Now, excuse me for a moment while I clear the air on a common question I get from my friends who aren't as familiar with the whole cow/calf relationship and how that differs from the beef to the dairy worlds. We have beef cattle and the babies stay with their mothers from birth until several months of age. Initially, the calf will nurse the cow exclusively and gradually will begin to eat and drink the same diet as their mother (grass, grain, dry hay, water, etc.) What I described comes as a surprise sometimes to people as the first few months of a beef calf's life is sometimes confused with that of a dairy calf. For further clarification, a dairy calf is born to its mother and usually the cow is allowed to clean the calf off but within several minutes, usually as it begins to stand, it is removed from the mother and fed a milk replacer from a bottle. The cow goes on to produce milk that makes the dairy products we consume and the calf makes its home with other calves of a similar age. For some of you reading, you may think that whole process on the dairy side of things is cruel or sad for the baby to not stay with the mother. I will be the first to admit, having grown up with beef cattle, not dairy and being the mother of two children, my maternal side aches at the thought of the baby not having his or her "cow mama" for those first months of life. I have actually been known to shed a tear or two at the thought. Sad, but true. However, for the dairy calves and cows, this is a must. A dairy cow has been bred for generations to produce milk. Just the same, a beef cow has been bred for generations to be muscular and produce...beef! The birth of a calf allows all cows, both dairy and beef, to produce milk and if the dairy calves continued to nurse the dairy cows, there wouldn't be milk for us to drink in the stores. Or yogurt. Or ice cream. Or sour cream. Or butter. Or CHEESE! God forbid! All my favorite things! I can assure you, having witnessed this process first had and being the softy for the calves that I am, that the dairy calves nor the dairy cows are phased much at all in the whole process. It really hurts my feelings more than anything else.
Back to my original story...Last night the cow that calved had a cute little bull (boy) calf. For never having a baby before, she got right to work licking the baby to clean and dry his hair and encourage him to sit with his head up and then begin to stand. Because of the temperatures last night (upper teens), we paid careful attention to the developing relationship to make sure the little bugger got on his feet and got those first, very critical, drops of milk to give him energy, develop his immune system and warm him up from the inside out. Kind of like a good glass of wine will do! :) We decided to intervene and help the little guy get started nursing so we could all go to bed and not worry too much.
My husband drew the straw last night and I stayed in the warm house and watched on the TV as he guided the calf to his momma's udder and he began to nurse. We all breathe a sigh of relief knowing he is off to the best possible start. Sometimes, the calves are not as smart as this guy though and there can be an instance every now and then, that you have to help a calf figure out where to get his or her's breakfast, lunch and dinner. This requires patience on the part of everyone involved. The calf, the cow and the human! This is usually where I come in. Surprisingly, I have patience when it comes to this task but my darling husband, not so much...I happen to really enjoy it, actually.
I love seeing those babies figure it out. Down right dumb sometimes, to begin with at least, and then the milk starts flowing and you can see their little eyes light up as they get the taste of this liquid gold. They can literally drink until they are so full their little tongues stick out of their mouth. By the time the tongue sticks out of their mouth, they have given those milk mustache ads a run for their money with white foam sometimes dripping from the corners of their mouths.
Although we don't like to have to intervene and help the babies and momma cows figure this process out, it is a vital part of their lives. About once a year we have a slow learner that needs our help and attention and I usually jump at the opportunity. I don't hope for the opportunity to help but do enjoy the close encounter that situation provides and the joy of helping that new life get off to a good start. I'm not looking for anything full time but if someone needs a Bovine Lactation Consultant, I'm standing by!
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