How long will a calf live without nursing

How long will a newborn calf normally live without nursing?

A newborn calf can live up to five days without nursing. Ideally, it is best for the calf to nurse within the first five hours of life, but a calf that is delayed until 24 to 36 hours before nursing can still be fine.

There are some factors that are involved in how long will a calf will live without nursing.

If the calf was able to nurse in the first five hours and then something happens and is unable to nurse for some time,  it will be able to go a longer period without nursing. This is common in cattle ranching, many times a cow will be able to deliver the calf and allow it to nurse in the first few hours, but then she will lay down to rest. During a difficult delivery the cow will received some injury to the pelvis or muscle swelling afterwards then during this recovery period while laying down may not be able to stand for a few days making it impossible for the calf to nurse.

This can change how long the calf will live without nursing. It can add an extra 48 hours of life for the calf. The opposite will happen when the calf takes longer to recover after a difficult delivery.  The cow is able to recover quickly but the calf requires more time thus shorten how long a calf will live without nursing up to 48 hours.

This is the procedure that I follow during calving. It been handed down from my great grandfather. I observe the cow during calving to make sure she can deliver on her own without assistance. Once the calf is born I make sure it is breathing. That is the only thing I’m concerned with. It will take some time for the mother to clean the calf off and for it to stand on it’s own. I also want to make sure the cow is getting up on her own, in normally  soon after calving.

24 hours later I will return to observe the pair and see if the calf has nursed. If the calf has not then I will bottle feed the calf and go from there. I know of some ranchers that will shorten this time period to 10 – 12 hours. Without any milk colostrum in the first 24 hours, the calf will be at a higher risk of illness, but I like to give the calf every opportunity to nurse on it’s own.

A few tips on knowing if a calf has nursed or not.

The mother will have one or two clean tits while the other’s still have dirt on them.

The calf has pooped and will have a yellow mustard looking droppings around the tail.

The cows milk bag has decreased in size.

The calf’s face will be wet from milk or foam on it’s bottom jaw.

If the calf has not nursed by then I will start bottle feeding four pints of milk replacer two times a day.
 
Related links for how long a calf will live without nursing:

Cattle Colostrum, The Magic Moo Juice

Hints for Working with Milk Replacer for Calves

Use of Tube Feeders in Calves

Making the smallest of difference matters

You may have noticed some recent changes to feedingbabycalves.com. There is a new look to many of the pages especially the main posting page. You may have also noticed that the month of December and beginning of January had no posting updates while the last few weeks there has been two a week. On the outside what viewers see hasn’t changed all that much as far as information on caring for bottle calves. 

On the inside the part about how the site works has had some major changes. Basically the site has went from stand alone website pages to live open feed pages. Why make the switch? I had to do something. I will be losing the original feedingbabycalves.com website in April. Not by any fault of my own but the web hosting by Microsoft will be switching over to a new Microsoft 360 hosting. Feedingbabycalves would have to be completely reworked.   Instead of switching to Microsoft 360, I opted to get an early start and move the content over to Google’s based site.

I was busy making the switch in December and January and didn’t have time to post any updates. Now that I have the site up and running again I’m doing some catching up. I almost decided to let the site fade away into the sunset. I wasn’t sure if the site was worth all the effort and time I was spending towards it.

I started the site after reading an article about how some people have found financial success by building a website based on what they were passionate about. I thought “Great I’m passionate about cattle and bottle calves so I should have a huge hit.” Well, it didn’t turn out that way.  Only 2% of the population is involved in agriculture and out of that number less than 1% bottle feed calves. That doesn’t leave a very big audience for those interested in my site. So feedingbabycalves is never going to be the next big web smash hit. No web dollars in my future.

But along the way I did find out something cool that made it worth the effort. I was able help people with their bottle calves.  I received hundreds of email questions and many on the message boards. Over 300,000 visitors have viewed feedingbabycalves.com and over 1000 have signed up to the contact list for emails. It must be making a difference somewhere.

Even making the smallest of difference matters.

So I decided to keep on with feedingbabycalves I have learned just as much as I have advised.The information may have a small audience but it still is worth having a site to share about bottle feeding calves.

I would like to get some feed back from you on how much I should be posting. I don’t want to wear out the welcome. So I placed a poll question below with four choices. I would like it if you will vote for the answer you would most like to see happen. I will adjust the posting according to the poll.

Thanks to all the viewers, Those that have been following for years and those that have just signed up. With this new format I’m starting over but at least I know what to expect this time.

F1 Braford Bull Calf

Let me introduce you to the newest member of the calf pen, a F1 Bradford bull calf Hagan. His mother was a pure breed registered Brahman cow while his father was pure breed registered Hereford bull. The Bradford breed has been prized here in South Texas as being one of the top choice of mama cows, So how did I come to own little Hagan.
Few weeks back a rancher came driving up to the house with little Hagan in the back of his pickup truck. At first glance I noticed that both of his eyes were cloudy and I knew he couldn’t see. I waved my hand in front of his face and he had no reaction. I wasn’t sure if his blindness would be permanent or not.
The other rancher had been bottle feeding him for a few days after his mother had rejected him. So I knew he wouldn’t be a problem to feed from a bottle. My only concern was his eyes. I figured that he just had an infection causing them to cloud and he could improve without damage.
I started him on a four day series of penicillin injections and later after dusk I went out to check on him and see if he would react to a flashlight. He was walking around in the dark bumping into the fence but once I shined the light on him he stopped. I knew the Bradford bull was seeing some and there was a good chance for full sight.
The next morning it raining and it was my first time to bottle feed him. All the other calves were under their sheds waiting for me to bring their bottles. Not Hagan. He was out in the middle of the pen walking around in circles getting poured on. He couldn’t smell his way around and lost the other calves, but during bottle feeding I got him back with the group and he made sure not to get too far away.
The following day his eyes started to clear and he was gaining more sight. After a week his eyes completely cleared and he could see just fine.
He is a little fellow just about 70 pounds but I ‘m sure he won’t stay little for long. F1 Bradfords bulls or any calf that has enough Brahman in them are always neat to bottle raise. They start out as these tiny little tots and just keep on growing. I have raised Brahman and Bradfords before and they always amaze me how they start out so small and turn in to these big calves. They go through these over night growth spurts making them fun to raise, You walk out one morning and you’re shocked how big that little calf has gotten. 
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