06/17/2021
https://www.facebook.com/168916999786801/posts/4493351547343303/?sfnsn=mo
But why do you separate mom & baby cows?!
⬆️one of the most commonly asked question to any dairy farmer....so let’s tackle it!
Dairy cows do simply do not have the maternal instinct that humans do... plain and simple. Dairy cows are more worried about themselves than their babies... sure they will lick them off for a little bit, but after 30 minutes to an hour MOST mamas are over it! They want to find their own food and water.
Unfortunately some dairy cows don’t even want to spend that much time with baby.... dairy cows have been known to attack their young. If this happens, we do our best to intervene and care for the calf as needed— drying off, fixing injuries mama may have caused, and helping the baby learn to stand.
Calves are also born with little to no immune system. So if baby isn’t up and trying to find mama’s udder before she gets hungry, baby would not get that first colostrum! (Colostrum is the milk that helps mammals THRIVE after birth. It’s packed full of antibodies and nutrients to help the baby develop its immune system and get through those hard first couple days.) With human intervention, we can harvest that milk ourselves and feed it to baby to make sure she gets every last drop.
Mother Nature is not the rainbow and butterflies that humans will sometimes make it out to be.
Without human intervention, babies would be at risk for so much more if you take into consideration predators, weather, and diseases!
For more about this and some other common questions, check out our stories or the DAIRY highlight and let me know below what you learned about dairy farming! 🐮