from bottle to grass?

kirsten · #1 10/10/10, 11:34 PM

My Jersey steer is now slightly over 2 months old, still on 2 full bottles a day. I plan to start weaning him this week. My question is can I wean him onto grass instead of grain at this point? Or at which point.

I didn't plan to do this. I am well content to buy him his own feed but I believe that he hates molasses and has been eating the sheep food which is cracked corn and pellets. I wasn't going to buy anymore sheep food though, not even cracked corn and soybean meal and molasses which is my next purchase eventually. I did consider buying George some sheep pellets and mixing in some whole corn that I have around... However, George has become obsessed with the cows and only wants to be with the cows and I don't feed my cows except what they graze. I have left George outside loose with a grain bucket but he just takes a few bites and then spends all his time hanging out around the cow pasture, not eating grain. George doesn't even wait for his morning bottle when he is with the cows. I have to drive out to find him to feed him his milk. I don't know what to do with him. We have little calves too and they will go from milk to grass of course but how long will I have to feed him milk then to be able to do this? When should I cut down to a bottle a day?

Thanks!

KSALguy · #2 10/11/10, 12:38 AM

is he ON grass? i mean is there grass in his pen? cows eat grass, he is a cow, he will eat grass, no problem,

Ronney · #3 10/11/10, 06:11 AM

Kirsten, my calves are on grass from the day they are born and at less than a week old, are sampling it. He doesn't need you to buy him his own food when what he would naturally eat is under his nose. If he doesn't come in for his milk I wouldn't worry about it as he obviously doesn't need it.

As for your little calves, put them out into a grass paddock too. They will still need milk but they should be developing a rumen right from the word go.

Cheers,
Ronnie

Callieslamb · #4 10/11/10, 07:06 AM

I say your little guy is weaning himself and good for him! If he's doing okay out with the cows - leave him. I had a little one I let in with the sheep. He hated them and they hated him. When I finally turned him out with the cows - he ran around kicking up his heels as if saying, "I'm a cow! I'm a cow!". Keep an eye on him to make sure he is growing.

Allen W · #5 10/11/10, 08:18 AM

Green and growing grass he should survive on, dried out mature grass he could starve on.

kirsten · #6 10/11/10, 12:12 PM

You guys are hilarious. Most of you didn't understand my post. Oh. Never mind, I get the confusion. I am a grass based operation, everyone is on grass all the time. The cows were just moved to a pasture that sat for more than month and is very green. George has been eating grass all day long every day but my question was can an 8 week old calf eat sufficient grass to do well? At this point, can one usually go down to a bottle a day at night? I am going to try it.

The little calves have mommy cows.

kirsten

Allen W · #7 10/11/10, 12:39 PM

"but my question was can an 8 week old calf eat sufficient grass to do well?"

In my opinion no, that is why I said survive in my previous post. With out knowing what kind of grass you have it is hard to really answer your question.

randiliana · #8 10/11/10, 02:08 PM

I agree with Allen. An 8 week old calf does not have a well developed rumen, with out a developed rumen, they cannot get enough nutrition out of grass to grow well. He may well survive, but he sure won't grow, and he may actually be stunted due to the lack of nutrition. At about 4-6 months, the rumen should be developed enough for the calf to do OK on just grass.

ksfarmer · #9 10/11/10, 07:02 PM

Just one question for Kirsten; if George isn't wanting his bottle, are you sure he isn't mooching off the cows? Sometimes a bottle calf will get good at this.

francismilker · #10 10/12/10, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksfarmer

Just one question for Kirsten; if George isn't wanting his bottle, are you sure he isn't mooching off the cows? Sometimes a bottle calf will get good at this.

Good Point! Seen this a time or two myself. I've never seen a bottle calf naturally not come and start panhandling for a bottle unless he's getting it elsewhere.

As far as weining straight to grass off of a bottle at 8 weeks, I'd think he would not do well at all in getting all the fat content he needed. (Unless of course you have supreme grasses and add some alfalfa to his diet.)

kirsten · #11 10/12/10, 02:31 PM

Great. That is exactly what I was looking for in an answer. I shall continue to feed George milk and also keep trying to get him to eat grain and calf food all the while. Maybe at 3 months, if he is eating several pounds of grain a day, I'll take him down to one bottle and so on. I will take it slowly. I saw the other post about trying to fatten Jerseys for meat so I don't want to make any mistakes that could render him even skinnier come butcher time!

My cows are miniature cows. George is just huge compared to their calves! I think the time it would take for George to get low enough for a meal would alert everyone to his plot. LOL