Baby cows grass fed

[Tradmom]

Hi all,

We are a small family trying to raise our own food. We have goats and chickens and now, recently purchased two jersey/angus bottle calves as dual purpose. We have a goal of having all our animals grass fed and corn and soy free.

I know very little about grass fed cows and it seems everyone in our area says you have to feed grain to cows and corn to chickens. We have been extremely successful ignoring that advice with our chickens and now get two dozen eggs a day from our 25 chickens by feeding the secret ingredient in our self mixed chicken feed, dried coconut. We have also been successful so far with our goats.

As far as the bottle calves and not having their mom, I’m not sure how to feed them after milk and teach them the graze. Put them with the goats?

Any input would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[cassie]

In my opinion an Angus Jersey cross is the best beef steer you can raise. I don't understand your opposition to corn. Corn and barley are the highest energy grains there are. At this point, what are you feeding these calves and how old are they? They should have access to a calf starter of some sort and hay. Since they are not on their mothers, they are going to have some sort of grain for a few months to thrive. You don't have to teach calves to graze. They will figure that out on their own.

I have raised a lot of calves over the years, and I was very successful at it too. I gave them milk until they were eight weeks old or so. From the time they were a few days old they had access to water, hay (because of where I lived that was alfalfa) and a commercial calf starter free choice. Since I sold my calves at 300 pounds, they had free choice grain up until the day they left. You may not want to feed grain free choice, but your calves are going to need at least some for about four months or so. It is hard to tell from the photo, and not knowing the age of these calves, I shouldn't issue an opinion, but those calves look bony to me. There are some books available on amazon about raising a calf for beef. You might want to get one.

Now this is just my opinion. I realize grass fed beef is supposed be healthier for you than beef finished on grain. That may be, but I am not a fan. I personally don't like the way beef finished on just grass tastes, and I don't like the way it smells. But that is just me. My neighbor in Missouri regularly used to give me grass fed beef and I never turned it down. When I raised my own steers and was not concerned about cost, I fed them milk for eight weeks, and from the beginning they had free choice grain and hay. After I weaned them and put them on pasture, they still had grain and hay available. They went through a lot of grain though. Today if I was raising a calf, I would probably limit the grain until the last three months but still have the alfalfa available. I would pour the grain them to them last three months, but I am certainly not suggesting you do so. Don't forget a salt block.

If you don't like corn, you can use a barley mix. Barley has about the same amount of energy as corn. Good luck with your calves. As I said, Angus Jersey is an excellent cross. I wish I lived where I could raise one. The flavor of Jersey beef is outstanding.

Buy a book. It will save you a lot of grief.

 

[coastingangel]

Hi there - I see your post is a few months old so hopefully your calves are doing well. I live in New Zealand where cattle are mostly grass fed. This is not an issue and you will have happy healthy animals. I rear calves on milk, twice a day for about 4-6 weeks then once a day until 8 weeks old - they have access to a museli mix ad-lib while their rumens develop. At a couple of weeks old when they are drinking well and running up to the feeder (I do about 12 so need to have them all drinking well) I will let them have access to the paddock for the day, locking them in at night to make the morning feed easier. Once they are fully on grass I will give them salt licks occasionally but the only supplement feed they get is silage made on the property - over winter when grass growth slows. I make sure to move them to their next paddock before they have chewed the last one out too much and feel the need to tell me they are hungry. I have had animals ready for the freezer in 18 months doing it this way.

I love being able to produce a plate of food that has mostly come off the property, we also have sheep, a big vege garden and a large number of chickens. I sell eggs at the gate and can't believe the comments I get about the quality of them - the chickens are 24/7 free range here.

 

[Yardmom]

I also did not see this post when it was first posted. I grew up on a
cow/ calf beef farm. Calves were never grained, but they got plenty of milk from the mothers and grass from the pastures.
Trying to raise calves on milk replacer is a whole different story.

 

[Folly's place]

And grass fed beef cattle take about two years to reach 'market weight', double the time cattle fed more grain take to reach the same weight.
All good advice above, hope you have figured out how to care for these calves.
Mary