By: Heather Smith Thomas

Occasionally you need to “graft” an orphan, twin or substitute calf onto a cow that lost her own. There are many tricks for convincing a cow to accept the substitute, such as commercial powder sprinkled on the calf to encourage her to lick it, or smearing Vicks® VapoRub® on her nose and on the calf to confuse her sense of smell. A cow may lick the substitute calf if you put molasses on his back and hindquarters.

If the cow/heifer has just calved, smear birth fluids or mucus from her placenta onto the substitute before you bring him to her. If he’s lively, however, he may startle or confuse her. If the bouncing baby scares a heifer, or a cow is suspicious that this lively youngster is not her newborn, tie him to the side of the stall/pen so he can’t run around, or lay him on the ground and tie his legs together so he can’t get up. This gives the cow/heifer a chance to sniff and start to lick him without becoming alarmed or suspicious by his boisterous actions. Once she starts licking the calf you can untie him. This tactic often works with a first-calf heifer, but an older cow may be harder to fool.

The trick that works best is to skin her dead calf and put the hide over the substitute. The cow knows the smell of her own calf (even if it was dead at birth—if you gave her a chance to smell and lick it for awhile before you take the body away), and this “smell bonding” can be used to advantage.

The substitution works best when a cow loses her calf or soon after. Her mothering instinct, due to hormonal changes during parturition, is strongest soon after she calves, and she can be more readily convinced to accept another young calf.

The dead calf should be skinned while fresh. The hide can be put over the substitute calf like a jacket, with his legs going through the leg holes of the skin, and his head coming through the neck hole. If there’s much size difference, tie the hide under the belly to hold it in place. Trim the hide if the dead calf is bigger than the substitute.

Make slits in the hide for baling twine ties. The tail should be left attached to the skin if the hide isn’t too big, or drape the end of the hide over the calf’s hindquarters. The cow will smell and lick the calf’s hind end, and it must smell like hers!

If the cow lost her calf in a stall or pen, leave her there. Take the body and skin it, put the hide on the substitute, then take him to her, like you were bringing her baby back. If you moved the cow, put the new calf into the stall or pen where she last saw and smelled her dead calf—and bring her back. If the cow is worried about her missing calf, she may think the calf you bring (or take her to) is her own.

Bring the calf to her when he’s hungry. The sooner he nurses her the better, if she lost her own calf at birth. Nursing triggers release of oxytocin in the cow, which stimulates motherly behavior. Once the substitute calf has nursed a few times and the cow is accepting him, it’s safe to take off the old skin.

If she tries to kick him (your skin-graft trick does not fool her), keep the pair in separate adjacent pens a few days so she can’t hurt the calf, and hobble her hind legs so she cannot kick him at nursing time. Put them together two or three times a day for nursing (feeding the cow hay to occupy her mind), until she accepts the calf. It may take two days or two weeks to change her mind about mothering him, but she will eventually accept him.

If she still tries to butt the calf, you may have to tie her while she eats her hay and baby gets dinner. Leave a halter on her, dragging the rope, so you can get hold of it to tie her up. After dragging the rope and stepping on it, she quickly learns to respect this restraint.

Once the cow starts to show a change of heart—mooing at the calf, licking him, or worrying about him when you put him back into his own pen after nursing (no longer trying to avoid him or hurt him when he’s with her), it’s safe to start leaving them together. You can remove the hobbles when she stops kicking at him.