Bought our first calf today!

Woke up and decided I want to be a farmer! Went down the road and bought a calf! Life is good!

Pet it give it a name let the kids play with it what could go wrong, not me that cow would die of old age! LOL

Year and a half it will be tasting good. Lol

Wife named him Blackjack. She already said she doesn’t want to butcher him lol.

If he's not banded yet, band him soon. It gets harder when they get bigger.

I have a longhorn cow, Praline, I breed to Angus bulls, 1 heiffer out of her from last year, that's solid black and a few month old black and white steer out of her from this year. She is 7 for 7 on sucessful calving so far.

Keith

I hope you got the milk replacer that he will need for several weeks. As they grow and change their diets and eat more and demand more room one's attitude toward the animal changes as well. Also from a practical aspect being herd animals they do much better in small groups say 2,3 or 4 then alone.

Bryce

Yup! I’m planning on doing that tomorrow. Should be fun lol

I’m collecting the milk from his mom tomorrow, then will pick up milk replacer in the evening. Just googling everything as I go!

Nice, been around cows all my life, looks like u got plenty of grass for him. Tip on banding...make sure u got both of em lol.

Goat milk works really well on calves too, if you have access to goat milk.

Keith

that's awesome and i'm jealous.rebuilding and cleaning my families farm of 100 plus years so the wife and i can be farmers too.getting close to startin to string fence finally but wanted everything done right before we got them.keep us updated.

Wife and I have 22 head of Scottish Highlands, two steers going end of the month.were farming now.

Have you looked into buying hay and pellets for the winter yet? With the weather we've had during hay season it might be hard to find or expensive. He will also need access to water all day during the winter.

Dang hay here is all over we are still green here should be brown, you would think it would be cheap the fields are covered with big round bales it's noticeable. We have been getting rain like it's on a sprinkler system never seen it so green for this long.

Congrat's something productive. Farming/livestock raising is a art & skill.
Good luck & God Love YA

The weather's the opposite here, I haven't mowed my lawn in a month, most of it's dead. Ranchers save a lot of extra bales in case of loss. They don't risk running out of hay and selling their stock. I'm just saying don't wait till last minute to buy hay in case it's hard to find. With the price Texas is paying for semi loads of good hay there is a high demand.

And the Fun begins!!! Should have named it T-Bone LOL!

You run short I can get you the extension office numbers here and maybe get some contacts going it seems like we will have some to spare this year, mowed my lawn about 8 times already so far will need it again this weekend if it dried out! LOL

Thanks Law dog but we won't run short, my dad and I put up 650+ bales for 80 head. Its usually over 900 but the weather isn't cooperating. I put up 150-200 small square alfalfa bales and they are usually sold as fast as I can make them.

Right on! I’m far from ready to have animals, but I live my life by counting the chickens before they hatch. I want to do so many things and have nothing ready lol. Things usually turn out in the end though. I have a small corral for him and I’m in the process of making a pasture. The goats actually are making it for me! I would have animals in the house if I lived in town! Haha!!

No, haven’t even started to think about that far ahead yet. I’m surrounded by farmers and fields with hay bales stacked up starting to rot cause they’ve been there a couple years. I’m not worried about finding a hay bale up here.

Thanks man! I fed him a bottle of milk this morning. I think I almost drowned him, but I think that’s the way to do it if they don’t want to drink?

You have to be careful or you will aspirate him. It can kill him or make him weak.

Keith

Keith, does that mean tire him out? He did seem to pant a bit, but I gave him plenty of breaks. It took about 40 mins to drink 4 1/2 pints. I will feed him again this evening.

Well it looks like Blackjack is going to be your live bait for catching coyotes this fall!!!!!!
Looks a nice animal
Better get that hay now lots of loads going west. When they were square bailing they were going 8 mph most years it is 2.5 mph so even the straw is in demand.

Aspiration is when you get milk or other fluid in the lungs. If he's panting, you probably did get some milk in his lungs. They can usually cough small amounts out. Aspiration can cause pneumonia.

Keith

What type of fence are you putting up?

If you're bottle feeding him, you need to make it as natural as if he's drinking from the mother. Don't force the nipple into his mouth, and when he's done, he's done. He'll let you know when he's hungry again.

I don't think I caught an age anywhere in the thread so far, but unless he's pretty young, you want to get him moving from a bottle to a bucket, otherwise, it's gonna feel like a rodeo every time you try to feed him.

When I worked on a veal farm, we would have to teach in batches of 75 head. Put the milk in the bucket, get them sucking on your fingers, lower their head into the bucket, make sure milk is getting sucked up and work your fingers out. By about number 20, your fingers were raw, but you had to keep going.

On banding- it's a one shot deal. Make sure you get both of the boys. Our last "steer" was really rammy and cantankerous and when we butchered him we found out why- he was still packing heat on the left hand side! Fortunately, he still cuts and eats tender, although I would have liked a bit more fat on him.

Great experience though! Love having a beef in the field.

Ok shoot! He seems fine right now. Gonna feed him in a couple hours. I hope he’s hungry and drinks this one better.



The plan is to put up square goat fence. They come in 16’ lengths and 51” tall.

Thanks for the tips! The calf is 1 day old today. Born early in the morning Aug. 15th.
What age will they drink milk from a bucket?
I can’t imagine standing there with a bottle waiting for him to come drink. Probably take hours! Not sure if he’s stubborn or if this is quite normal.

Well, as I said, we were raising them for the veal industry. 16 weeks old and they were off to market, so we were bucket training on day 2.

For home raised beef, we bottle fed for quite a few weeks, mainly because we enjoyed doing it. When the fun wore off, we went as fast as possible to the bucket.

When he's hungry he'll start bellowing. Feed him in the morning and in the early evening. When he's finished, he's finished. If he's ramming at the bottle, he's telling momma to let her milk down. If he refuses at the bottle, he's not hungry.

You'll figure it out. It's fun.

Ok right on! Thanks! He’s curled up right now relaxing. Hasn’t had a bottle since 10am, and it’s 7:45pm here right now. I plan to give him a bottle at 8pm. Think he’ll drink better or will he fight it? I don’t feel like feeding him at midnight lol.

Went outside and Blackjack was standing up and bellowing. Perfect! Drank the bottle like a champ after about 5 mins of trying to convince him I wasn’t gonna drown him this time lol.

Good to hear! He'll figure it out and you will too! It's a lot of fun, until he gets bigger and makes it not so fun, LOL.

I've lived on a farm my whole life but now I've converted most of it into a Christmas tree farm. I still raise a couple hogs most years and this year we raised an Angus steer. I'm teaching my kids where their food comes from, last 2 hogs they named bacon and sausage. The steer will get killed in December and we'll be fat coming out of spring. Lol. Congrats, the way you sound this is probably first of many

Sounds like he is eating good. They make pails with nipples on that you can hang in his pen and fill with milk replacer. Did he get colostrum from his mom? You should watch him for scours if he didn't. It's quite deadly on young calves and usually happens in the first week.

Also Nasogen intra nostril vaccine would be important.

Yes he got his first 3 feedings from his mom. I’ll be feeding him milk replacer starting tomorrow.

Temperature is a big thing. Too cold, too warm- he'll refuse it. He'll seem hungry and waiting it, but will balk at it.
A cow's body temperature is slightly warmer than our, so it should just feel a tad warm on the wrist.

I actually checked the temp of the milk and it reads 102F which is apparently the optimal temp for the milk when feeding calves. I put the bottle filled with milk in a 5 gallon bucket and filled it up with hot water. 20 mins later the milk is nicely warmed.
He guzzled another bottle down this morning. Seems to have it figured out now. He’s getting much stronger now too lol pushing and head butting me lol.

When do you plan to cut his throat and make steaks?

FIFY... farmers plant stuff in rows. Ranchers raise livestock.



Mike

if i farm and raise livestock does that make me a farmin rancher???not to be confused with a jolly rancher either.

I have no idea yet. I’m not sure if I want him when he’s really young or wait a year and a half and let him get big.

Me and the family are also having doubts that we can butcher him at the end of all this. I feeding him bottles man! Getting a little attached!

The fat does not taste right if you butcher a steer or cow to early. I would butcher him after 18 months sometime before 24 months. I have butchered 3 grass fed steers and greatly prefer corn finished for most cuts. I always corn finish now. The fat in the steaks is much better on corn finished beef.

Keith

Make sure to not feed him too much while on the bottle/bucket. They’ll act like they’re always starving, but thats okay. Feeding too much can lead to scours. Scours can lead to a dead calf.

Ok thanks for letting me know that! If my heart doesn’t allow me to butcher him, at 12 months old how much could I sell him for alive? Anyone know?

Ok, I fed him 2 litres in the morning and 2 litres in the evening Thursday and Friday. Today I’m starting to feed him 2 litres three times a day. Should be alright eh?

Been a while, but I think it 2 quarts in the morning and 2 in the evening. And I think they start lower and work up to that, but I can’t recall exactly.

What its worth at as a yearling will be dependent on market price, breed, and condition/phenotype. As bottle calves are weaned, they need the right nutrition to grow properly. It gets expensive so a lot of bottle calves grow up undersized and the price they bring reflects that.

Looking for an update on the calf! How's he doing? How are YOU doing?

We are picking up a Devon/Normande cross calf next week. Already weaned, so we don't have to do the bottle thing. Looking forward to having a bellowing idiot in the field again!

I was going to do an update on Wednesday, but I’ve been so dang busy! Blackjack is doing great! I wish I had a scale to weigh him and see how much weight he’s gained. He’s growing and we’re feeding him 2.5 litres three times a day.

Feeding him is so easy! My 4 year old kids feed him some days. He drinks his bottle in like 2-3 mins.
We banded him 9 days ago, so just waiting for his nuts to fall off now. I’ll post some pics tomorrow if I have time!

We plan on buying another calf. We love this!

Here’s some more pics!
A couple of the kids still in their pajamas giving Blackjack is morning bottle!





Meet Jill! Just picked her up yesterday!

Find some small feeders and mount them in those neat airy pens. Put some really well blended calf pellets in there and get them eating grain and ruminating as quickly as you can. The grain will create the rumaen quicker than hay will when young. That will get them on a forage diet quicker which will be lower cost, less labor and healthy as well.

Bryce

That’s exactly what I plan on doing very soon.