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Welcome to the Doe Farm
Maternity Pen and Pre-weaned calf area |
This is a small family farm
maintained in the traditional style. There is one maternity/sick pen at
one end of the bar n that can maximally
hold two cows. For the most part cows freshen in the maternity pen.
Exceptions include summer freshening on pasture; when the pen is occupied
with two cows, when the pen is occupied with sick cow(s) or when there is
an excess of calves. If a close-up cow goes unnoticed in their tie stalls
they may freshen on the platform floor. Therefore, some calves are born in
the gutter. The calves nurse their dams initially, which may be as long as
8 hours, if on pasture or unattended in the barn. Somewhere between one
and 8 hours the calf is taken to the other end of the barn where there is
an “L”-shaped wing which functions as a bedded pack, where the calves are
tied. Here, they may receive colostrum by stomach tube, if the herdsman
thinks the calf did not get enough colostrum naturally. The calves are
carefully tended and are fed whole milk from a nipple pail until they are
taught to drink from a bucket at approximately two weeks. The whole milk
fed is either strippings, waste or treated milk, with milk going into the
tank providing the remainder. The barn uses a pipeline milking system—sort
of a ‘60’s design.
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The calves are kept relatively clean and considerable skill is evident
in raising them. However, the pack is generally spongy and
damp. It is cleaned out when it reaches about a foot in depth.
The owner says he has some problems with scours and pneumonia, but
the calves seem to respond to routine treatments with antibiotics and fluids.
There is no facility for sick calves. Overflow can occur
when larger calves fill up the pen and new calves are
too small to crowd into the area with the older ones. In
that case, the newborn is tied in front of the cows. Somewhere around
8 weeks of age, depending on the season and the crowding issue, the
calves are moved to an adjoining barn. |
Additional management practices:
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Colostrum is readily fed from one cow to several
calves, as needed, but it is not frozen and saved. The owner says he knows which
older cows give the 'best' milk and he uses that as much as he can.
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At milking time, buckets of milk are set
at the edge of the calf pen to put into nipple pails to feed the calves
after milking. While there, chaff and manure spatters can be seen lying on the
cream layer. The cats line up and wait for these buckets to drink out of them.
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Nipple pails are rinsed out after feeding and,
more or less, carefully washed. There is no cleaning between calves.
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It is obvious that the calves receive
priority care as supervised by the wife of the senior owner.
However, most calf feeding is done by the grandchildren.
Especially in the winter, it is difficult to keep the calves feet and
legs clean as the pack builds up. Calf hutches have been suggested,
but the owners site inconvenience in caring for them in bad weather.
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Calves are routinely dehorned
at four week of age by the veterinarian, using Roberts Gouge Dehorners.
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Management Areas of the Doe Farm:
Doe Farm Introduction
Doe Lactating Cow Herd
Doe Heifer Area
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