When I was a kid I used to be responsible for feeding bottle calves, holsteins mostly. I want to get back into it, I enjoy it and it pencils out from what I see (not a get rich quick thing but profitable). We have jersey beef cross calves locally, wondering if anyone knows how they compare to straight holstein? I would be selling them around 400 lbs. If anyone has a lot of experience ide love to pick your brain on it.

I used to do it every year as a kid. The price of milk replacer has gone up to around a hundred dollars a bag here. Now I just get them started sucking and take them to a neighbor who has milk cows. He raises them and we split the sale price. Pretty slim margin in just raising bottle calves. If they don't get colostrum or have a bad start they tend to not do well or they just die after a week or so.
I am planning on getting a half dozen milk cows in the near future just to raise bum calves. The calves do so much better on a cow verses a bottle.

I bought a few last year for 200 sold em' for $700 plus

Calves are costing a fortune here anyways, Holstien bull calves are 3.00 to 4.00 a lb. Also if for beef, stay away from anything Jersey.

That's the main reason I wanted to get the local week old jersey cross calves, avoid the sales barn and get calves that are off to a good start. I was hoping to do a handful to start then two batches of 40 per batch a year.

Straight Jersey are $75, Jersey beef cross $300 holsteins around the $300 ish but I don't have a local source of straight holsteins, atleast I haven't found one yet.

I know I don't want jerseys, was hoping the cross was equal to straight holstein.

Yes if you can get locals that’s best, remember Jersey’s may not bring as much as Holstein when you want to sell them unless someone has a special market, my question is you say they’re crossed, what are they crossed with? That can change a lot unless things have changed it can be hard to sell the fats so it lowers the calf price.

Around here jerseys don't cost much,but don't bring as much when you go to sell either.i would think800 to 900lbs they would be finished out.alt smaller then Holsteins or beef.i would sooner buy holstein/beef croos 300 to 400lbs when the grass gets green and sell them next fall when they between 6 and 7 hundred lbs

Jersey/charlois or jersey/limousine

You can get them to 1100 pounds on pure shelled corn and pellets, we would get one or two with the Holstein’s, but yes grass would be better for them but if you have nothing but them it wouldn’t be bad to raise them in a group on a self feeder.

It’ll help with frame, I’m surprised the guy doesn’t have calving issues, the charlois cross would be my choice, I just like charlois vs limousine.

I have 20 beef cows and 50 goats, I don't have grass to spare. I would really like to get them started and sell them around 400 lbs in groups large enough to fill a semi when they're finished. Figure if I got 40 calves, lose a few, sort a few dinks off I'll end up with groups of 32 to 33 which should be a potload of finished steers.

Jersey are the stupidest breed alive

Straight Jersey bulls are free in my area
cross are becoming non existent because with nutrition, dairyman can get the high butter fat out of Holstein now
She was paying free to 75$ for cross
I would not pay 300 for a cross

We(my wife) was doing close to 300 on bottles, when we had a contract with a Mc Donalds finisher.

Jersey are the stupidest breed alive

Use a good vaccine program and you will have few losses. Start with a Mod live such as Inforce 3 and revaccinate with a killed such as Bovishield. Then a Black leg vac.

When I was a kid we used to get day old calves from a local dairy for $15 and raise them up to sell at auction. I was about 7 or 8 for my first go.

Raised a few growing up and a couple recently. The prices for day olds has been insane the last year. 4-500 for decent sized holstein bull calves. If all goes well it can be decent but they can die very easily.

Were they jersey/holstein or jersey/beef crosses?

I sold a jersey cross at the sale barn last July weighed in at 885 he bought $2.30 per lb zero grain. You do the math, chu-ching.

[quote=nate]I sold a jersey cross at the sale barn last July weighed in at 885 he bought $2.30 per lb zero grain. You do the math, chu-ching.[/quote
When you do this consistanyly, call me.

Cattle always has been a gamble, there the quickest way to make money and the quickest way to loose money, I can truly say I have never lost money on a jersey or a jersey cross, can't win if you don't play

How old was it when you sold?

14-15 months

We have several hundreds thousand bottle or day old calves sold here every year. Most of our large farms use sexed semen on say 40% of their cows and 80% of their heifers and the rest are bred to Angus, Simenthal or a Angus/siminthal cross. Most cows are Holsteins. Fewer are sold through sale barns every year as large firms contract with the farmers for their beef cross calves and pick them up say daily, or 3 times per week. Most have a stated contract price say $250-$300 per calf. Hard to buy a few from anyone doing contracting and those that don't most prefer to use a sale method that they can use all the time.
Jersey bull calves are typically low value, breeding Jersey cows to beef will triple or more the value of the calf but it still maybe less valuable or profitable then the larger frame breeds. Yellow fat is not the issue today it was 40 years ago.
Bottle feeding calves is intense. Try to buy from a single source to reduce pathogens and disease issues. Good idea to have some artificial colostrum substitute on hand for calves that may not have received enough or any. Bull calves even if higher value are most likely to be fed less colostrum at birth. You will want to know when is the best time to go from bottle to pail and which replacers will work the best. Be sure to get them on a course grain as soon as you can That is what develops the rumen in calves the fastest. Working with even good quality hay is not a good method. They will be healthier if they develop good rumen function as fast as you can get that to happen, even if they will be fed mostly grain until slaughtered. Jersey crosses gain slower but finish well and at lower weights then Holstein crosses. Holsteins are bred for size and thus when fed heavy grow a lot of frame even while putting on muscle and fat. There is no low real low cost way to feed calves today and house them which is one reason the dairy industry is beefing out half or more of their calves.
Mentioned buying cull cows to feed calves. Cows eat a lot of feed and in todays high beef prices a Holstein cull cow weighing 1500 lbs. will cost over $1,000 if in decent shape.
Many around here have tried the bottle calf market in the past. The only ones who have found favorable long term supply is by working with a medium sized farmer say 150-300 cows and or knows them personally or are related. Those that went to the sale barns were priced right out of the market. We have several calf buyers that buy here weekly and send calves nationwide and have done so for generations. When they see a person bidding on calves they bid them up and force them to pay a lot or quit.
Bryce

Not knowing what part of the state you're from ( access to quality calves ) . If you can pick away at fly weight beef calves . And if you have an eye for keeping them healthy and getting them going , much better money in buying them in fall / early winter. , growing them out and selling as grassers come spring weighing in mid six's

If you’re looking at selling enough calves for pot loads you need 48000 pounds minimum when they’re fat because that’s contract size we used to ship 50000 to 52000 because the truckers would take that many, Bryce where are they selling the cross fats, a couple of years ago when I looked into it the dairy buyers didn’t want them because of the colored beef in them and colored calf buyers didn’t want them because of the dairy in them.

Probably closer to 40 Jersey crosses than 33 to get to 50,000 ish Pounds then. Holsteins usually are shooting for around 34 ish per pot.

Yeah that’d be about right for the straight breed not sure what the crosses would weigh as I’m not sure how much colored genetics would come though.

I'm watching this with intrest. I have 96 acres 60 or so in grass cows are in the plan But I need fence and I know nothing about them. When to buy best way to sell. I hope to raise one and butcher it ourselves for the family and hope to sell a few more to cover the cost and maybe make a small profit. If it goes well and the learning curve is not to bad I would like to expand the #s.

I thought direct sells to customers wanting hole, half, or split quarters would be the most profitable. But getting some small ones when the grass is green and selling them.in the fall before I have to feed may have less profit but also less cost.

I have no idea its all just theoretical and idea stage at this point. Keep posting I'm trying to some it all in.

I think you would probably be more profitable raising youngsters and selling them before winter, especially if you can do bigger groups and attract consistent buyers. With 60 decent acres you could probably raise a whole potload worth without issues.
40 high quality Calves holstein/beef cross = $16,000
Milk replacer= $4,000
Vaccines and starter feed =$4,000
assuming you lose a few, 35 calves at 6 months old, 400 lbs each $2.50 a lb = $35,000

Those are pretty conservative numbers I feel. Hutches can be found for $100 to $150 a piece. Labor is free if you make your kids build fence and feed calves.

I don't know. The wife and boys are mad at me right now. For some reason they think I should make it home for at least a full 24 hrs a week? It's not like I didn't twll them 3 months back I was going to burn the overtime up the first several months of the year. What are they mad for its not like they are working the 6 16 hra shifts rotating days to nights and in early and out late sleeping 4 hrs a day then driving 127 miles home to catch up on farm stuff catch a nap and drive back to work.

They don't understand it becuse they are not living it. It's not like it's an enjoyable life for me. But with good luck by June we will hit my goals for the year.

But 40 calfs sound like a lot of work and I would need to learn a lot. Probably would need to buy som old milk cows to help out

Projected 9 k profit once fence hutches and Waters are in. So profitable within 6 years maybe? (Fence is not cheap) If I could get the family to take it on. Definitely need to look into it and discuss it further with them. .

But add that with the garden, bees, classes, meat birds, and maybe just maybe by the time I can walk out the Dore with my pension at work the farm will be making a good profit.

Sounds reasonable

Over the last 10 years, I've done it a few times, mostly when we had a nurse cow we didn't want to milk by hand. It worked well when the calves were healthy, beefers purchased cheap. Diary cross calves get dinged hard at the sale barn, at least in the two areas I've been. Several times, the sale price barely covered purchase price, let alone time/labor.

I can't imagine going into it with the plan to buy milk replacer, and at a scale to sell potloads. The risk and return doesn't look good to me. Livestock is always risky, but baby calves are always the highest risk. Usually dairies are glad to get money for the calves, to cut down on their labor and risk. If it was highly profitable, they would keep them all.

Still operate a dairy. Bottle feed daily. I transition them to bucket drinking at 7 days for many reasons. Anybody that wants to know anything, pm me, I'll be glad to help anyway I can.