What is the Story With This Calf??

[Music] before we get working on anything we got to go around and check all the [Music] cows well I only just see the one calf here still so nothing going on at the home Ranch every morning I come out here I'm thinking that number 42 is going to have a calf with her she's got a great big old bag on her I just feel like she's ready to drop one any day but well at least for now today is not the day count 14 down here and I can see there's a few back there in the trees so we'll go very ify everyone's here but um I want to just kind of look at all these calves and make sure that everybody's good there's one over here acts a little distressed so let's try to see what's going on doesn't have an ear tag so it must be new maybe this black white face is Mother who's your mama who's your mama that's really strange nobody's claiming that calf I don't know what's going on it doesn't look like it's that fresh either but it doesn't have a tag in it so one of two things is going on either it was born last night and mother is just Mia or it's part of a set of twins that I didn't know about but it's hard to believe it would be doing that good if it hadn't nursed [Music] yet this cow and calf that I'm trying to go after here um this calf was born yesterday so potentially this cow could have had twins and I didn't realize it yesterday morning I don't know what's going on here this poor little Cal just running around crying and nobody is giving it the time of day I'm wondering if we might not have a bottle calf on our hands hey little guy Hey where's your mama where's your mama where's your mama huh we know that's not Mama well I am absolutely at a loss none of these cows is given that calf any sort of attention I have no idea who the mother is now I know earlier I said there's only 14 cows here which means there are some more hiding out in the trees but the way that calf is crying and going on if mother was out there she should be over here by now I think what I need to do is go around find the other cattle the other six here see if any of them have new calves and kind of make a determination from there cuz the calf is up and about it's got good energy it's pretty you know healthy so to speak but it does look skinny like it hasn't really eaten much so um see if we can find these other cows what just did that afterbirth number 19's back here hiding in the trees and she does have a new calf with her but I already tagged that calf yesterday so I know that she didn't have it last night she had it yesterday afternoon so we had 14 on the other side of the pond she's 15 number 19 that gets a little confusing here is six 16 17 18 19 oh and there's 20 don't be breaking through that fence now so these are the last cows here that makes 20 all together and I am up these are probably the cattle that are the furthest away from the main herd and I can hear that baby crying so you can uh pretty well believe that if I can hear the baby they can hear it as well and if any one of them was a new mother they would be running over to that calf so I'm kind of settling on this calf is most likely an abandoned twin [Music] and that means that we're going to have to intervene [Music] don't run away from [Music] me come here come here hey come say hi come say hi you're okay you're okay you're okay okay you're [Music] okay all right it's a little difficult to film but think we got him here hope he doesn't get out of this hey guess he's going to show me right now if he can get out of it and we better do some insurance [Music] wraps oh don't tell me who's who's crying do you have a mother I know this isn't fun guy I'm sorry almost got that out yeah okay going to work easy okay I think that'll hold you now don't go hurt yourself okay I've got some nut wrap and straw here in the front of the truck we'll set them up there and hopefully he stays there okay so in all the commotion we now have an interested mother finally but I want to go see who it is if it's who I think it is then we'll uh well let's just see who it is is that 58 yeah I think this probably is the mother um probably the reason she's concerned right now is because the twin that she has accepted is not here so I saw her walking around with it earlier this morning when we first got here um and I think that's why she's upset I don't think she would take this one back at this point obviously she wasn't very interested in it this morning when it was running around crying so that's why I am I'm going to stick with my decision to take this calf back home with me because I think once she does find the the original calf or the one that she had this morning that she will no longer be looking for another one so I guess this is what we're doing this is one of those things where um sometimes you know it's tough to know what the right decision is to do we want the mothers to raise the calves of course but if they're not going to do it or if they're not going to do it well then that's when we got to step in okay well you're still there so I'm going to assume that you can't get up the private road to get back in here is pretty long so we're going to drive to the end of the private road and then I'll check the calf again but I assume if it can't work itself free by the time we get out to the county road that it'll make it the you know the short little ways that we got to get uh back to get back home I can't talk this morning sorry okay stay there cie is keeping a close eye on that calf for me tell me if he gets up okay when we get him home I think I'll put him in the stock trailer just because that is a you know secure place that's sheltered and all that um where he'll be safe while while we get the new pen ready I'm sure a lot of people are going to ask or suggest that I try to graft him on to number 51 the cow that had the stillborn calf and I might try to do that I'm a little bit worried that it's been too long since she had the stillborn so it might be worth a try but then the other issue is you know we've got our squeeze shoots not set up properly right now the working pens are kind of being occupied with the Harvest steers so I don't know it would certainly be easier and better for the calf for that cow to raise it so that's something that we might try to do but uh for now I just want to get something in him just so I know that he's okay and then we'll kind of make a decision about what to do going on from there all right you made it [Music] okay not a permanent home you look hungry you look like your belly's empty we've got about half a bottle mixed up here I don't imagine that calf will drink more than that and I've got my two good helpers here where's my other good helper here he is and we're in here with the calf we can't can't make any loud noises right and we're going to be very slow and calm so we don't scare him okay cuz right now he doesn't know what's going on but we're got it can you hold that for me we got to show him that we're his friends so we're not going to hurt him you coming in little man remember to be nice and calm and quiet that's right slow let's see where he is oh there he is hello hello might be a little bit nervous just see doesn't like the do oh he's a hungry guy go yeah okay let's get in here close the door so they can't see these dogs let's see if he will eat a little bit Daddy's moving out I'm petting his neck like his mom would looking you got to remember only an hour ago he was out at the winter pasture with all the other cows and now he's in here he doesn't know what's going [Music] on drinking his milk so we're going to see why spilling his milk he's actually a little kie as you see he's like that ribbit's color messy color and he is a really small little cat you have known that one not see but this is like a good thing apparently spell so he's getting it yeah now he's getting it huh no yeah oh this isn't so bad all right that's not so bad can you hear the bubbles going into the bottle yeah that's how you know he's getting [Music] some milk Maddy B under stay nice and calm right daddy that's right you want to help me hold the bottle yeah B there you go okay I need a breath yeah so that's the rway see that to just have a calm and nice little bab yes the little guy did pretty good there's just just a little bit left here in this bottle but I I would basically say he drank the whole thing we had about what did we have 2 and 1/2 pints in there I mean is every bit a half full so it's I can see on his stomach he looks Fuller this this was a a successful nursing I would say so now that I got him fed I need to figure out a little bit more of a permanent pen situation for him so let's do that now so I'm thinking about sticking the little guy in the Pig house here I've got this old rice straw bail that I could spread around in here so he'd have a ton of good bedding and then I can close this gate on him for the next few days while we're just kind of getting him used to everything and then when he does get a little bit bigger we can open the gate and he can munch on all the grass that's growing out here this would also be a fairly easy place for me to back the trailer up you know assuming eventually that I'll take him back over to the ranch um so yeah I think this is probably the best fit we shouldn't be getting pigs for uh what is it March so probably at least another two months um by the time we get pigs we'll probably have them out of here so yeah I I think this is the thing to do I got the forks on the back of the new Hall in here I think that'll be the easiest way to move that round bail into the shelter and before I back it out I was just going to show you guys sort of my my new idea here is putting the light bar on this uh this piece that I made I don't really know what to call this anyway I've just got it sitting up there now just to kind of see how it would fit how it would look and I'll probably end up permanently mounting it up there so look for that up today you guys think we're going somewhere ready [Music] that ought to work better good I build this up pretty wet you can really tell now when you try to tear it apart does not want to come apart we got a pretty good straw pack here and I was thinking about it I probably don't want to go too deep with the straw or else it just makes it harder for the little guy to walk around and if I leave some of the straw in a bail form like it is here then in a week or so I can knock that bail down and spread the rest of that clean stuff out on top of of whatever is here so kind of like cleaning out the pen Without Really cleaning it out or doing like a deep bedding sort of a deal so I guess what I'm saying is I I think we're ready to put him in here anybody home all right belly out [Music] so okay this is a big step here got it okay let's get you in here soft spot for you there you go Callie get out of there he doesn't like you what the heck is that thing all right little buddy we'll be back in a few hours with another bottle for you think he's hungry I bet cuz we're here for his dinner all [Applause] right this hard for a baby cat to walk around I say yeah I see him in there I can see him too you see him yeah but how are we going to feed him well we'll open the gate I can fit with my side mhm okay furry in here okay I'm going to close the gate so he doesn't get a away no he's probably not going to go anywhere hi mister how are you doing stand can you stand up can you stand up I know you can nurse while you're laying down but it's probably better if you're standing all right let's get here do that it's just like being your it's just like Mom's other uhoh you're going poop again a little guy we we need a here here now he's getting it he's he's like an old Pro now huh yeah who you just pulled it onto my hand the little guy actually did a lot better on the second feeding I thought he's getting the hang of Nursing From a bottle I know that doesn't seem to ever really come naturally to them um and he did drink a little bit more on the second feeding than what he did this morning looks like he's got a nice little cozy spot in the corner here so we'll leave him alone and let him get some rest so after having most of the day to think about this I've come up with a plausible explanation of how all this came to be because if you notice the calf when I got him when I found him he was Lively and had plenty of energy and strength and to me it seems impossible that he didn't get some colostrum off of his mother for him to be that healthy but you might ask well if he got colostrum if he nursed then how did he end up getting abandoned and the way I figure it this could have happened in a couple of ways the first way would be if out of the set of the twins let's say he was the first one to come out of the mother now she let's assume licks him off lays back down and pushes the second one out now while she stands up to lick the second one off during that time he could have possibly got up and nursed on her after he got his fill goes and lays down the second Twin and gets up starts nursing and then that twin and mother walk off and leave him the other way is that she delivered both of them clean them both off they both stood up and nursed both laid back down to go to sleep which is typically what new Cals will do and then the other one just happened to get up before him that one of the mother went off and and he got left behind I've talked about this a little bit before but cattle are really wired to only raise and have one calf uh twinning is is pretty rare with cattle as opposed to like sheep or goats who twin almost well probably more often than they single they twin or triple cattle almost never twin so their brains are just not wired to be taking care of two calves now sometimes this does happen with good experienced mothers but more often than not one twin gets left behind you know the weaker one or however the mom decides I really don't know this is the exact same way that we came to have buddy um he was he was abandoned out at the winter pasture as well I just got back from checking cows over at the winter pasture and as I suspected there is no distraught mother running around looking for her calf so I'm pretty confident that this explanation I've thought of or something very similar to it is what happened and led us to the position that we're in now thanks for hanging out with me today guys and I hope I'll see you again on Farmer Tyler Ranch [Music] p

Channel: Farmer Tyler Ranch

Views: 177,006

Keywords: Bottle calf, Cattle ranching

Id: j_KLHUDYsvQ

Length: 24min 41sec (1481 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2024