Cow people, I have calf questions

[Melinda S in TX]

The lady from our dairy is selling bull calves. We have raised goat bottle babies, but never a calf. How big is a two week old calf and how hardy are they? How big does their pen need to be? Do they need company? How long until you start turning them out to graze?

 

Our milk lady said you wean them at four months. How big/how much will they weigh at that age? I know 14dd will be able to handle him, but what about my younger ones, 11dd (very petite), 9ds, 6ds, and 4dd? When would they get too big for my children to take care of?

 

That's all I can think of for now. Tell me anything else that might be important.

 

Melinda

[katemary63]

The lady from our dairy is selling bull calves. We have raised goat bottle babies, but never a calf. How big is a two week old calf and how hardy are they? How big does their pen need to be? Do they need company? How long until you start turning them out to graze?

 

Our milk lady said you wean them at four months. How big/how much will they weigh at that age? I know 14dd will be able to handle him, but what about my younger ones, 11dd (very petite), 9ds, 6ds, and 4dd? When would they get too big for my children to take care of?

 

That's all I can think of for now. Tell me anything else that might be important.

 

Melinda

 

We've done it a couple of times but I don't know weights or anything. A bottle calf is somewhat delicate and they can get scours ( the runs) quite easily. There are remedies for problems, but you really have to be on top of it and not let any symptoms go on too long. A calf w/ diarhea should have treatment. Giving a calf too much milk at a time or too rich a milk mixture can cause severe scours, as can bacterial infections.

 

A newborn calf weighs anywhere from 70 to 100 lbs. on average. I think in 2 weeks they would have gained 25 lbs or so. ( again, I'm not good w/ weights) At 4 months, it can vary a great deal! Some will be scrawny and little. Some will have picked up eating grain very easily and be quite big. You can start feeding grain very young, about 2 weeks old. We give the bottle and then put some grain in the calves mouth after each feeding. They eventually get used to the taste and start to nibble at the feed on their own. The calf should have good quality grass hay available at all times.

 

A bottle calf will start to head but the person w/ the bottle and as they grow, can get quite strong and enthusiastic! Kids age 6 and 4 would NOT be able to bottle feed a calf by themselves no matter how young it was. They could easily get knocked over. The older kids could if they were being carefull to avoid getting butted. It works well to stand outside the pen or behind a barrier and hold the bottle over the fence.

 

As the calf gets older, how easy it is to handle and lead depends greatly on how docile it is by nature and also how much you work with it. We just weaned a bottle calf that just was not friendly ever. He was not aggressive, but he did not like people and we raised him from the hour he was born - weird. So, instead of halter training him, we just turned him out with the herd. No county fair for him! They all have different personalities and there's no way to predict it. Dairy cows are normally much tamer then beef cattle though, as a general rule.

 

The pen can be quite small, so long as you keep it clean. It would be easy to make a pen out of cattle panels. We did not feed milk replacer till 4 months - it is too expensive. Our calves started on grain and were weaned off milk replacer by 2 months. Now, giving replacer longer will grow you a bigger calf, but you will also eat up a lot of your profits.

 

Bottle calves are fun, but a lot of work and some what of a risk. Two weeks old is a pretty good start though. What do you plan to do with the calf??

[Tracy in Ky]

We're just learning about cows as we go, so I'm not much help. But we're also raising a dairy bull calf. Our Jersey/Guernsey milk cow calved in March and we're bottle feeding him her milk. I'm assuming that you are raising him for beef and not breeding stock. Make sure that they steer him before you get him, unless you know of someone who can do it for you. Dairy bulls can be very dangerous and deadly unless they have been banded or castrated.

 

The neighbor came and banded our little guy.

[kiana]

The weight will depend on the breed as well.

 

You said that you've raised goat bottle babies before -- if you have the goat's milk available, either feeding pure goat milk or mixing it with replacer seemed to help us reduce the incidence of scours.

 

You can get a bottle holder which will hold the bottle against the wall. This might make it easier physically, and as I recall they were not too expensive.