COWS!

[Riocotesei]

I got 2 bull calves in october. One is holstein/angus and the other is a gurnsey (jersy/holstein cross)
I'm my area I could go get some at auction for $20. However, I've always heard that you shouldn't buy bottle caves at auctions. I paid $55 for my angus cross as a 3 week old and $40 for the 10 day old gurnsey.
I can tell a total difference in my angus cross, he is so much meatier and bigger as well. Lucky for the gurnsey, we're keeping him to breed with our hoilstien heifer.
We bought from a lady we compleatly trust; we had bought a gurnsey before this one pictured and it had died. She gave us another one for free. We have a guarentee that they got to be with mom for 5 days. I'm willing to pay more for that. She gave them the shot they needed, and gave us good advice.
We bought a 50lb bag of milk replacer for $62
She told us if we gave them the full powder amount they'd scour. We gave them half of what the package suggested, and they grew wonderfully and we only needed the one bag of replacer to get them to the starter feed stage. Calves, in my opinon are very easy to raise. I've raised bottle lambs and they are more work than worth the effort. I'm very pleased with mine and will defenetly(sp?) buy more next year.
Pictured here are my calves the black and white is named Orem and the Brown and white is Tex. They are super friendly I'll feel a little bad when I eat Orem.....lol

 

[lorieMN]

Quote:
I have to disagree with you on the ones raised on replacer are runts... nearly all dairy calves are raised on replacer,including heifers and they grow into large normal cows..I have raised hundreds of calves and very few were "runty"..they were almost all off the replacer by 5 weeks old,usually the smaller ones were smaller for a reason,small cow,sickly calf ,first time heifer that was bred to a smaller bull..poor genetics..for the average family a holstien will give more then enough meat,anymore I dont like being tied down and with the cost of feed I just go buy a half at the locker.

 

[FarmerChick]

yup the dairy industry relies on replacer. all calves are taken off the cow and put on replacer immediately. Barb (owns a dairy) feeds replacer to all her calves and those in turn become her heifers for replacement in the herd and those become the milk cows. They sure are never runty.....they are monsters---Holsteins are huge!

I have never seen that any other way actually. They are top sized perfect cows in the end.

 

[Cara]

The majority of ranches in our area keep a milk cow or goats to raise calves, as the replacer is just not an effective substitute. We're one of the few that doesn't, although it wasn't the case in the past and is soon not to be again.

 

[sara]

The price of bull calves is way down. 50.00 is probably high right now.

 

[Poler]

Quote:
Is your source from New Mexico?

Meat from dairy calves and meat calves, is the same, except on meat calves there's more on the meat calf, the taste depends on how it is prepared, the skill of your butcher, how long and well its aged.

I'm getting two by the end of January, and I'm planning on letting mine grow until the beginning of December. It is a good deal, but you also need to take into consideration, the cost of feed. You'll need to feed it calf mana and milk substitute until its weaned, then hay for the next few months, then during the last two months of its time, you'll need to feed it 2% of its body weight in grain, in addition to the hay. I spent 400 dollars fattening up my last calf, but the meat is delicious.

A good sized Holstien (black&white) cow will probably top out to 700-800 pounds.

Good luck on your decision

 

[Western Chick]

Quote:
Do you mean dress at 700-800 pounds?

A good holstein steer is not ready until it reaches AT LEAST 1200 pounds. Our holsteins usually go around 1400-1500. For a steer to finish in 12 months it needs to really be pushed. We've done it in 12 but 15 months is more typical. You can certainly butcher it early but you will not get the yield ratio that one would expect. (too much bone and organs, not enough meat.)

At 700 pounds it's still a baby! Our beef calves wean at 700-800 pounds. I know that's beef but the holsteins have larger frame size and if properly raised should weigh about the same.

Also, calves raised *properly* on milk replacer will not be runts. Follow the direction on the bag, do not cut it with water because then the calf fills up on water and doesn't get all the nutrients it needs out of the milk. They should be weaned to sweet bits at 6 weeks, then you can start offering water to replace the milk.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I agree with Western Chick.

Calf prices vary throughout the country so, call you local market to find out what they are near you. Others are saying $50 is to high but, here is how the market closed here this last week for dairy bull calves.
Calves
38% of the Bull Calves Sold 50.00 - 95.00 per head
46% of the Bull Calves Sold 20.00- 49.00 per head

They were down this last week. I've seen them as high as $120 in recent weeks.

 

[greyfields]

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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.

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
Sure those aren't started beef calves? I often see those come into teh sale yards from cows who drop twins, but can't feed them both. They're usually 10-15x the going rate for day old dairy bull calves.