COWS!

[beefy]

farmerlor,

take into account facilities, feed, milk replacer, hay/grass, labor, fuel, possible vet expenses, opportunity costs (time),etc. its not like you just pay $50 for a calf and get some meat. it will cost a lot more than that in the end obviously...

a dairy animal will be less efficient in turning feed into meat, so it will take more feed. also, dairy bull calves tend to be pretty agressive as they get older so be sure and get it castrated. and its rare to find female dairy calves for sale unless they are freemartins unless you have special dairy connections.

also, cattle are gregarious by nature and will be better off with a companion of like species. keeping two is no harder than keeping one, and it may even save you some trouble. you could butcher one and sell the other.

having said all this, some of the best steaks ive tasted came from Jersey steers.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

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That depends on where you are at. Here they have regular heifer calf sales as well as regular dairy sales but, we are in a dairy state other states it won't be so easy.

 

[lorieMN]

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I jsut spent several days on a dairy while on holiday. They fed the calves right out of the tank and did not use replacer. They are able to throttle the amount of milk they drink that way, then of courrse get them on feed as early as possible. They were using a mix of grass silage, maize silage, seed meals, and feed protein pre-mix. Quite an operation.

And I'm pretty sure all dairies keep the calf on the mom for the first 2 days, since colostrum can't go in the tank.

any dairy I have ever worked at and when I owned, the calf was pulled after day one and bottle fed,the cow is milked seperate,with a hanging type bucket that runs off the air on the pipline but the milk goes into a stainless steel bucket insted of the pipeline and the extra cholustrom milk is usually frozen for later..or given to the cats and dogs

 

[beefy]

Quote:
That depends on where you are at. Here they have regular heifer calf sales as well as regular dairy sales but, we are in a dairy state other states it won't be so easy.

we dont have many dairies around here anymore, but when we did all the "good" heifers were retained as replacements.

i still dont know how dairies make the numbers work...

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
That depends on where you are at. Here they have regular heifer calf sales as well as regular dairy sales but, we are in a dairy state other states it won't be so easy.

we dont have many dairies around here anymore, but when we did all the "good" heifers were retained as replacements.

i still dont know how dairies make the numbers work...

Carefully!

 

[wynedot55]

dairymen have to walk a very tightrope w/o a net.been there an done that.would still be milking if i could get good help.an my body would hold up todoing the outside work.

 

[Western Chick]

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When we sold our milk cows, five years ago, milk was right around $9/cwt...I figured we were paying roughly $1000/ month to milk the cows.

There's ups and downs, you just roll with them. You make equipment upgrades when the money's there and hunker down when it's not.

Greyfields- we used to raise only dairy (holstein) steers and now have entirely Angus/Hereford crosses. I've seen more variation in the flavor of the meat between lockers by the way they process than I've noticed between holstein or angus from the same locker.

Our cattle are always finished on straight corn. It takes the Holsteins a little longer to get there but they finish a little bigger too.

The dairy you were on is not typical of the ones in my area. I don't know of any dairies (20 head- 6000 head) that shoot the bull calves after they're born. Most large dairies around here have contracts with feeders who will come get the bull calves on a daily basis. By specializing on a large scale they can make it profitable. Generally the smaller dairies feed their own steers or have a family member who handles that aspect of the operation.

When we fed holstein steers we had an agreement with the guy down the road that we'd pick up any bull calf for $100...that was back when corn was cheap! At times we had 20 or more hutch calves, I get tired just thinking about all the work that was! IMHO it's much easier letting the mama's do it

 

[Riocotesei]

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a Guernsey is an actual breed of dairy cattle, it is not a JerseyXHolstein cross. your calf does appear to be a JerseyxHolstein cross though.

Oh, lol, well thats good to know. He's growing horns though, I did not think holstiens or jerseys grew horns. Or am I mistaken?

 

[Farmer Kitty]

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ptooey! lean? bollocks to that.

I don't think the particular breed makes the difference... this was just a farm in England where Contintental breeds are more common.

I imagine the same results could be had with Simmental, Angus, Hereford,etc.

One day I fried up 11 pounds of hamburger and had no fat to drain. She was well and truly finished. You should have heard the comment made by our hauler when he saw her about a week before she went in. He told me she was ready to process, no doubt about it.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
a Guernsey is an actual breed of dairy cattle, it is not a JerseyXHolstein cross. your calf does appear to be a JerseyxHolstein cross though.

Oh, lol, well thats good to know. He's growing horns though, I did not think holstiens or jerseys grew horns. Or am I mistaken?

They both grow horns! There is a dehorning thread on BackYardCows.com.