Plans with my Bottle Calves

@jhm47 thank you for sharing your story! I love it. Well I think you all have helped me make up my mind. I am going to try and breed my 4 Holstein X Angus heifers in September to an Angus bull. We will see how they do. Luckily I am a massive sucker and I feed all my cows grain all year round. I will use that same bull and breed my other girls to him too. May as well just try out an Angus cross this year after my epic Short Horn fail last year. Black cows are also an easier sell for us so we will see how we do.

I will still add 8-10 bottle calves this year but will buy mainly bull calves so I am not tempted to keep more!

@Baymule I will take the blame for your future bottle calves haha! You will curse me with your first batch and praise me with your second haha. They are delightful to see everyday. We put one of our bottle calves out with a mom and bull calf beef pair we have in one pasture a few weeks ago. The pair is really not friendly. Well after two weeks of being with my bottle calf girl they are finally letting us touch them. They are learning from her its really sweet.

Totally off topic but we didn't really mean to put that bottle calf in the pasture. We got hit with some wicked snow 2 weeks back and when my mom went out to check the calves in the morning the fence must not of latched all the way because of the ice. She went into the house and a few hours later is standing in the kitchen making lunch looks out and sees 9 of my calves starring back at her in the window. She said she ran out and they all came galloping over to her excited to see her! I told her to throw them in the front pasture where our beef herd was and I would help her move them the next day. Well they cried so much because they are so spoiled and wanted back to their warm houses she had to move them on her own. She just opened the gate and they all went running back to the other pasture. I think they were quiet shocked to see how normal cows live haha. All but 2 went back. 1 bottle calf, the girl in with the pair realized that the cow had milk, so she's staying haha. 1 other calf, my first bottle calf I got as an orphan from one of our cows decided he wanted to go into the barn stall I raised him in when he was sick and refused to leave. They are a funny bunch! If 9 of our beef herd cows got out I would be crying. But when the bottle calves, even now that they are grown get out, it's pretty darn cute.

I don't have the room to raise cows, but I might would raise up a steer for the freezer.....nah....I'd better not. Maybe I'll just buy one ready to go to freezer camp. I really miss having cows.

Be sure to post pictures of your herd!

@Baymule Here are a couple cute pictures I snapped on the weekend of sleepy babies.


Thing 1 and Thing 2. Holstein X Angus Bull Calve Twin bottle calves, born in August.



Stew, Jersey Bull Calve born in September. He is not a bottle calf we let his mama raise him. We are going to give them 10 months in total together before we separate them.

I love calves! That pic of the Jersey calf in the hay ring is priceless!

Here is my Murray