Quite often a "cow rescue" video will show up as a suggested post on my FB newsfeed. And to be honest, I tend to roll my eyes at them if I watch. The rescues are, in my opinion, aimed at the viewers to get people to donate money. Add some sad music to a video of a cow supposedly crying for her calf and people that don't understand bovine (cow) behavior are likely to easily believe the scenario.
For example, a new one I saw recently involved what appeared to be first lactation Holstein, meaning a black and white cow that has had one calf. They videoed her standing alone in a stall and standing alone in a field, bellering after two days of being separated from what they claim was her calf later on in the video.
One problem? She was alone. Dairy cows are herd animals. They do not like being alone and will can be pretty loud when they do not around other cattle.
Second problem? Her udder was full. The cow was uncomfortable and needed to be milked. Cows in that scenario will often be very loud.
Another issue? She, in my opinion, had more of a "heat beller" going than a distress beller. When a cow is in heat (estrus) they can be obnoxiously loud, as in wake the whole neighborhood loud because they want to be bred.
Same thing when they brought the calf there. He was loud. Welcome to being in an unfamiliar scenario and alone.
They say that they reunited her with her calf two days after rescuing her. This calf was a several month old bull, not a baby. He would not have been drinking milk from this cow who was still producing milk, meaning even if was her calf, they were had been not around each other. At least unlike other videos they got the breed right, those Holsteins being "reunited" with their Jersey calf videos are interesting. Like either we got embryo transfers involved or that really is not her calf.
But I'm sure they will live happily ever after. We can just hope that bull calf was actually a steer (castrated) because he is not going to care one bit if his "mom" is in estrus that it is his "mom". Then we have great inbreeding going on. That'll be an interesting followup video when the calf is born.
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