Orphan No More

It seems that with calving there are always problems at the beginning of the season and then again at the end.  This time it was a backwards calf that we had to pull and was dead.  Since the cow was in the chute, we didn't even let her see or smell the calf, just hauled it off and let her back out.  But there was a cow that had calved at our other farm 2 days ago.  When J checked on her later that day, surprise, surprise, he found a twin that she had been hiding. 

 Now we have to decide if we want to try to do a graft even though the cow had not bonded with a calf.  But she was a good cow and the cow with twins has a bad foot.  So we went ahead and took a chance and brought twin calf to the barn. 

 We called a friend that had this magic voo doo powder.  You are suppose to sprinkle it on the calf and the cow is suppose to lick it and take the calf.  Easy Peasy. 

 Well, the cow didn't read the label and the calf wasn't very vigorous or hungry.  Not a good combination.   We ended up having to put the cow in the chute and try to get the calf to nurse.

 Not much success on the first day.  Then the next morning we repeated the process.  That afternoon...

Success!  Whenever you hear that low moo, you know the cow has taken the calf.  We turned them out into the barn lot and if all stays well, back out with the herd later.   Looks like we might have to invest in a bottle of voo doo powder.