Getting Impatient...

[Apaulsen2890]

Hmmmm..... We may have to just let him drink from the bucket. He has drank water out of a bucket before. That would make starting grain super easy. My only concern would be that the other cows would try to get into it if we didn't pay super close attention. I was happy she was letting him nurse and had high hopes for her... Very disappointing she isn't letting him now.
And yes, we have to get them both down the "fence path" from the cow part of the pasture to over by the barn. It's a 10 foot wide section that leads to by the barn where their feed pan is. We then give her feed and have to have a whip out there to "push" her back up to the feed sometimes. Not hitting her though. The space is just too wide for us to cover it all with just our bodies cus it opens up a little bit by the feed pan. We reallllllyyy don't want to put them back in the barn... The stalls are only maybe 10x10 and we have to use them for the horses when the farrier comes. And we only have 2 stalls and 2 horses. lol Plus, it's a pain to keep clean especially when my fiance is working and I'm taking classes for grad school right now.

 

[cjc]

Haha, you are a farmer's daughter that's for sure. When the cows "get sent away" it's done when I am usually on vacation. I don't even eat beef anymore haha. I'm the worst cattle raiser of all time!

You know I don't really know the difference between calf starter and normal cow grain. @WildRoseBeef can you feed a calf regular cow grain? What's the difference.

 

[Apaulsen2890]

I don't really eat beef either. I much prefer venison.
I hope to learn the difference between the two feeds if there is one!

 

[WildRoseBeef]

@cjc and @Apaulsen2890,

Calf starter is basically a combination of feed pellets and whole or steam-flaked (sometimes rolled) corn and oats combined with vitamins A, D, and E, trace minerals (sometimes, depends on the company and mill), and a little molasses and salt for palatability. They'll also add other by-products like soybean meal, cotton-seed meal, etc. to increase protein levels. Basically the starter is a "complete" partial ration for calves with all the nutrients that the calf needs for growth. You can get calf starter that is medicated or not. Medicated is simply adding a coccidiostat to prevent coccidiosis in calves.

Creep feed is sorta like calf starter, except with more grains and less feed pellets. You can add all sorts of things in there, like beet pulp, barley, oats, etc.

"Normal cow grain", on the other hand, is basically just whatever cracked, rolled, steam-flaked, or even whole (but not recommended) grain fed to cattle as part of a bigger ration involving silage, hay, grass, whatever. It is often barley, corn, or oats. Wheat is never fed because it's one of the highest quality grains in protein and has a much bigger potential to cause issues with rumen function. Grains need to be processed first for cattle, not whole like for calves, because calves over 6 or 7 months old and older animals tend to wolf down their grains and not chew. Calves younger than that will often chew their feed before swallowing. It's all to do with rumen function and how they finally figure out that hey, they don't need to chew down stuff anymore they can just eat quick and go on to the next tasty feed. Or something to that effect.

 

[Apaulsen2890]

Ok so me having no mental functioning after grad school... I'm going to ask a maybe dumb question. So the calves can eat adult food? Or can't?

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Calves can certainly eat adult food. They still need their milk though. Calves get on the calf starter as young as a day or two old, but are not really as reliant on it as milk for for the first few weeks. They are going to sniff and test and eat a little at first, then a little more and so on until they are readily eating it as part of their ration.

The starter just has enough of the nutrients a calf would need to get started in addition to the milk it gets, and is only suitable for calves that are not on their mothers' milk nor eating or testing what she's eating. Calves start testing things out and eating what their mothers eat at a young age, but that's harder for a bottle calf to do. That's why the feed needs to be in front of them from almost day one so they start to get to know what it is and what it tastes like. Hay is introduced early on too; in dairies where calves are held in hutches it's harder to get them introduced to hay as early as a few weeks old, but you can get him introduced to it at this age too. He won't eat much of it at first, but at least he's getting to know what it is so that when he is ready to go on full feed, he's not at the point where he doesn't know what it is and is too shy to try it at first.

 

[Apaulsen2890]

Oh good to know! The Holstein is curious about the feed the others eat. The Hereford isn't quite as interested but he sniffed around it yesterday and stuck his tongue in it. Both have been exposed to hay. The Holstein has eaten some of it or tried.
So we tried last night to get the heifer to let the Holstein to nurse again. She stood really well even after she had finished her feed! But earlier in the day my fiancé said he had a heck of a time with her.... She went and laid down next to the calf last night after sniffing him. So we don't know what to think. He's still super active so he must be getting some milk when we're not around id imagine but who knows... We're going to keep doing what we're doing and see what happens.

 

[WyndSyrin]

from my limited experience with Heifers, I have discovered that if she is sunken in around the head of her tail then she is very close to having her calf.

 

[Goatgirl47]

from my limited experience with Heifers, I have discovered that if she is sunken in around the head of her tail then she is very close to having her calf.

This thread is a year old.