First-time mother with small teats, little milk

Our Predominately Highland - (1/4 jersey and Possibly 3/16 dexter - depending who fathered her) heifer gave birth to her first calf in the open feild on a winter night.  The father is full-blood dexter, and the calf is about 15kg, which is normal for dexter.

IT was born at 4pm, and took a few hours to get up.  By late night it was following the mother, but not feeding.  It nuzzled the bull, and me, but gave no sign of nuzzling the mother - who would shy away when it go close to her back-end.  It was shivering, so I made it a temporary coat with bubble wrap and tape.

4:00am still no sign of feeding.  At 5:30am, my mother came and helped me run it into a pen, and put the calf with it.  Still no feeding, so I tried to milk it.  

I have milked cows before - including her grandmother - but never a highlander.  I had to cut the long hair to even find the teats, and when I did, they were tiny - worse than a goat. The bags also seems very small and WAY back under her back legs.    I got about 100ml of colostrum by hand milking and feed it with a syringe.  She seemed not to have much more - or maybe she was just holding it up.

The calf can still stand and walk, and strongly resist hand-feeding.  It tries to nuzzle, but I am wondering if there is actually enough teat for it to even latch on.

It is Saturday morning in New Zealand, and farm stores will be open from 9am-noon, and then shut till Monday.  

Unless someone can advise me better in the next couple of hours, my plan is to see what milk there is by mid-morning, and then get a packet of cololstrum replacer, and give it that, and then top it up goats milk if mum is still not producing much.  

I did have colostrum in the freezer for a few years, and then discarded it, and did not think to get some off the goats that kidded a couple of weeks ago.  

Yikes, Annie! At least it happened before the stores closed! I'd definitely get the colostrum replacer, and go with the goat's milk, if you can't get sufficient milk from her. It sounds like you've got this, frankly. Please do keep us posted, if/ when you have the time. I went through something similar, this spring, with one of my goat does, but it didn't end well. I hope you have better luck!

If it were my cow, I’d tie her up, and even put hobbles on her back legs, and make sure the calf drinks.

I don’t have any advice regarding store bought colostrum, never had to use it myself.

I’d try to find some other farmer/homesteader that could sell me some frozen colostrum maybe?

Here is a cow forum you might wanna try and ask, there are people from all over the world https://familycow.proboards.com

I don’t think it’s against the rules to post the above link?

Hi, Just went out and milked again about 60 min after previous milking, and got another 100ml or so from her.  I think she is slowly producing as I milk.  If she can keep this production up, then I should get at least half the ideal "10% of body weight" colostrum by 24 hours after birth, and close to the ideal by the end of the day, (30 hours later). I have two more hours / milks to decide if I have to run down to the shop, but I feel more confident.   It is very rich thick colostrum, so lets hope it is also dense in the needed antibodies.
I had thought about putting a message on the local Facebook for milk, but feel the "First 24 hour window" to feed is running, out, and don't know if I will get true colostrum or transitional milk.  It seems the best thing is to have the first the calve drinks to be the very first colostrum.  Tomorrow, I will feel more confident to see if the calf gets hungry enough to find the teats for itself.

We have her in a pen, with a board jammed the length of it against her, so she can't move, and the calf and I can get to milk her.  I have never tried milking a horned cow before, but the mother is amazingly gentle despite the highland horns.  Not one attempt to kick, and her legs are not hobbled at all.  I have been genetically testing the cows, and she is double A2.   If the teats can lengthen or I can buy a machine, she may make a good milk cow yet.  (The calf is a bull, but its father is naturally polled and A1/A2, so it has a 50% chance of being naturally polled, a 50% chance of being double A2, and a 25% chance of being both, which I hope will make it valuable for life-style blocks / home-steaders.  It might just be worth the cold sleep-deprived night yet).

If your cow is being cooperative, you've got a big leg up, on the problem! My goat sat on my hands and the buckling's head, to keep her teats for being touched! I did end up harnessing and even suspending her, to get her colostrum, and milk. Eventually, she settled down, but we'd already lost him, by then. It really is starting to sound like you've got this! Good luck - we're pulling for you!