Bottle Calf

Help Support Steer Planet:

bringing purple

Active member
Joined
Feb 6, 2012
Messages
25
Just recieved an orphan calf that is a month old and he is drinking milk replacer twice a day. He nibbles on a starter feed a little bit and munches hay some as well. When should I start to wean him off the bottle. Ive always heard the longer on milk the better. When is too soon? His mother just died yesterday so he had colostrum and all that. Thanks for your opinion
 

bringing purple

Active member
Joined
Feb 6, 2012
Messages
25
Hes a out of a simmental cow that was approxametly 20 years old i was told and an angus bull. Just commercial type cattle but still fun. I will try to get a picture on SP, not really good with technology.
 

kfacres

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 15, 2008
Messages
3,713
Location
Industry, IL Ph #: 618-322-2582
depends on what your goal is.  if you intend to show him as a calf-- the longer the better..

we wean our dairy calves at 6 weeks as long as they are eating grain good.

i would never feed a bottle calf for 4 months- 3 maybe- 4 most certainly not-- not even if I wanted to show it..

even if I trained it to drink from a bucket-- like all calves here are.
 

Shadow Hill Farm

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
231
Location
Northern VA
bringing purple said:
Hes a out of a simmental cow that was approxametly 20 years old i was told and an angus bull. Just commercial type cattle but still fun. I will try to get a picture on SP, not really good with technology.

Wow she had a pretty good life. They can be a lot of fun. We still have one of ours that we bottle fed and she's spoiled rotten but the easiest to do anything too. She's not for show or anything but we do clip her out with the rest for the summer. No chute required for her. Makes it nice when you can do anything to them. We will be breeding her this year. She's a limflex. Hopefully we will get  a good calf out for her to sell for show or I may keep it depends on what she has. Time will tell. Good luck with your little one and would love to hear how he's progressing. Hopefully you can get some pics up.
 

bringing purple

Active member
Joined
Feb 6, 2012
Messages
25
Cut the BS said:
depends on what your goal is.  if you intend to show him as a calf-- the longer the better..

we wean our dairy calves at 6 weeks as long as they are eating grain good.

i would never feed a bottle calf for 4 months- 3 maybe- 4 most certainly not-- not even if I wanted to show it..

even if I trained it to drink from a bucket-- like all calves here are.
I just want to get him up to a good enough weight to take to market. Not show quaility in my opinion but im no expert either. Im thinkin that i will try my best to keep him on the bottle as long as my wallet can afford it. I definetly do not want to loose money on him.
 

RidinHeifer

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
Messages
261
Just don't feed it more than one bottle twice a day! They will eat as long as bottle is in front of them, but that doesn't mean they are hungry! You can over feed them really easily and kill them...seen it too many times!
Stick to the two bottles and you will be set!

A friend of ours had a few cows that were producing and looking good that were over twenty, so they sure can shock you sometimes! These cows came with the farm when they bought it and were aged then. They figured up that they had owned that farm for a little over twenty years, and they weaned some of the biggest calves on the place.
 

Lucky_P

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
326
Feeding milk replacer is the most expensive (if you're feeding a quality milk replacer - and if you don't, the calf won't fare well) and labor-intensive part of raising a bottle calf.
I'm with BS - I want 'em weaned off the bottle as soon as possible - once they're eating 1.5 lb of a good quality calf-starter ration per day, you can stop the bottle/bucket, cold-turkey, and work the grain ration up fairly quickly.
I've never fed one longer than 6 weeks; most were weaned shortly after 4.
Every time you pass by him, cram a handful of calf-starter in his mouth, and keep fresh feed in front of him at all times.  A ration with enough molasses in it to make it especially palatable is helpful.

Studies on dairy heifer development(and it probably carries over to steers, as well) suggest that grain-based starter ration consumption during the first 2-3 months is much more effective in getting rumen function going than hay;  most recommendations I've seen over the past 10 years or so are to withhold hay feeding from those calves 'til they're at least 2 months old.
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences/dairy/extension/nut00031.pdf
 

bruiser

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
198
Location
Illinois (God's country)
We always had  a couple bottle calves around when the kids were small, alot of fun  but also a pain. Like previous threads said , wean as soon as he's eating starter. I've found the calves eat the cheaper starters better ( more mollasses maybe?). I like putting a small amount of Calf Manna pellets with it and they usually start eating with just a few days of force feeding .
 

kfacres

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 15, 2008
Messages
3,713
Location
Industry, IL Ph #: 618-322-2582
Lucky_P said:
Feeding milk replacer is the most expensive (if you're feeding a quality milk replacer - and if you don't, the calf won't fare well) and labor-intensive part of raising a bottle calf.
I'm with BS - I want 'em weaned off the bottle as soon as possible - once they're eating 1.5 lb of a good quality calf-starter ration per day, you can stop the bottle/bucket, cold-turkey, and work the grain ration up fairly quickly.
I've never fed one longer than 6 weeks; most were weaned shortly after 4.
Every time you pass by him, cram a handful of calf-starter in his mouth, and keep fresh feed in front of him at all times.  A ration with enough molasses in it to make it especially palatable is helpful.

Studies on dairy heifer development(and it probably carries over to steers, as well) suggest that grain-based starter ration consumption during the first 2-3 months is much more effective in getting rumen function going than hay;  most recommendations I've seen over the past 10 years or so are to withhold hay feeding from those calves 'til they're at least 2 months old.
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences/dairy/extension/nut00031.pdf

free choice grain during the first 6-8 mo of life... no hay until atleast 3 months old here...  during the summer, will have a few calves nibble on grass while in hutches-- but I think they are just playing around.  After weaning- it's in the barn- no outside once so ever until they are about 4 months old
 

leanbeef

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
944
Location
Tennessee
Whenever I've raised a bottle calf, I usually figure on one bag of milk replacer, and that oughta do it. If he's already a month old, he should be started on feed pretty quickly, and you definitely shouldn't need another bag of milk. 
 
Top