calf can get stepped on and hurt or even killed. The second reason we take over for the cows is that just like a human newborn calves don’t have much of an immune system built up yet. For the same reason that new moms refuse to hand over their precious bundle of joy to a hacking, sneezing and feverish person we do what we can to stop the spread of any bugs to the baby calf. Since no one has been able to litter box train a cow yet, manure happens and as you can imagine manure can carry said bugs. A third reason we take over and one that will resonate with any mother who has nursed her child…. Calves are born with teeth and they are sharp! When a calf is hungry they will wander up to their mother and take their cute little heads and punch their mother’s udder with it to get them to let down their milk. I am not certain why a cow is designed to reward bad behavior but they are. Then the calf with start to suckle, teeth and all. While a beef cow’s udder is more built for this kind of thing a dairy cow’s udder just doesn’t handle the abuse as well.
This calf hutch will be her home until she is weaned from milk and ready to move into a group pen.
So after the calf is born and we have moved the calf to her own hutch, her mother will be milked. This milk is called colostrum, it is thick and sticky and is full of maternal antibodies that will help the new calf build a strong immune system. Before the calf is given the colostrum, on our farm, we use a product called Ecolizer. It’s an oral dose of antibodies that will help her build immunity specifically to the e.coli bacteria.
This is what the tube looks like. Ecolizer is made by Novartis and I have seen an improvement in overall calf health since I started using it.
After the calf has a chance to absorb the Ecolizer, it’s time to eat! Because the colostrum from the cow is so important for the calf’s future we want to make sure that the calf gets at least a gallon of colostrum into their tummy in the first 12-24 hours. This is another reason why we take over from the cow. It’s vital to the calf that it get enough colostrum in the right amount of time. A calf slowly loses the ability to absorb the antibodies from the colostrum every hour after the first 6 hours of it’s life.
While this little girl is smaller than average, it's still important that she get a full gallon of colostrum. Since I don't want her to get too full I will feed her the entire amount over the course of about 8 hours.
The next important step is to make sure the calf is identified. Most dairy farms use ear tags to do this. The calf is assigned a number and given a name. On our farm the calf gets a name that starts with the same letter as it’s mother’s name. So Gentle had….
Meet calf number 243, better known as Gem.
Hanging out in the run in front of her hutch.
Little Gem was born with some pretty crooked legs. This is probably due to a combination of being scrunched up inside of mom and not getting enough selenium. Most areas of our country don’t have to worry about getting extra selenium into their expectant mothers because the feed grown in the area contains a good amount. But here in Southern Wisconsin we have very low selenium levels and extra supplementation is needed. To help Gem get good strong legs under her I gave her a small dose of selenium.
This is what it looks like.
Just a very little bit is needed to help her get on the right track.
So Gem was born early Saturday morning. She is doing very well and her legs have already straightened out a great deal. Gem will live in her hutch for the next 2-3 months. We usually wean the calves off of milk at about 2 months old. They will stay in their hutch until they are ready to be moved into group housing with a few calves that are the same age and size. So the next time you see calves in hutches I hope you will have a better idea of how we care for our calves. If you have a question please leave a comment and I will do my best to answer it.
Reblogged this on Real Life Farm Wife and commented:
We don’t have babies here, but you know I LOVE cows, so I had to read this excellent post from Dairy Carrie.
(Plus the baby pictures are TOO CUTE!)
Hey! Thanks for sharing. Gem and her little crooked legs make for cure photos!
Too cute!
Learned somemore new stuff from you…thanks. Do all dairy farmers keep their calves like this? And what about the boy calves…don’t they get sold? And when?
Most dairy farmers do, however more and more farms are building special barns just for calves where they are either housed in cubicles or in groups with automatic calf feeders.
We do sell our bull calves. We don’t have the space or facilities to raise them and we thinks that for us it’s better to focus all of our time, feed and resources on raising calves that will be future dairy cows. The bull calves around here usually go to farms where they are raised for beef. Some dairy farmers also raise beef but that only works if you have space to do it.
[...] afterbirth hanging out of her. I talked about why farmers separate the cows from their calves in a post the other day. This part of the video shows exactly what I was talking about. Yes, we do. For good reasons. [...]
[...] afterbirth hanging out of her. I talked about why farmers separate the cows from their calves in a post the other day. This part of the video shows exactly what I was talking [...]
Nice write up Carrie. I wish more people would spend time explaining and listening to how things work so people are not so misinformed about farming, etc.
Thanks Karin. I do my best to explain what we do and why we do it. I just wish more people would seek out the information from both sides.
After seeing a post on Facebook about the abuse of dairy cows, I am happy to read that there are dairy cows that are treated kindly. Would you say most dairy farms operate in the way you do? Also, I was saddened that the mother cow essentially loses their baby after a day. Here it sounds like the baby is well taken care of, but does the mother ever see the baby again? As a mother myself, I can imagine the heartache of the mother cow who only sees her baby one day and then loses it forever.
Hi Janeatte,
I would say that 99.9% of dairy farmers, regardless of size treat their cows with the same respect that I do. These cows are our livelihood and we work hard to ensure that they are healthy and well taken care of. I always hate seeing things on facebook or other places online that show abuse. Too often it sends the message that all farmers are like this. The truth is there are some parents that will abuse their kids. That doesn’t mean that all or most parents abuse their kids. Same thing with applies to farmers. What I described in my post is pretty standard for a new dairy calf. A cow may see her baby again in the future, right now we have a few grandma, mother and daughters all milking in the same group. But I have never seen a cow do anything to show that she recognizes her daughter. I would say that 90% off our cows either have very little interest in their calves or after we take the calf to it’s hutch, they go eat and never look back. It’s hard to not think of the emotions that a cow has as the same as our own but there is a difference.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Thank you so much for your reply and honesty! I’m glad I decided to do some research on this before just going with what I saw on Facebook. What you said about there being bad parents not meaning all parents are bad is so true. I read a few other blogs and they all describe the treatment of a new dairy calf in the same way you do and show pictures of how it’s done as well. I read elsewhere though that the mothers “bellow” for their babies for days and it distresses them greatly to have their calves taken away, have you ever seen this?
Sure I have seen it. Every once in a while we will have a cow that does bellow and seem like it is distressed. It doesn’t happen that often and it’s hard to say if she is bellowing for her calf or if it’s the change of being in a new group, having a full udder and just a want to let the world know that she has something to say. Beef cattle still have a lot of mothering instinct left. But most of that instinct has been bred out of dairy cows over hundreds of years.
I really enjoyed your blog about the dairy farm,it is good to know that there are people that care about the welfare of the animals in their care,awesome!
Thanks Marcia! Dairy farmers work hard to take care of our animals.
Im looking for cruelty free milk butter and cheese, I live in Las Vegas,Nv. All the sights i go to seem to be scolding me for it. I dont eat red meat but I do like dairy. I want to buy the most humane products as possible. Can you help me?
Hi Tonya,
Thanks for asking me! Your question makes me want to ask you all kinds of questions to better understand your view of my industry, but to try to stick with your question… It looks like Anderson Dairy is a milk bottler in your area. The milk that they bottle is going to be from farms that are fairly local to the Las Vegas area. So this may be a place to start. That being said, I believe that the milk, butter and cheese you buy at the store, regardless of labels is cruelty free. Do you have questions about dairy farming I can answer for you? Maybe you’ve heard something that you aren’t sure about or want to know why dairy farmers do what we do?
I was down in Vegas in May and wanted to tour a dairy farm down there to see how they do things but I didn’t set anything up ahead of time so I never did get a chance to visit one. Maybe next time!
Thanks again for asking me!
Carrie
[...] Yep it’s true, a cow doesn’t have teeth on the top… at least in front. They do have upper and lower molars in the back of their mouths used for grinding up what they eat. Calves are born with their teeth already in place and they are sharp! [...]
[...] Brandi the calf. In this picture she is about 4 hours old and is getting her first meal of colostrum. As I was feeding her I realized that one of my favorite things in life is the moment that a brand [...]
[...] If you’re interested in checking out what happens to dairy calves after they are born click HERE for my post on baby [...]
[...] and learn more about what the calf eats and how Carrie ensures a healthy life for her cattle at the Dairy Carrie [...]
How are the ear tags attached?
The same as a human with an earring.
Male dairy calves are not raised for beef (beef cattle are totally different) they are either disposed of or rasied for veal.
Actually the vast majority of male dairy calves are in fact raised as steers to become beef. In the US a very small percentage go to veal because US veal consumption is so low. As far as “disposing” of the calves, that would be stupid! When we sell our bull calves we receive between $100-200 each. Why would we throw that money away?
Dairycarrie, I love the way you tell the dairy story!!!!
Thank you!
Yes, we understand there are good, logical reasons that you separate calves and mothers. But good reasons don’t make the practice humane. The natural instinct of a lactating mammal is to care for her young (hence many cows attempt to claim the calf as their own as you have described). Separation denies the animals a very strong natural instinct. This post just demonstrates the inherent cruelty of the industry.
I’m not meaning this as personal attack by any means- I am just making an informed comment.
Lana, I think you’ve highlighted the difference between animal rights and animal welfare nicely here. I believe that my animals deserve the best care available. I do not believe they are entitled to the same rights as humans.
Hmm..do you consider fulfilling natural instincts-including maternal instincts-to be a “right” only reserved for humans then?
Again-not trying to be antagonistic here!
I don’t think your being antagonistic. I believe we have different view points that we strongly believe in. I respect your choice even though I don’t agree. I don’t believe that if we left our calves with our cows and only milked what was left that you would decide dairy was OK. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
[...] many of you may be wondering what will happen to this bull calf later in life. On our farm we don’t keep bull calves. We are dedicated to [...]
I would actually be ok with the milk that is left after the calf has nursed and came upon your blog searching for a dairy that does not separate calf and mother.
I didn’t know until recently that calfs were given “milk replacement”….which is like baby formula, right?
I guess I find it hard to believe that these animals aren’t the least distressed from their young taken away from them. I love me some milk! Cheese is GOOD – but I just can’t bring myself to eat it now knowing about the seperation practices. I understand that you do treat your animals well and keep them healthy – but you’ve never once stopped to think about the distress this puts on both mothe and calf?
Hi Kimberly, you caught me up late tonight!
I do think about the cows and the calves and how splitting them up might feel. Here is what I see most often… a cow has a calf and licks him or her off. We bring in her Gatorade she drinks it and then we take her in to be milked and she never even looks back to where the baby was. Some cows are different in that they do look for their baby and are upset and some cows have a calf and never even look at it. Unlike beef cattle a lot of the maternal instinct has slowly been bred out of dairy cows. When we look at which dairy bull to use maternal instinct isn’t even a parameter they include whereas on beef mothering ability is considered. Yes we do have a few cows that are very upset for a few days after we takeover care of their calf but the vast majority don’t seem to notice.
Oh and to answer your question, milk replacer is kind of like formula. Many dairy farms use a milk pasteurizer and feed milk to their calves instead of replacer.
hi!
i’ve read that red blood proteins are used in milk replacement formulas-and understandably, it was …creepy. Here’s one article: http://calfnotes.com/pdffiles/CN049.pdf
Does this still happen? Could you give your opinion on it?
Hey, sorry for the delay I wanted to look further into this before I answered. Yes, from what I have found out, some milk replacers are available on the market with a portion of their protein derived from serum and a few use red blood cell protein. Many milk replacers don’t contain either and derive their protein from milk or soy. I don’t really equate either of these things as being added to milk replacer as the same as blood being added, which is what I think you might be thinking of as creepy. I guess in my mind I think of it as milk has serum (whey) in it, so is there a difference in adding serum to it? Not really. Off the top of my head I don’t know of a specific milk replacer brand that uses these types of protein and after searching the most common types of milk replacer I see on farms including the brand we use, it doesn’t look like any of them use these types of protein. Additionally with milk replacer costing more than $70 a bag I know a lot of farms, ours included, are looking at installing milk pasteurizers as a more economical and better for our calves alternative to using milk replacer.
Here is a good link that breaks down the protein content of milk and how that breaks down even further. http://www.milkfacts.info/Milk%20Composition/Protein.htm
thanks for the detailed reply! it was something i always wanted to know more about, i’m sure you can understand why i was creeped out by it when i first heard about it.