It's calving season over here at the farm! We have about 150 cows and heifers due to calve in a 3 month period. The season started the beginning of this month and will be over in mid November. We try to calve as much as possible during the fall and spring months because it's the most comfortable temperature for both cow and calf, as well as to eliminate disease and pest risks.
To help us out, the Dairy Production students pair up and do two overnight calf watches. I'm also in the class, so I participated and my partner was my friend Destinee. She was so excited when she found a calf. She fed her bull calf his four quarts of colostrum- which is the first milk from the cow, containing lots of fat and immunoglobulins to jumpstart the calf's immune system. We then got his naval dipped and put him in a pen with lots of dry straw. We house calves individually for the first 2 months of life, so they don't get each other sick.
After a couple days, they are used to drinking their milk replacer out of the bottle holder, and can down a bottle in a matter of minutes. I really enjoy watching them all going to town on their breakfast! (video above)
-We feed our calves a milk replacer, which is like baby formula for the calves. This way, they get a consistent meal with the same components everyday, which stimulates healthy growth. The "formula" is also fortified with antibiotics, to keep them healthy as their immune system strengthens.
Most of the time, I was really busy with these babies and their mamas, but I managed to get some pictures of the kickstart of calving season :)
 |
| Destinee feeding her calf |
 |
| Me trying to be efficient! |
No comments:
Post a Comment