questions about bottle calves

[boundarybunnyco]

hi, just a quick question or two.

how long does a dairy bull calf need to have milk replacer for?
when do you change from a bottle to a bucket?
when do you introduce them to grain.

this will be our second attempt with bottle calves. I can't remember exactly what we did, but we raised all three with no losses and only one short bout of sickness. they were holstein bull calves and we got nice beef from them.

[francismilker]

These answers are quick and generic but I'll give them a quick run-through. There's a really good sticky at the top of the cattle page titled "sale barn bottle calves" that has loads of good info about these specifics.

How long on MR? I personally prefer 8 weeks or more. (Enough time to get their feet on the ground good and get them to eating 3% of body weight daily of grain and hay.)

When to change from bottle to bucket? Totally optional if you even do it. Some do, some don't. I'm not a bucket feeder. I use bottles or nurse cows.

When do you introduce them to grain? As soon as you get them. It may take some longer than others but I've had them start nibbling on grain as a 2 day old.

[sammyd]

we like to run 8 weeks or so on milk replacer.
we keep them on bottles the whole time.
we have grain and fresh water in front of them the first week.

[Ronney]

Ditto to the above.

I prefer to wean gradually which starts at 8-9 weeks and they are fully weaned at about 12 weeks. Those reared on nurse cows stay with them for up to 6 months.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[Callieslamb]

We put them on buckets at about 3 days. We waited for a few weeks on one and he never did learn to drink from a bucket. A bucket is faster and DS can feed by himself if we use buckets.

[dunroven]

I agree with the above, except we never do buckets either. Bottles are, in my opinion easier and you get a chance to really look the calf over so you are going to know just immediately if you have a problem with one.

For grain, the first day they are here I feed the bottle. The second day, I take a handful of grain and push it into their mouth and then keep it in a feeder for them as well. I do that each day until I see the feeder is starting to get emptied on a regular basis and then I stop putting it into their mouth.

Wean after 8 weeks as well. I just go down by 1 bottle every 2 to 3 days after that until they are done. Good luck! They're so much fun to raise!

[boundarybunnyco]

thanks everyone! I'll read the stickies too. I remember that we did put the grain in the bucket with the milk, and kinda shove it in their mouths as they were drinking. They picked up on it pretty quick.