Good idea, the Jersey calfs bring in a lot more money anyway. I was heartbroken when I found out my Holstein was a Freemartin. I think I'll give her a good life for a few years and a nice retirement in my freezer!
I may actually try to breed my freemartin holstein at the same time I breed my Jersey just for kicks. I read a post where a guy actually got a calf from a freemartin so you never know!
I'm new to cattle, about two months in and so far I've been through some tough times and some good times. I have three llamas and a bunch of chickens but never had any type of cow so I thought what the heck, the best way to learn is to just go out and buy a cow! The one that caught my eye was...
Actually there are quite a few scientific studies that say you shouldn't feed hay at all for the first two months, then only at 5% total feed max for the third month. Check out this article:
http://www.akey.com/calf/starter/Hay%20for%20starters.pdf
My calf is four weeks old and I'm still trying to convince her to eat more grain, she just nibbles at it. I also have llamas and chickens so I've been using smaller amounts of grain and offering it twice a day right after the feedings. It seems to help if you shake the bucket and pet the calf...
At what age do you start them on hay? My vet said that it's too early and that I should stick with milk and grain only. Actually the lady that I got her from was feeding pretty low quality hay, maybe that's why she is so skinny.
This reminded me of you, I was walking my calf today and she decided to bolt and just take off full speed. I had her on a ten foot lead and when she hit the end she turned sideways and fell over, it cracked me up LOL! She laid there for a minute thinking about what had just happened. After...
Actually I looked around at every feed store in Colorado and no one stocks the calf starter, which I find is very strange since this is cattle country. All I had was a show calf feed and she didn't really eat that very well, I think because she was used to more of a grain consistency and the...
Well today was a great day with my cow (how many people can say that!). I sent the photos that I posted to a local vet and she said that the calf was 'a bit on the thin side' but that I didn't have to bring it in unless it was showing signs of being sick. So I took that as a good sign. I also...
I just picked up my very first cow two days ago, it's a four week old Holstein heifer, she is going to be our family milk cow! After I picked her up, brought her home, and did a little research I'm finding that she seems to be very skinny. Right now she is on 2 quarts of NurseAll formula twice...