Bonding Challenges

from The Gelbvieh Guide Spring 2022

CCIA Report

Sometimes a heifer is confused or indifferent toward her newborn calf. She may ignore, or kick the calf if he tries to suckle. Some heifers attack the calf if he tries to get up. If a heifer is slow to mother the calf, it may wander through the herd, approaching other cows and trying to suckle them. If you have to take a newborn cold calf indoors to warm and dry it before his mother has a chance to lick it, this may also disrupt bonding.

Dr. Andy Acton, (Deep South Animal Clinic at Ogema, Saskatchewan), says some heifers may be scared or confused if you suddenly move them and their new calf into the barn, or to a different pen. “This may disrupt the normal bonding process. It’s best if you prepare them ahead of time, and get them used to where they will be,” he says.

“If they’ll be calving in a barn, or if you might have to put them in the barn after they calve, take them into the barn a few times before calving; let them be there a little while, then let them back out again,” he suggests. Putting a small group of heifers into the barn and letting them eat hay in there for 20 minutes can put them at ease. If you do this a couple times, they won’t mind going into the barn for calving.

Many heifers get nervous and upset being by themselves. If you separate them from their familiar group and they’ve never been by themselves before, they may be so upset that they delay the calving process, and some may be too nervous to mother the calf when they calve. It often helps to have a buddy in the adjacent barn stall or pen, so the heifer doesn’t feel so isolated and frantic.

One problem that sometimes occurs when cattle are calving outside in a confined group is when other cattle (curious heifers, or an older cow that wants to claim the calf) interferes with the bonding process. “Quietly get the pair into a pen or barn stall, as long as the heifer is not trying to kill her calf,” says Acton.

When cattle are calving at pasture, most cows and heifers go off by themselves to calve. This usually works, unless another cow tries to claim the calf (which can happen if that cow is in early labor or near calving, herself, and she’s interested in any newborn). “The heifer will always lose that claiming battle, with an older cow,” says Acton.

“If the heifer is in a smaller area with only a few other heifers, you can quietly put her and the calf in their own pen and then leave them alone. A maternity pen is crucial— where the pair can be by themselves that first day.” If you have to help a heifer calve or do anything else with her, it’s easier if she’s already by herself so you don’t stress her by sorting her out of a group. Being proactive, and giving the pair a chance to bond in a pen by themselves for a day or two, can save a lot of grief later.

If a heifer is slow to mother her calf or kicking it, quietly restrain her and help the calf nurse the first time. Usually once that calf starts nursing, the hormones of milk let-down and mothering kick in and the heifer becomes more interested in the calf. “As soon as you hear that little moo, you know the heifer will mother it,” Acton says.

The frustrating ones are the heifers that attack the calf. In these cases, you might work with your veterinarian and utilize drugs to calm the aggressive heifer. “I like to use acepromazine right away on those heifers. It’s more of a tranquilizer than a sedative and works as an anti-anxiety drug,” says Acton. This can help ease a heifer through those first hours and enable the calf to nurse—after which she may more readily accept it.

“Rather than trying to manhandle a heifer and help her calf suckle, this can make things a lot easier on you and the heifer. It’s less stressful for her,” he says.

Sometimes you simply need to give the heifer and newborn calf more time to bond. “You don’t always have to get that calf up and sucking right away. If the heifer is fighting you, just sedate her and let the calf figure out how to suckle, as long as he gets colostrum within the first few hours, giving him a bottle of colostrum if necessary. If the calf won’t suck a bottle, give him the colostrum via tube.” This can buy some time and you can leave the pair alone and give Mother Nature a chance.

“Once the calf has had a couple liters or more of colostrum, you can leave them alone for half a day. When the calf gets hungry again and decides to nurse mom, she may be more cooperative,” says Acton. If the calf doesn’t accomplish the next nursing, that’s when you need to intervene and help the calf nurse its mother.

If she’s a poor mother and it takes several days or a week or more to convince her to mother the calf, you should probably plan to sell her, since she may be a poor mother again on her next calf.

Even if you know you’re going to sell her, you want her to raise that calf, even if you have to hobble her for a few days so she can’t kick it—or keep her separate from the calf except at a supervised nursing time each day, until she decides to mother the calf.

HORMONES HELP BONDING

Dr. Joseph Stookey (retired from Western College of Veterinary Medicine, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), says the bonding process, as the cow identifies and learns to recognize her new calf, and wants to take care of it and protect it, is a complex blend of hormonal-induced and learned behavior.

Hormones initiate and drive most of what we perceive as maternal behavior, as the cow bonds with her newborn calf. “Some cows become ‘motherly’ up to a week before they actually calve, and are interested in any newborn calf. Their hormone pump is already primed. Those hormones are already reaching a level that makes them receptive to any new calf, even if it’s not theirs,” he says. If an older cow starts showing interest in other cows’ calves, you know she will be calving soon.

“At the other end of the spectrum are the ones that calve and don’t have proper hormone profile or levels, and they don’t want their calf. We see this most often in first-calf heifers, or in some of the females we have to assist in calving, or those that must be delivered by C-section. If it’s too much of a wild rodeo getting that cow in to the corral for assistance, or if the calving cow undergoes too much trauma, you can expect her to be a little less interested in the newborn calf. There may be other hormones overriding the whole system, due to stress, pain, and perhaps some of the drugs that were used during a C-section,” says Stookey. It may take time and patience (and helping the calf nurse the first time or two) before that cow accepts her calf.