Raising Jersey Bottle Calf?

[cassie]

I find it odd that there is such a difference between Dairy and Meat (not just cattle, our young dairy buck is giving my a lot of trouble lately).
So if we DO decide to keep him and use him as a part-time Ox, what would be a good time to alter him before he becomes to big but still has good muscling?...

I actually have to more questions I forgot to ask. The first one is how to get him to stop bunting the bottle, he's already knocked off the nipple and I have to be careful how I hold it or he'll hurt me, I don't want him doing that when he's 3 months old. Second, I know people ride cattle like horses, what about Jersey's?... If they seem to be to much trouble we might raise him up then trade for a dairy/beef breed.

That sounds, erm , slobbery but sweet. What happened to that bull?

You can get the answers as to when to castrate him on an ox forum. The longer you wait the harder it is going to be on him and bear in mind Jeseys mature faster than larger breeds of cattle do.

There is no reason you can't ride him when he's big enough. Just get him used to being led and handled. You can halter break him and lead him around now if you haven't already.

He butts the bottle because he is a calf. That's what calves do.

As for trading him in, sometimes smaller is better. Jerseys are small enough you can push them around a little, at least as compared to a Holstein or a Brown Swiss.

 

[DairyGoatz]

You can get the answers as to when to castrate him on an ox forum.  The longer you wait the harder it is going to be on him and bear in mind Jeseys mature faster than larger breeds of cattle do.

There is no reason you can't ride him when he's big enough.  Just get him used to being led and handled. You can halter break him and lead him around now if you haven't already.

He butts the bottle because he is a calf.  That's what calves do.

As for trading him in, sometimes smaller is better.  Jerseys are small enough you can push them around a little, at least as compared to a Holstein or a Brown Swiss.

I've been looking for an Ox forum and all I could come up with was Rural Heritage (actually a rather helpful site). He certainly seems to be growing fast, but I'll ask one of the old time farmers at next week's auction about castration.

Wonderful, I can't have a horse so I'll have a cow .

So nothing to do about bunting? All well.

You wouldn't be able to find a Brown Swiss around here if you're life depended on it. It's all Beef, Beef, Beef, but I guess that will make the little Jersey that much more unusual.

Thank you very much for all your help, I appreciate it very much .

 

[cassie]

I used to get a magazine that catered to homesteaders and it had some articles about oxen. For the life of me, I cannot think what it was called. You might see if you can contact RFDTV. It is a TV channel dedicated to farmers and rural folk. If you have DirectTV or have a friend that does you can find it. Anyway, they have programs on training horses and oxen. In fact, I am sure they have some videos on oxen available for sale. You ought to be able to google RFDTV and find their address that way.

 

[Angie Poo]

Your on the right path. Like others said take away the eggs they aren't needed. When I raise drop calls I always do a 50/50 mix of fresh goat milk and powdered calf milk. I feed what is recommended on the bag 2 quarts twice a day) but will split the amount up to 3 or 4 times a day for small calfs rather then 2 large feedings. I also depending on age offer them hay and will start them on 14% protein calf starter.

I normally castrate them at about a month old. They are big enough that it doesn't cause to much stress but not to big where you have a hard time castrating them. I wouldn't even think about keeping him a bull especially since bottle calfs tend to be pushy and don't respect you as much (or fear you). We had a jersey bull and he was the meaniest animal I have ever been around. He would ram the panels when you walked by and would of killed someone easily.. Lets just say he's in the freezer now. They are like any animal and left intact can become very unpredictable as their hormones take over. That is why your average person doesn't have a stud horse, billy goat, boer (pig), ram (sheep) or bull as a pet.

As far as using him as an ox I see no problem. My last steer was a jersey that I bottle fed. He was halter broke, picked up his feet like a horse to trim them, bowed like a horse, and you could ride him. I could also lounge him like a horse ( he wasn't to happy going in circles at different speeds but did it lol). He was also used for roping practice and knew as soon as the rope get tight to stop so we could take it off. My training method that I used for him was very similar to that of a horse or donkey.

If you decide to sell him I would do it shortly after he is weaned as people like to raise grass calves. If you decide to butcher him you should have good lean meat with a real nice flavor.

Good luck and have fun raising him
If you have any more questions ask away. I would be happy to help.

 

[DairyGoatz]

I used to get a magazine that catered to homesteaders and it had some articles about oxen.  For the life of me, I cannot think what it was called.  You might see if you can contact RFDTV. It is a TV channel dedicated to farmers and rural folk.  If you have DirectTV or have a friend that does you can find it.  Anyway, they have programs on training horses and oxen.  In fact, I am sure they have some videos on oxen available for sale.  You ought to be able to  google RFDTV  and find their address that way.

That sounds interesting, I've never heard of that channel. But I'm afraid we don't have DirectTV or anything like that. But I'll look into some videos as that sounds helpful.... and if you think of the name of that magazine will you please tell me? I'd love to know.

 

[DairyGoatz]

Your on the right path. Like others said take away the eggs they aren't needed. When I raise drop calls I always do a 50/50 mix of fresh goat milk and powdered calf milk. I feed what is recommended on the bag 2 quarts twice a day) but will split the amount up to 3 or 4 times a day for small calfs rather then 2 large feedings. I also depending on age offer them hay and will start them on 14% protein calf starter.

I normally castrate them at about a month old. They are big enough that it doesn't cause to much stress but not to big where you have a hard time castrating them. I wouldn't even think about keeping him a bull especially since bottle calfs tend to be pushy and don't respect you as much (or fear you). We had a jersey bull and he was the meaniest animal I have ever been around. He would ram the panels when you walked by and would of killed someone easily.. Lets just say he's in the freezer now. They are like any animal and left intact can become very unpredictable as their hormones take over. That is why your average person doesn't have a stud horse, billy goat, boer (pig), ram (sheep) or bull as a pet.

As far as using him as an ox I see no problem. My last steer was a jersey that I bottle fed. He was halter broke, picked up his feet like a horse to trim them, bowed like a horse, and you could ride him. I could also lounge him like a horse ( he wasn't to happy going in circles at different speeds but did it lol). He was also used for roping practice and knew as soon as the rope get tight to stop so we could take it off. My training method that I used for him was very similar to that of a horse or donkey.

If you decide to sell him I would do it shortly after he is weaned as people like to raise grass calves. If you decide to butcher him you should have good lean meat with a real nice flavor.

Good luck and have fun raising him
If you have any more questions ask away. I would be happy to help.

So should I be feeding him 2 quarts? I've been giving him 3 and my mother thinks he looks to skinny so wants me to give him even more, I'd post a picture if I knew how Would 4 times a day be better? If so how long should I feed him that way?. Another question, when should he get all of his baby teeth? I read it should be around a month and he has them all already...

How do you castrate at that age?... that bull sounds like a perfectly good reason not to have a bull. But not all intact males are so bad, we used to have a stallion who was as sweet as any gelding, a big baby.

That sounds wonderful, I've been working on halter training and working with his feet lately, and also just standing over him. I've never done anything like this, are there any books or videos you'd recommend?... can you train them just like a horse or do you have to improve on the technique?.

Our plan was to wean him when he was older sell him and get a heifer but I don't think that's happening (maybe if he gets big and mean).

Thank you for you help

 

[DairyGoatz]

The calf has scours this morning. Its yellow ( it has been since we got him) and very runny. I'm making blackberry root tea right now, along with ACV and electrolytes. I'll also give him some Dura-Pen antibiotics, is that okay?. We also have probiotic powder for our goats, is that okay for him?... Should I stop feeding milk until this clears up? Anything else to do?...

This could be a digestive upset, someone else fed him a hour early and without his normal goats milk, could that do it?

 

[cassie]

The big Jersey dairy near me feeds their calves three quarts of milk 2X per day. If the scours are from a digestive upset it should clear up promptly. What is his temperature and how old is this calf? You can give some pepto bismol in his bottle. How is he actiing? Is he hungry? Are his ears upright or are they drooping?

 

[cassie]

Stallions and dairy bulls are not the same. Properly trained and handled stallions are fine. Dairy bulls are dangerous and unpredictable. Jerseys are about the worst of the dairy breeds. Doesn't matter how they are handled.

 

[chooks4life]

Sorry to hear he's scouring. It might just be a temporary upset as he encounters a common disease. Generally fresh raw milk was one of the things known to help a bottle fed calf stop scouring, but by all means do try whatever you feel is best. I'm sure the folks here could help you with that. My experience with scouring bottle fed ruminants is confined at the moment to sheep and goats, and the circumstances were extreme, so the cure was prolonged and different to what applies to your calf. Best wishes with him though.

Quote:
Since he's a Jersey and they're known to be aggressive, I'd probably do it sooner rather than later, not that it'll guarantee anything. In your case, preventing him from receiving the full flush of adult hormones and the awakening of inherited instinct that accompanies that sounds like the wisest choice. Some animals will be calmer if desexed. Others will become dangerous even if desexed, particularly those that are fear-aggressive.

In many animals being intact benefits their temperaments, acting as a stabilizer, and desexing after puberty allows full mental and physical development, whereas desexing at a very young age can keep them in an immature mindset and a neuter physical stage of development. Pros and cons, and all mainly dependent on the individual. Coming from bad breeding and inheriting nasty attitudes can totally negate anything you do to counter it.

While I'm not a fan of automatic desexing, there's no guarantee that remaining undesexed, or desexing, is going to help any problem attitude. Desexing is always a gamble, in my opinion. It sure sounds like the best bet with your case, and sooner than later due to his breed's most common mentality. Being a Jersey his musculature will be fairly minimal compared to typical ox breeds, but most of them are desexed young too and they manage to work.
Quote: Putting him onto buckets or automatic feeders is a better bet there, but you'll lose what little pseudo-maternal bond you two might have made. Standing behind a fence so he has to remain at a set distance when feeding, so he can't move forward to butt it, might help. I had one ram lamb who would always smash the bottle with his mouth till he bled, nothing but putting him on buckets helped there.

About riding him, well, I have seen Jerseys ridden, but only the cows. In other breeds, particularly Bos Indicus ones, bulls are not infrequently ridden.

Quote:
Yes, in very old farming texts. Some people used to get the calves to go from mother to bucket by letting them suck on a finger or two, then lead them down to the bucket. Some of the calves would regard a human arm as a pacifier after that, and could be led around by a human if the human let them suck a finger or hand. It's possible that this was a throwback of that behavior. Or, he might have been salt deficient and your arm may have been tasty for that reason.

Some dairy breeds don't naturally wean their calves, since they've lost the instinct after many thousands of generations of human intervention, so some calves do not naturally wean until forced. If never forced you can end up with fully grown bulls who still try to suckle. Rather like chicks from hatchery stock which have never naturally brooded or mothered for many thousands of generations; if you put these babies under a mother, many simply lack the instinct to listen to her and act like a normal dependent chick. Instead they act like they had no mother. With some dairy breeds it's the opposite and they act like they're always a nursing calf. Some dairy cows can be troublesome with suckling from each other.
Quote: Recently we met a Holstein bull, hand reared from a calf, who then turned on and gored his owner simply because the man walked between him and his bale of fodder. He was over six foot tall at the shoulder. The whole family lived in fear in a tiny yard, but the man wouldn't cull or rehome the bull despite almost being killed, because he liked him. As with poultry, breeding from a violent male begets more violent males and it ought not to be done. It's high time the dairy industry adopted the same standards of temperament requirements that the beef industry has been breeding for, in my opinion. It would take generations to develop nice natured dairy bulls, but sadly people aren't bothering with temperament. As long as his offspring produce high enough yields, the bull can kill humans and still be bred to excess.
Quote: Around here, the average person does have intact males, either as pets or as breeders if they have females too. Due to the average person having stud males, most folks place more importance on temperament and as a direct result there are many completely non-aggressive intact males. Then you have the other people who think an intact male is always an aggressive male, so that's what they breed, so that's what they get; self fulfilling prophecy there.