Post by farmerjan on Aug 23, 2019 16:05:09 GMT -6
I've raised a few bottle calves over the years. Agree with the backing it into a corner, straddling and getting the bottle in the mouth, holding the jaw to keep it in the mouth and working the bottle in and out a bit so the milk will come out a bit and stroking the throat. I ALWAYS bottle feed calves with the goat/lamb nipple. They have to work it a bit but I feel it is closer in size to many beef cow teats overall. The calf nipple seems to almost strangle a new calf. An old time farmer told me that the smaller nipple would get the calf working to suck better, and that they would not get milk in their lungs as easily.
I mostly use nurse cows now. There's no money in bottle calves or even calves on a nurse cow. The holstein bull calves are cheap, they don't bring much more as feeders than they did 30 years ago. The black calves that alot of dairies are having, using beef bulls on the cows, are 3 to 4 times as much as a holstein bull calf, and when they get some size to them, the "dairy" shows and they get discounted at the stockyards if selling them as feeders. So I haven't seen where paying 150-300 for a black calf is worth it when they only bring .80 to 1.00 lb as a feeder and the holsteins bring .50 to .80 / lb. Right now you can buy a decent holstein bull calf for $25 to $50. At 500 lbs he is only worth $300 to $400. A black calf will cost $150 to $200, and at 500 lbs will bring $400 to $500. If you use a nurse cow, and she feeds 3, then she has to have grain to make the kind of milk they need to grow..... so at least 2 of those calves have barely paid her costs of upkeep for a year. The third calf will pay for the cost of the calves and give you a little pocket change. I used to make some money off the bottle/nurse calves..... and they also helped to pay for some better beef cattle. I have kept many angus/dairy cross heifers, and upgraded slowly by breeding back beef. But if they see the slightest bit of dairy in the stockyards, they take a hit now. Not hardly worth it anymore.
I mostly use nurse cows now. There's no money in bottle calves or even calves on a nurse cow. The holstein bull calves are cheap, they don't bring much more as feeders than they did 30 years ago. The black calves that alot of dairies are having, using beef bulls on the cows, are 3 to 4 times as much as a holstein bull calf, and when they get some size to them, the "dairy" shows and they get discounted at the stockyards if selling them as feeders. So I haven't seen where paying 150-300 for a black calf is worth it when they only bring .80 to 1.00 lb as a feeder and the holsteins bring .50 to .80 / lb. Right now you can buy a decent holstein bull calf for $25 to $50. At 500 lbs he is only worth $300 to $400. A black calf will cost $150 to $200, and at 500 lbs will bring $400 to $500. If you use a nurse cow, and she feeds 3, then she has to have grain to make the kind of milk they need to grow..... so at least 2 of those calves have barely paid her costs of upkeep for a year. The third calf will pay for the cost of the calves and give you a little pocket change. I used to make some money off the bottle/nurse calves..... and they also helped to pay for some better beef cattle. I have kept many angus/dairy cross heifers, and upgraded slowly by breeding back beef. But if they see the slightest bit of dairy in the stockyards, they take a hit now. Not hardly worth it anymore.