New calves question

[Jcran]

I am picking up two drop calves from the slaughter house on Friday morning. They will most likely be Jerseys and I'm paying $20 each for them(up from $10 two years ago). Last time, I just kept the calf until our school's cow pie bingo was over then sold it to a friend. This time, I plan to keep the calves through the summer, wean them, graze em, and butcher them in late Fall. Someone on this forum mentioned feeding them through one bag of milk replacer each, then weaning them. Any thoughts on that? I am doing two since I think I can move them around through the summer and keep them going on the grass we've got, without supplementing. Is there anything else I should be thinking about? I want to stay away from any shots since they'll go into the freezer but will do the medicated replacer since I've heard these guys don't get the best postnatal care at the dairies since they're going to slaughter immediately anyway.

[tyusclan]

If they're newborn Jersey calves, and you butcher them this fall you're going to have two very small calves. If you want any beef at all you're going to want to feed them at least through next summer and butcher at about 18-20 months old.

[ozark_jewels]

Yeah, the only Jersey's we ever butchered at 8 months old were dam-raised bulls who had gotten all the milk they wanted for the 1st four months. Now they were *big*. But the average Jersey bottle calf won't be big enough to butcher this fall.

[Jcran]

Well, I was thinking along the lines of grass fed veal, which I know is not the correct term, but just want something else eating the grass along with the goatios, who only snack along the tops. Right now, our property is akin to Jurrassic Park, with goats disappearing into the tall grass. I am not looking for TONS o' meat as there's only 3 of us to feed, but someone said Jersey is a nice tender meat. We will also butcher out 5 turkeys, 30 or so chickens, two boer goat bucklings, and a hog.

[sammyd]

If you butcher it yourself maybe.
But adding that 30-35 slaughter charge onto that little meat at a slaughter place might be a bit much for what you get.
Our little jersey Holstein x taped at just under 450 pounds in October last year. (Figure half or less is meat)
We got her as a month old in mid April. Filled her with milk replacer for a month, tethered her out for a while and put her on pasture after that.
We also fed her 18% calf starter(free choice) till June then 16% grower(6 pounds a day). We plan on milking her.
Our Holstein/Hereford? on the other hand went 750 with the same treatment. She's a beast.
We didn't use any extra drugs on them but what was in the medicated milk replacer. No wormers, no vaccinations, etc.
Today they are both sleek looking well filled out animals. The Jersey taped at around 700 and the Hereford taped at just shy of 1100 earlier this month.

[animalfarmer]

Hi Jcran,I sent you a P.M. It may be of value.Regards,John.

[Jcran]

Thanks for all the input; I am not too worried about butchering; since they'll be small, we'll do it ourselves, like doing deer. They are on medicated milk replacer, then they'll get grass and maybe a little calf grower. I am looking for simple grass eatin' machines through the summer. HOWEVER, I am intrigued by the thought of "tethering". What exactly does that mean. How does one tether out a calf? We've got fenced pasture but lots of gray areas around the property that would be fenced against dogs but the mower can't get to. Would love the info!

[sammyd]

I bought the biggest dog cable and screw in anchor I could find at the local Fleet Farm.
And a suitably sized horse halter.
We have used calf collars but I found that the halter allows greater control of the animal while moving it from place to place.
The screw in anchor is nice because it allows you to place animals where you have trees that you want don't want rubbed by the cable but I also run the cable around the arbor vitae planted along the property or the occasional fene post that is stategically placed. The screw ins take a bit of time and effort to put in and take out and can be a mower hazard if left in place.
I check the animals a few times a day and move them to different spots daily or as needed and refill their water buckets which they seem to tip over no matter how or where you place them.
This works well for animals up to about 500 pounds for me. They say Jeseys are made for it but I have 2 Holsteins on them now and they are doing quite well.
I start tethering as soon as they are weaned. Have to watch them at first if it's warm and sunny, it may take a few days for them to get used to the extra heat from the sun. My big beefer heifer panted a bit the first week or so and I only tethered her out a few hours a day until she acclimated to it.
If you can tether in a shady area this may help that problem.

You just have to watch your cable length. Last year I got into trouble cuz one of the calves got into the wifes hostas which must mean candy in cow language.....

[JulieLou42]

I use t-posts and medium weight chains to tether mine. Chain is 15-30' long, to which a nylon [?] rope is attached. Rope is 30 - 35' long about 3/8" yellow.

There's a 1.5D ring on the end of the rope that goes onto the post. And you can get clips large enough to handle their weight against them to connect whatever medium it is you're using for the tethers. Reason for chain is that they need to have the weight of that so that they won't tangle up rope or whatever else you might use.

But my calf is 850# and his mother is 1400+#, so I needed something stronger.

Somewhere, I saw description of using 2 crowbars and steel cable with the cable attached at each end to the crowbars? With a chain attached to the cable so that it moves along it, and to the cow's halter. This can be moved around easily it said. This would mean she mows a rectangular pattern rather than the circles that mine do.

It can be tricky, tho' because they cannot figure out how to get untangled from the trees they walk around!

Also, as to the water buckets [16 gal.] make yourself some framed up boxes with 2'- 2x4's to put them into, or they will continually knock over the buckets!

[Jcran]

Originally Posted by sammyd

I start tethering as soon as they are weaned. Have to watch them at first if it's warm and sunny, it may take a few days for them to get used to the extra heat from the sun. My big beefer heifer panted a bit the first week or so and I only tethered her out a few hours a day until she acclimated to it.
If you can tether in a shady area this may help that problem.

Good advice; I giggle though; here, 70 degrees is a heat wave Although sometimes we have an occasional hot day.

[sammyd]

You'd be surprised at what a sunny 70 degree day can do to a cow.
Unless you have some shade or a nice breeze they can get a little stressed.
I put my first one out in May and it was less than 70 but she still heated up.