The Sunday News
Farming issues, Mhlupheki Dube
THE calving season comes with a lot of happiness for farmers but it also brings challenges that can quickly transform the happiness into a sad scenario.
One such situation is having a cow that rejects its calf. The natural process is that when a cow gives birth its maternal instinct kicks in and it starts taking care of the calf. You do not have to teach the cow how to love and care for its newly born calf.
However, there are circumstances when you will find a cow rejecting the calf. This usually happens with heifers which are calving for the first time, more so if they are not allowed to calve down in a private place which will allow them to learn and understand what has just happened without the pressure of being bullied away from the calf by older cows.
Naturally when an animal is about to give birth, it separates itself from the other herd and looks for a private place to give birth.
This ensures that after giving birth, it will lick and clean the calf, a process which stimulates the maternal instinct and bonding of the cow with its calf. After licking the calf, it will nurse it, allowing it to suckle the first milk (colostrum) and the suckling itself stimulates milk let down from that udder.
Occasionally you get a cow that wants to reject the calf after birth and as a farmer it is important to try and make the cow accept its calf.
One old trick is to put something on the newly born calf, that a cow likes to lick and when it does, it will eventually lick the birth fluids which helps it to identify its calf, like and accept it.
This could be some bit of stock feed, not too much just to attract it to lick. When this does not work you will need to force the cow to nurse the calf. This involves holding the cow in something to immobilise it like a crush and then let the calf nurse from the udder.
You will also need to make sure rear legs are immobilised as well as it can kick away the calf. It is important to note that in initial stages the amount of milk coming from the udder will be smaller than its full potential because the cow is not relaxed.
A cow needs to feel relaxed for it to allow for milk let down, hence in such forced circumstances it will try to resist letting down the milk.
This process of forced nursing will need to be done at least three times a day for several days until the cow accepts to let the calf nurse on its own. It’s not easy though.
Also try and allow the cow to spend as much time as possible alone with the calf but be sure to observe that it is not attacking the calf as it can injure it in the process. In some cases, you will notice that the cow accepted the calf as hers but is refusing it to nurse, in fact she kicks furiously as the calf tries to suckle. It may be important to check if the udder is not inflamed for one reason or the other because the cow could be feeling pain as the calf tries to suckle.
Simply try milking the cow by hand and see how it reacts to that, if the udder is painful it will react to being milked.
All this tells us that our cows need to be monitored before calving, during and soon after calving so that we can respond to any such challenges that can arise and need immediate attention.
This is why I always discourage this practice among communal smallholder livestock farmers where you just see your cow coming home after days of absence, calf in trail without your involvement at any stage of the parturition. It’s nice and well when all goes fine and it is able to come home leading a calf but what if your intervention was needed at one stage or the other?
Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo. Mhlupheki Dube is a livestock specialist and farmer. He writes in his own capacity. Feedback [email protected]/cell 0772851275
