Aggressive Cow in Calving Pen

[jd438]

We are calving some cows this past week in northern Iowa.  It's cold and we have a calving pen inside that we have used in the past that is decent size.  Typically we get them in there calve them and kick them back out in a couple days depending on the weather.  With the weather being so cold we calved one yesterday and kept her and her calf in.  We also had another that is was 6 days over come in tonight.  Watched her calve on the camera, licked the calf off calf got up pretty quick. Then the other cow started hitting the new calf repetedly.  Was not home, but go there within the hour.  Anyone else have this happen where another cow basically tries to kill a newborn calf of another cow?
Calf seems fine.  Not about to kick new calves out into -18 weather.  Other cow is outside now.

 

[okstate22892]

Never had one try to kill another calf but I've had first calf heifers actively try to kill their own calf before. Weird deal.

 

[BogartBlondes]

Never had them try to kill the new calf, but their own I have seen. I have also seen them try to kill me!!

 

[CAB]

I would say that this would be considered very normal behavior based on your info. Cows will try to keep other calves away from their own calf and away from their udder by all means. The smaller the calving area the more noticeable.

 

[OLD WORLD SHORTIE]

When were first starting out our first heifer was about to calve. Well she calved fine but, some neighbors dogs killed her calf. So we went and got her a calf to nurse, when we put that calf in there she went crazy. She was trying to kill that calf, so it didnt work out and i got to bottle feed the calf. Oh yea and i shot the dogs.t

 

[CAB]

When were first starting out our first heifer was about to calve. Well she calved fine but, some neighbors dogs killed her calf. So we went and got her a calf to nurse, when we put that calf in there she went crazy. She was trying to kill that calf, so it didnt work out and i got to bottle feed the calf. Oh yea and i shot the dogs.t

If you ever have a next time, skin the cow's natural calf and tie that hide to the calf that you buy, it will work 99% of the time within 3-4 days. By that time you will be wanting to remove the hide. I've only had this fail once over many years.

 

[Corriedalesrock]

When were first starting out our first heifer was about to calve. Well she calved fine but, some neighbors dogs killed her calf. So we went and got her a calf to nurse, when we put that calf in there she went crazy. She was trying to kill that calf, so it didnt work out and i got to bottle feed the calf. Oh yea and i shot the dogs.t

If you ever have a next time, skin the cow's natural calf and tie that hide to the calf that you buy, it will work 99% of the time within 3-4 days. By that time you will be wanting to remove the hide. I've only had this fail once over many years.

I have never thought of this and it sounds genius .  <rock> but anyways I have seen other cows try to hurt another calf I woul siggest making the pen bigger..

 

[GoWyo]

The better the cow, the more she will try to keep her calf to herself and keep other calves away from her.  This is why most of them go off by themselves to calve if possible.  The barn restricts their natural inclination to calve by themselves in order to bond with the calf immediately after it is born and to exclude other calves from trying to nurse.  If you are calving in a barn, you need to have separate calving jugs for each pair for the first day or two so that the calves properly figure out who their dams are and aren't trying to nurse on other cows.  Unless we have bad weather, most of our calves are born in the pasture and there are few mothering issues.  When we have a blizzard and all the cows are trying to get out of the wind and snow and try to calve at the same time, that is when we have problems with newborns not knowing where to start nursing, cows trying to get their own calf going while trying to keep off another calf is trying to nurse, older calves trying to nurse off the newborn's dams, cold calves, failure to get colostrum, etc.

 

[jd438]

Thanks for the replies.  Even though the pen is pretty good size we will look to do something different in the future if and when we plan to calve in the winter. 
Calf was doing a pretty good job of trying to nurse his dam, but that other cow was going out of her way to hurt him while he was trying to nurse his dam.  The cow did everything she could to protect him.
We turned the aggressive cow out and left the calf in for a couple hours.  Got the new calf fed and dried off and now everyone is fine.  Thankfully no more due this week. 

 

[ploughshare]

I am guessing that they are too crowded.  Too cold with too much wind for a new born to turn them out today.  Best if you can keep the aggressive cow and her calf seperate from the other cows, even with a make shift gate.  Cold weather calving requires facilities.

 

[Barry Farms]

Sort the pen into several small pens so that you can calve several at a time problem free