Before you bring home livestock prepare for them

[lmrose]

I am not sure if I am posting this in the right forum so feel free to move the post if you need to. This is an observation that needs saying. We know a guy with no farming experience who bought a farm consisting of acres and barns but no house. He lives a few miles away. He came to us for advice about acquiring live stock. We told him he shouldn't get animals as long as no one is living at the farm. Animals left to themselves can get in trouble of all kinds.

He disregarded the advice and went to a live stock auction. He brought back what he thought to be a baby goat but probably is an adult dwarf goat when we looked at it. He also brought back two calves. One still had the cord attached and obviously had never nursed on its mother.He had made no preparations before bringing the animals to his farm.

These three animals were put in a pen in a big cold drafty barn. Then he begins to look for goats milk or milk replacer to feed the hungry babies! Of course he came and got my husband to assess the situation. The only feed store in our area was closed. He finally borrowed or found some old milk replacer to get the babies through the night. Needless to say one calf died the next day.

What folks should know is barns are cold when not full of livestock. Animals cannot stand cold air blowing on them through drafty barn walls and floors. Never bring home any livestock until you have a draft free pen to put them in.
Prepare ahead of time and have water, hay, feed and milk replacer on hand if you need it; before bringing any animals home.

Very important too is not to collect baby animals at live stock sales because they are cute. Cute is not a good reason to buy an animal.

And please don't get animals and bring them to a farm where no people live. Animals need watching and care. Things can happen if they are left alone too long.If you live away you won't know when there is a problem.

Animals are also warm blooded. They can't be tied out in hot sun with no shelter or in rain storms and blizzards. Herds of cattle left out side all the time will survive if they have trees to go under for shelter. Or they form a circle with heads pointed in and backs to the wind. That is quite different than staking out a calf!

Now I am wondering what ever happened to common sense? Sometimes it seems in short supply these days.

[Awnry Abe]

I completely agree with you. I can also tell you that on more than one occasion I lacked the aforementioned common sense. Maybe it isn't so common. Sometimes you have to kill one to understand what makes all the rest tick.

[fishhead]

I remember bringing home my first goats. I had the fence up but didn't test it.

I put the goats in the pen and they took one look at me and straight through the fence on the far side. It was right at dusk so I lost track of them quickly.

After searching a while I thought I'd better get home and start calling the neighbors. In about an hour I got a call asking me if I had goats. Yes I do I said. She said then it must be your goats on our second floor deck looking in the door at us. I'll be right there!

When I got there I called and the doe came to me and when I dropped the tailgate of the truck she hopped right in. Then the wether followed her. Luckily they hadn't eaten all of her flowers.

That's really sad that he put those calves through that. I hope that he learned a lesson and doesn't repeat it.

[Alice In TX/MO]

It's not common sense that's been lost, it's farm experience!

[BobbyB]

Ive never had a head gate. Just saying. We never used one on the ranch I grew up on either ( 500 momma cows ). But a good solid chute, now that's another story.

Run them in a solid chute and pout a bar under their butt and do what you need.

But back to the OP, that is proof positive that there are folks out there that have no business owning farm animals. Period. Get a cat. At least they can fend for themselves after they are about half grown in a worse case scenario.

[Forcast]

Yep it has happened next place over they kill 6-7 calfs last year,no bottle, no milk,no barn.

[Patchouli]

Originally Posted by Forcast

Yep it has happened next place over they kill 6-7 calfs last year,no bottle, no milk,no barn.

That is just animal abuse and it makes me sick. You should have to take a class before you are allowed to buy livestock in my opinion. You can't bring a dog or a cat home and starve it to death and you shouldn't be able to do it to a cow either.

[Awnry Abe]

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

It's not common sense that's been lost, it's farm experience!

Yes. X100.

[cntrywmnkw]

I HATE it when people treat animals that way, but, what's worse, is when they ask you for advice/help & when you give it, they argue with you

[cricket49]

This is sad and heartbreaking.

You never get animals unless you know how to care for them. If you are inexperienced, you ask questions and research everything BEFORE you get the animal.

Anybody who buys the animals, and they die from neglect is irresponsible and should not own any.

[big rockpile]

Years ago I about hit a Car in middle of our road setting on 4 inches of ice. No one around. Finally found the Couple in, town in Motel Room with their animals.

They had came from Alabama said it was warm weather there. Well first off we still had two months of Winter. Asked them what their plans were?

Seems they had made Down Payment on 5 acres on North side of a hill. She was going to work, he was going to make a living on their Farm. Okay! Sounds like a plan. They went back to Alabama.

I know animals are different but other day a woman first time putting out a garden, informed everyone she had planted 100 Tomato Plants. And how many Tomatoes do you expect to get off each plant? Oh 2 or 3.

big rockpile

[JoePa]

Speaking of dead animals - I've often wondered - what do people do with a dead horse or cow - are there outfits that take dead animals and make dog food out of them or what - I guess if you live on a farm and have a backhoe you can bury it but what if you don't have roon or a backhoe - just wondering - thanks

[Freeholder]

Originally Posted by JoePa

Speaking of dead animals - I've often wondered - what do people do with a dead horse or cow - are there outfits that take dead animals and make dog food out of them or what - I guess if you live on a farm and have a backhoe you can bury it but what if you don't have roon or a backhoe - just wondering - thanks

This is one of the reasons why I don't have large livestock! I do have a couple of friends here with backhoes if I needed something large buried, but I don't have enough land to dispose of large animals.

If the animal hasn't died of anything contagious, it's a waste to just bury the carcass, anyway. It can at least be butchered and the meat frozen or canned for dog food or chicken food.

And if you have an animal that you know is going down, due to an accident or old age or anything else not contagious, do the smart thing and butcher it before it goes down. Then you've got meat for human consumption.

Finally, anyone who buys baby calves that haven't had colostrum is an idiot.

However, everyone had to start someplace. As long as they learn from their mistakes, I won't condemn them. I've made mistakes of my own. And the last thing we need is mandatory classes before anyone can own any livestock! We are already over-regulated and over-controlled!

Kathleen

[Waiting Falcon]

Goats get rid of brush , right? So this guy from out of state buys a place 40- 80 acres, I am not sure about the size. Fenced it in with good tight field fencing put in right. Bought a 100 goats or so and went back to his native state.

Did I say there was no water on the place?

I do not know what happened when he came back, if the neighbors did not .............
To this day it fills me with ire to think about those poor creatures and no way for them to get out of that place............

[PrincessFerf]

Back in the day people like this would have removed themselves from the gene pool long before reaching adulthood.

The answer IS NOT to require a class or some license to own animals. As a previous poster said, we are already over-regulated as it is.

The problem is that some people act on impulse instead of on wisdom. Regardless of whether you are adding a new animal to your place, building a shed or cutting your own bangs, a successful person is going to do their homework first, prepare second, then act.

I would love to have a couple of goats and I've done my homework. And BECAUSE I've done my homework, we are not getting goats any time soon.

Its a real shame that animals suffer because of the stupidity of others. Its a horrible shame that there are humans (especially children) that suffer because of the stupidity of others.

[Patchouli]

Would it really hurt you that badly to go to a class? It wouldn't hurt me. We all agree the problem is ignorance so why not solve it with a bit of education? Is it better to jail them afterwards for animals abuse?

[Rustaholic]

Originally Posted by JoePa

Speaking of dead animals - I've often wondered - what do people do with a dead horse or cow - are there outfits that take dead animals and make dog food out of them or what - I guess if you live on a farm and have a backhoe you can bury it but what if you don't have room or a backhoe - just wondering - thanks

Just buy property close to Forerunner and he will come get your dead horse and bury it in his compost.

[BobbyB]

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

It's not common sense that's been lost, it's farm experience!

Common sense is a thousand times more important that any experience. If you have it, you can reason out most anything and gain experience.

I have met a lot of people with little to no common sense. And they literally cannot pour p***out of a boot with directions on the bottom.

I once worked with a guy that had 2 masters degrees in horticulture and ag science. He could grab a book and tell you all about it. But when it came time to get outside and get it done, he had no clue.

Common sense may not be lost, but it is on the verge of extinction.

[Rustaholic]

Originally Posted by Freeholder

Finally, anyone who buys baby calves that haven't had colostrum is an idiot.

Kathleen

Not really Kathleen. I knew a man that every spring he would drive his semi downstate to be close to several huge dairy farms. As the calves were born he would carry them to his specially equipped semi. Each calf got a shot or two and went right to nursing on a bottle of formula he found that worked. He said they were a lot of trouble for the first couple weeks but he got a Lot of free calves out it.
I am not sure how many calves he would get on a trailer but he would get at least two loads per year free.

[mrs whodunit]

Originally Posted by JoePa

Speaking of dead animals - I've often wondered - what do people do with a dead horse or cow - are there outfits that take dead animals and make dog food out of them or what - I guess if you live on a farm and have a backhoe you can bury it but what if you don't have roon or a backhoe - just wondering - thanks

You haul it off to the transfer station. The dump will take and bury it