orphaned calves as show animals?

[Diamond G]

Can an orphaned calf grow well enough to be a show animal? Wether it be a steer or heifer?

In 2 years my daughter will be old enough to start showing beef. It is not uncommon to have a couple of orphaned calves every year and the ranch my husband works on will just give them to us since its not worth his boss's time to bottle raise them. this year we have 2 steers but they will be freezer beef since my daughter isnt old enough to show them next year. The ranch uses high quality registered angus and hereford bulls.

If an orphan would work out it would save us having to buy a show animal

 

[Bulldaddy]

Can an orphaned calf grow well enough to be a show animal? Wether it be a steer or heifer?

In 2 years my daughter will be old enough to start showing beef. It is not uncommon to have a couple of orphaned calves every year and the ranch my husband works on will just give them to us since its not worth his boss's time to bottle raise them. this year we have 2 steers but they will be freezer beef since my daughter isnt old enough to show them next year. The ranch uses high quality registered angus and hereford bulls.

If an orphan would work out it would save us having to buy a show animal

Those orphan calves start off with such a big disadvantage. If you have to bottle feed them I would say absolutely no. They don't grow and they tend to get pot bellied. But if you can graft them onto a cow that has lost a calf and milks good then the calf should do just fine---and you could hang a banner!

 

[CAB]

You sure can use an orphan as a project. They may not be as great as one that has had a better start, but it is a project and maybe we can learn more from that than just trying to "win". I have a friend that is showing an orphaned calf from last year that stood in the top half of the class @ the Iowa Beef Expo this Febr. in a X-bred class. He looks pretty darn good IMO.

 

[obie105]

At our county fair we have a class for bottle calves then a class specifically for returning calves when they are bigger. One of the best steers we ever had was a bottle calf. I also showed a heifer that was a bottle calf that one a division at state fair. Once you figure out how to feed them and get them to grow you can make it work. It will be a great project for a first year.

 

[4MYGIRLS]

We had an orphan (twin)heifer two years ago. The girls said they wanted to use her in showmanship, they raised her so I said what the heck. The heifer "Callie" didn't have a pot belly but she was not the nicest either. The girls had a blast with her, she was gentle as a lamb. They learned a lot with her, did very well in both showmanship age groups. All of this being said I would say YES a child could show an orphan calf.  By the way Callie has a VERY nice Missing Link bull calf at her side.  Well worth the trouble of mixing that milk. 

 

[herfchic]

Definitely yes.  A friend of ours won a class at junior nationals with a bottle calf, and we've got one in the string this year.  They were/are fall calves.  The key for us has been to get them on feed as soon as possible, which seems to help not get that pot belly.

 

[Bradenh]

Picked him up 45 days old, buzzards eating on his mom and i said I'll take him and wean him and we will show him

Reserve champion American at our county show in east central Texas with a true blue orphaned registered Beefmaster steer against the crossbreed Americans

If you can feed one, you can feed one it's that simple

 

[Rocky Hill Simmental]

You can show animals that were bottle fed as calves. If you do it right you can't tell the difference between them and the ones that were raised on their mama.

 

[Diamond G]

Thanks everyone. Now to hope if we get any orphans next calving season they are out of really good cows (not that we need to lose good cows)

 

[rf21970]

Have you seen pics of some of these clubby mothers? They don't contribute a whole lot once the calf is born. (lol) Seriously, I raised a calf from a 200# orphan to a 1300# winning steer.

 

[heiferbabe787]

I actually had a calf that his mom died having him so I bottle fed him and showed him as a beef feeder and got last in both classes but then he got grand champion at the fair. So it can turn out for the better.

 

[RSL Cattle Co.]

Dairy industry does it all the time.

 

[justintime]

I think you can get an orphaned calf to make a show animal, but not all orphaned calves seem to be capable of doing this. I have had a couple orphaned calves that have turned out and may have been a bit behind when the rest of the calves were weaned, but by the time they had been on feed for a few months, the gap between them was narrowing very quickly.
I would suggest you start with a good milk replacer and start the calves on a high protein calf starter early as well, They may only nibble at it at first but they will start to eat more when their gut adapts and is ready for solid food. I also think having more than one calf also helps as they seem to do better if the have company rather than be fed alone. It is also important to provide them with a clean dry place with adequate shade and clean water to drink in hot weather.

This may be a bit different but the bull I pictured below was in our bull sale this spring. His mother died on pasture from lightning when he was less than 3 weeks old. He started to steal milk from other cows right away, so I left him on pasture and kept an eye on him. Once the calves in that pasture got to be about 3.5-4 months of age, I pulled a creep feeder into the pasture, mainly because I thought this calf could possibly need some extra help. He did very well on the creep feed and whatever milk he could steal. He was born March 23rd and weaned on October 28th at 707 lbs. He weighed 1211 lbs on his first birthday.