Unusual cow behaviour?

[Saffy]

I was woken yesterday morning by the constant yelling of a 7 week old heifer calf, I had heard her in the night but thought better of getting up!

When I went out to the field her mother had been bulling, two steers were nearby and this calf was a distance away yelling and empty, the cow had a full udder. So I sent the steers away, brought the calf to the cow and expected it to suckle, they showed no interest in each other and then she hit the calf with her head, not hard but all the same she did hit it away.

So we put the cow and calf in the yard for an hour or so on their own confident that it would suckle but still no luck! It wasn't until we put them back in the calving pen, we were going out for the day, and when we came back in the evening and to our great relief the calf was nestled in the corner full and happy and the cow had an empty udder, so we put them back out. This is her 5th calf and she has never done this before and although I have heard that sometimes calves can be pushed away when the cow is bulling, I fully expected the poor thing to get fed as soon as it was over but it was obviously quite upset and it is one thing to put a new born to suck but at this age it would have been a struggle!!!

Anyway all is well as it is still feeding this morning.

Stephanie