my fourth calf was born Saturday morning. A bull calf, and the first calf born to one of my three cows, a four year old, one of the first two I started with. Hopefully I have two more to go.
My question is about ear tags. This is the first season I have tagged my calves, just a numbered ID tag. I check the cows every morning and early evening to see if any have or are calving. Fortunately all have calved on their own, and I have always found them in the morning. My habit has been to observe the calf to make sure it gets up and is nursing and the cow seems attentive to her calf. If all looks good, I go ahead and tag the calf. The first one I did was probably only a couple hours old, the others were probably 6 or 7 hours old on average when tagged.
I just read a couple articles on line saying you should not tag until the calves are two or three days old, as doing it sooner interferes with the cow calf bonding process. All so far, including the three first calf heifers, seem to be attentive mothers.
Am I tagging to soon, and just been lucky so far. I am new to all this and would like to get it right.
Thanks,