Sometimes cows just make me scratch my head in confusion! Here is the story of one such time.
Cow #635 is a nice black motley-face 6-year-old cow. She had a pretty little heifer calf that looked just like her on Feb. 17th. Everything seemed to be fine.
Cow #5546 is a good black 7-year-old cow that has never been a problem. She had a nice black bull calf on Feb. 17th also. We tagged him shortly after he was born. They both walked off together when we were done.
This is #8804. She is a 4-year-old cow whose 14-year-old mom is still in the herd producing good calves. A long line of good mommas. #8804 had black heifer calf on 2/16/22.
2/21/22 – Making my rounds while Mitch fed hay, I noticed cow #8804 running around bawling like she had lost her calf. I looked for and found her heifer calf in the hay with everyone else. She didn’t seem upset at all. I chalked it up to 8804 getting confused about where she had left her calf and headed back to the house after looking through everything.
2/22/22 – Cow #8804 still seems upset. I pushed her to her calf. She seemed satisfied, even though the calf didn’t seem to care at all. Odd, very odd.
Hmmm, it isn’t unusual for cows to let other calves nurse, but this caught my eye because I remembered her motley-face heifer. I wasn’t worried about it. Little did I know what the next day would look like!
2/23/22 – I found heifer calf #635 trying to nurse from every cow she came to and bawling like she was lost. It happens, so I pushed her to her mama. She ignored the calf, even going so far as to push her away. Not normal at all. Mitch and I put the cow and calf together in the pen at the house. They both went to separate corners and bawled their heads off! What was going on???? We made the decision to pull the calf and put her on a nurse cow. We let #635 back out with the other cows to see what would happen. If she isn’t going to raise a calf she is headed to town!
Poor baby! Her mama doesn’t want her, so she gets stuck in a pen with a bunch of other calves and a cow that comes in twice a day to feed her but doesn’t love her.
#635 headed straight back to calf #5546. Hmmm, wonder what cow #5546 thinks about this?
She doesn’t seem upset at all. Because she has swiped cow #8804’s calf! What a mixed-up mess!
End of the story – #5546 is raising calf #8804, #635 is raising calf #5546, cow #8804 doesn’t have a calf and calf #635 is in the orphanage on a nurse cow! My head is still spinning!
I would love to know who started this. Was it #635? Did she decide she wanted a solid black calf (guess she hasn’t looked in a mirror)? Did #5546 think that #8804’s calf smelled better than her calf? I will never know what prompted the switch, but I know the losers are cow #8804 and calf # 635.
And I’m still scratching my head!
Until next time!
Don’t forget to shut the gate!
