# First Calf Heifer and Her First Calf :/



## dawnandduke2002 (Sep 28, 2015)

Ok let me give you the full story first; my first calf heifer, who is a hereford btw, just had her first calf yesterday. She's the first out of 4 other ones. Two days before we pulled her calf someone told us she looked like she was calving. We brought her in the barn, checked on her overnight... etc. Nothing. Yesterday she was acting odd so we took her to the vet. Nobody knows for sure what happened, but the calf was coming backwards, so we think that day a person told us the calf was trying to turn around, broke the umbilical cord, and died. The vet pulled out a little black baldie heifer.  Not to mention they were supposed to be bred to RED ANGUS, which brings up a couple questions. Now the heifer super ****ed off and won't take her new calf we gave to her. My dad has had cows before, so the second after we got her home we tranquilized her and put the new calf beside her, so maybe she wouldn't remember her former calves' death. WRONG. She bulldozes, stomps, kicks.... etc. We took the poor guy away from her for the night and we'll try again tomorrow. I don't want to sell this heifer but if she won't take the calf then I'll have to, not to mention bottle feed the calf. The calf was left at the vet clinic, so we can't skin it. And there's really no afterbirth.... How do we get her to accept this calf?????


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

Use o-no-mo (orphan no more).


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

It is a scent thing. We have smeared poop on them, the heifer's own blood or discharge on them and have just used restraints. 

Put a halter on the heifer and tie her. Put a lariat rope on one hind foot and tie it off behind her and let the calf nurse from that side. 

You may have already passed the window when you can get a calf on one. Have you been milking the heifer and saving the colostrum? How old is the new calf. Unless you have been milking her and are putting an older calf on her, it may already be too late.


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

Oh the joys of first calf heifers!

If she's tight bagged and havent been milked yet she's not going to let him suck and especially if she's on the fight. Weve roped and trailer loaded heifers to bring up and they stay on the fight for awhile.
I have just hobbled the heifers back legs to allow the calf to suck or run them in the chute and let the calf suck them in the chute. 
On heifers or cows that I have grafted calves onto they wanted to be good mom's and I've rarely used the dead calf skin or sprayed them with Lysol, they just figure it out. If they don't want to be good mom's they go down the road. I don't want cattle that have to be babysat, they don't make good range cows so we cull pretty deep.

As far as your "red Angus" bull.. where did you buy your heifers? Sometimes people will just throw a red Bull on them, doesn't make them a pure bred red Angus. Black is dominant.
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## dawnandduke2002 (Sep 28, 2015)

*Bull*

So, my dad's a trucker/rancher so he was hauling these five heifers and decided to buy them. The people told us they were AI'd to red angus bull.... And the heifers are purebred herefords. It looks like they weren't AI'd but somehow a black angus bull bred them because the calves so far are definitely not low birth weight and all of them have been tangled up and needed pulled. :/


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

Wonderful! great! I feel for you. Black Angus are also noted for low birth weight, but obviously, not all of them. 

Did you ever get the first heifer to take a calf?


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## Yogiwick (Sep 30, 2013)

A little late at this point but keep in mind that as a new mom she might not be rejecting the calf because it's not hers but just because of the "what is it" that new mom's sometimes have.


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## dawnandduke2002 (Sep 28, 2015)

Well.... You can read my latest post in the farm forum to get the most recent update on Ruby and her replacement calf....


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

dawnandduke2002 said:


> So, my dad's a trucker/rancher so he was hauling these five heifers and decided to buy them. The people told us they were AI'd to red angus bull.... And the heifers are purebred herefords. It looks like they weren't AI'd but somehow a black angus bull bred them because the calves so far are definitely not low birth weight and all of them have been tangled up and needed pulled. :/


The clean up bull used wasn't red would be my guess.


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## dawnandduke2002 (Sep 28, 2015)

*Herefords*

I don't think it was a clean up bull mishap. :/ So far all 4 out of 5 heifers have all had ginormous, tangled up, black baldie heifers.... every. single. one. *sigh Ruby, the one with the replacement calf problem, hasn't really accepted him yet. She let him suck for the first time on saturday but then she was shoving him around on sunday so... we're giving her three or four more weeks and then it's off to the sale barn... :/


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

Oh I see. I missed if you already stated they all had black baldies. Unfortunately it just sounds like the typical sale story. "Bred to low birth weight (insert color and breed here) heifer bull."
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