Our first brown Swiss bull calf

What tricks do you use to get them to start eating grain from a bucket

Welcome from Ohio! How old is your calf? What has it been eating so far, and how often?

Powdered milk. Trying to get him to eat grain from the hand. Not real successful. he is 5 weeks now. He had to eat two points a day before we take him off milk

There's a good recent thread on weaning calves here:
http://www.backyardherds.com/threads/3-month-old-heifer-refusing-a-bottle.34294/
Lots of replies and good information. Like many things with livestock, there's no single, perfect answer, but this may give you some things to consider.

Thanks

Ummm First, welcome to BYH and grats on your new calf! You may want to go back and work on your survey.

I'm not a cow person (yet) or owner, but have read a lot on here over time. That calf looks VERY thin (starving) and should be getting (I believe I recall) at least 1/2 gallon of whole milk (warmed, from the grocery store if no raw milk available) twice a day. Goat milk will work as well. Most on here (as I recall) are not in favor of powdered replacers. He/she is way too young to wean at 5 weeks. Most don't start weaning till at least 3 months, and many leave the calf on milk much longer to prevent "stunting". They'll start nibbling grass/hay but don't yet have a fully developed rumen to be able to handle grain or grasses/hay as sole source food.

@greybeard @WildRoseBeef @farmerjan @Goatgirl47 @jhm47 Some of you other cow folks, please jump in and correct me if I'm off base here. Maybe help out @Fruin farm with some guidance.

Meantime Fruin, please browse around in the cattle section as there's a wealth of info there that may be of benefit. If you have specific questions, by all means post them and generally someone will respond in a timely fashion. Glad you joined us and make yourself at home!

What kind of powdered milk are you giving him? When did you get him? To me he looks a little younger than 5 weeks, though it could be the picture and the angle you took it at. And IMHO you're not giving him near enough what he needs. 2 pints a day is not enough; try upping it (gradually!!!) at least 2 to 3 pints per feeding. A calf can easily drink 9 to 12 litres of milk a day, and calves on their mothers often drink that much and maybe a little more a day.

Usually grain him free-choice so that he gets curious and starts tasting it himself. He won't do much if you try to hand-feed it to him, he's got to figure things out himself.

Others will chime in with more information.

BTW:

In the picture he is a week old. We now have him on 2 gallons a day of replacement milk and grain he is 4 weeks now and growing fast

Do you have a picture of him as he is now to share?

Ahhhh OK, Thanks! I was really worried! Thought that picture was the "5 week old"... not a 1 week old. Reading back, I can't even see where I got the 5 weeks from... maybe one of your other posts... And right above you say he's 4 weeks... I'm gettin' old... IO get confused easily these days...