my backyard herd (so far) baby cows alert :D

[username taken]

Sorry to say, I have raised hundreds of dairy calves. I know what a healthy calf looks like, I know what a hungry calf looks like. These calves look healthy, but hungry. Now, if you havent had them very long that is perfectly normal. But if you've had them for a while, they shouldnt be looking like that. Which is why I respectfully asked how much you were feeding them.

Norman is indeed a jersey cross, Opie as I said appears simm/fleck influenced, the others are predominantly friesian. Not that it makes much of a difference, really.

What are your plans for these steers when they grow out? Freezer? Or pets/pasture ornaments?

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

All of these guys are going to the sale when they get grown out a bit. I'll keep one for our freezer, but the rest are gonna go.

The plan is to keep cycling them through - once a batch of babies is off the bottle, put them on the pasture (well, the next step pasture, not the big one yet) then get more bottle babies. We have two different pastures - one for just weaned babies, and then the bigger pasture for when they can go out there. These guys, of course, get to stay in their stalls, usually, with a little play time out in the bigger area. If they are all in one stall or area they suckle on each other

I can't wait to see them all out on the little pasture - ought to be a cool looking little group (not all the same looking, IOW).

I am thinking we can handle (once the stalls inside the barn are finished) about 10 or 12 at a time on bottle. Perhaps do three rounds of those per year.

Although I might be more ambitious at this point than I will be once I've done a couple groups of them.

One of our neighbors told us that the "best way to do it" is to have your own herd to throw calves for you. I think he's wrong - well, at least wrong for my plan.

If you think about it, having a herd to breed means you are feeding those cows all year long - you are medicating them, having them AI'd or having a bull brought in, etc... all costing money. As opposed to buying, for less than 100 bucks each, a calf that the dairy doesn't want anyway. Add on your cost of milk replacer, feed, medications, banding, etc... and you still come out ahead from having a breeding herd.

Now, if I were keeping a couple of cows and breeding them for the milk and to fill my freezer with their babies, then yeah, it'd pay me do keep the cows all year. I'm just doing this to make the farm pay me something (for a change

) even if it isn't much, it's better than sitting around thinking "hhmmm, maybe I'll have to go get a job somewhere else."

Plus, I get to play with adorable baby cows

Username Taken - perhaps the ones you mean look skinny are the youngest ones - they are less than four days old in those pictures.

meri

 

[citrusdreams]

Wow, you must be getting very good prices for your milk replacer. Are you buying in bulk?

I couldn't afford to feed a calf at 1 gallon a day to start, and then 1-1/2 gallons a day as they grow. The milk replacer here is expensive. And the grain could get expensive too. When I raised a bottle baby, thank goodness I had a cow in milk. The bottle baby who did the best got 3 bottles a day in the winter and filled out nice and fast and got nice and big. The next one had to share milk, so she only got 2 bottles a day, and though she grew fast on that milk, she really could have used 3 bottles. I couldn't afford to raise a bottle baby if I had to buy milk replacer.

For me (and I don't live where you live so everything is different I think), keeping a calf on mama as long as you can is the most economical way to go. We don't give grain to our babies. They stay on mama's milk, or if I have a bottle baby, they still get a mama's milk. And all the grass and hay they want. I don't expect to give grain until they're in milk, or ready for slaughter (unless of course, they lose condition during the winter or something).

Your babies are adorable

Congrats!

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
Not sure if our prices are good or not - I'm paying about $50 for a 50# bag of Calf Milk powder.

I had considered buying a nurse cow to help me out

but I don't know if I want to jump into that yet. I'd have to go back and look in my records for the calf grain cost. The stuff we get has a decox medicine in it, also (I think most of them do, but I did see one place that had it without.) Hay we get for sweat - we have our own hayfields

.

I'm eyeing an area to pasture off soon, also - it would add another 10 acres of pasture onto what we have right now. Plus, it includes a wooded lot, and a small (very small, but maybe could be dammed) stream at the bottom of the hill. The stream is seasonal, but we've had a lot more rain this summer than the last couple of years, so it is still running right now. The spring that begins the stream would be inside the pasture, also. I sure am glad the water table is up a little bit better this year.

meri

 

[KotaDVM]

http://www.activefarming.org/dairy-beef-profit

I am glad to see this type of operation in effect! I have done some light researching on raising male dairy steers once I have my own land and would like to hear your experiences on it.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
Thanks for the link, Hubby will be interested in reading that, also.

We raised a holstein heifer last year for our own freezer (she was a freemartin). Very good meat - not the ratio you'd get from a meat breed calf, but it ended up being about 1/3 of the live weight. We butchered her out early, also, around 750 # live weight. We'll keep one a bit longer before the next time we butcher.

I've been trying to find a way to earn money here on the farm, and researched goats, sheep, pigs, etc... and the calves seem to be best suited to my interests. We had built the calf stall area originally for pigs (with pigs in mind, there weren't any stalls, just the open corral area) - which is why it was so closely boarded and should be able to handle anything - even if we choose to do goats at some point. It is perfect for the calves, though - they are under a roof, protected from west and south wind (where most of our weather comes from) yet it is cooler back behind there and they get a nice breeze coming through the barn windows and from the other sides. Come winter we may put up some panels to keep the worst of the weather out of there - but for summer, it is working great. We also plan to put some stalls inside the barn, so we can have severe weather protection for them better in there (winter here is one long VERY windy rain storm).

This pic shows a little better how we have the stalls out back of the barn. Picture orientation is looking north towards my lower chicken coops in the far back of the picture (behind the greenery) The stalls are about 6'x6'.

The line you see in the bottom lefthand of the pics is another gate that leads into another corral with a little shed and another area for calves (that is where Norman is right now). We put the newest baby into the shed corral, since it can be locked down if necesary (not so open sided). This way we can determine how "hardy" they are before putting them into a more open area. Might be unnecesary, but I just prefer to do it that way.

We'll be putting another 6 stalls inside the barn. Need to fix a drainage problem, though - we're having gravel brought in next week.

meri

 

[lasergrl]

a hungry calf is a healthy calf. When feeding milk replacer if you feed more then twice a day (sometimes 3 if a big calf) you will have a dead calf soon. They scour so easily. a non Dam raised calf will look like that for a good month before they are out of the danger zone and can "beef up" a little. Im suprised anyone thats raised calves before would think yours look anything but great. If they dont have scours youre already 1000 miles ahead. They look GREAT

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
We've been very lucky - no scours at all, and all look good - no snot, no wet butts, and all with good appetites. Mookie is the oldest and even he is not quite a month old yet.

We're getting help and advice from our neighbor, who has been doing this his entire life. He's been wonderful help. This all sort of started with him, actually. We wanted to get into calves, but had no idea how (ETA we didn't want to get auction calves that are ripped from Mama right after birth and tossed onto a truck and hauled two states away to be sold - in other words...) - and my hubby fixed his tractor for him and when our neighbor asked what he wanted in payment, Hubby said a calf

meri

 

[steffpeck]

They are really cute!! And it looks like you have a nice setup for them!!

 

[Skyesrocket]

Hi Meri!
Nice summer set up! Plenty of ventilation for them and that will help to keep the pen floors dry. I see so many raised in the back corners or a barn where it is dark, damp and cold.
We have a dairy farm here that does a wonderful job of rehoming the bull calves. She milks off the colesterum and feeds it to the calves for three days. If you take one sooner she sends a bucket home with the calf. I have had several calves from her over the years and they almost always make it because they aren't exposed to all of the stress and crud at the auction houses.
I just wanted to give you a heads up regarding reselling them at the auction house. Get to know the beef buyers and find out what ages or weights they buy. If you take calves in that aren't the right weight you will take a huge loss. They only want certain sizes.
A friend just took a healty 4 month old calf in and only got $65 because he wasn't the right size.
Also, advertise and resell to family farms. Calves are expensive to get started and you may be able to resell them when all of the hard work is done and they can just be put on pasture for finishing.
If you are considering getting goats and have the time for milking, get some good producing dairy goats to milk off for the calves. They thrive on goats milk.
Here, in Ohio, Holstein bull calves always sell for more than other dairy breeds. Just something to keep in mind when you are buying more.
Good Luck to you! It's nice to see dairy bull calves being well taken care of.