If you’re a beef or a dairy farmer and you breed your cows on a schedule that produces calves all year long, you know how dangerous freezing winter temperatures can be for newborn calves. Being prepared to facilitate their survival is of utmost importance.
If you’ve got a newborn that is suffering from cold stress after prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures, consider these two practical ways to quickly warm it up, as recommended by Beef Magazine—a national cattle information source.
Carry the calf inside
For the most part, this particular recommendation is intuitive. You should carry the freezing newborn to your nearest barn and wrap it in blankets. If you have heating lights use them to accelerate the warming process. It could take as much as one hour for the calf to warm-up—you’re aiming for an internal body temperature between 101 and 102 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Beef Magazine.
Once the newborn starts to recover it may begin to move around. Be careful that it doesn’t knock over the heating lights and potentially start a fire. Next, you’ll need to make sure the calf receives colostrum, which is the first milk produced by a cow after the delivery of its calf. The milk contains antibodies, immunological cells, and bioactive compounds.
Colostrum supplements can be used in conjunction with the intake of maternal colostrum. Colostrum replacers can be used in the place of colostrum.
Place the newborn into a calf warmer
A calf warmer is a small enclosure that contains a heating element and allows your newborn to comfortably recover from the cold. The warmer can provide enough room for the calf to lie down or stand up.
A cow waiting to reclaim her young can do so without hesitation since the warming process shouldn’t interfere with the identity scent of her calf.
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