I need some advice on two Jersey Calves and their condition

[countryfied2011]

I have two full Jersey calves that I got as bottle babies, the heifer was a week old and the steer was 2 or 3 days old. They are both now around 7 months old got them last July. The steer seems to look ok to me but my heifer seems so skinny, although at times you look at her and she seems alright. I know Jerseys are boney but she seem to be xtra boney to me. They both get about 4lbs a day sweet feed that is 12% Producer's Pride (the only calf feed besides the dairy starter at my store is Beef and Purina wont sell them the Dairy Feed) I weaned them at two months from milk replacer because they were eating the Dairy Calf Starter and hay real good and the steer kept pulling the nipple out of the bottle and I couldnt get him to drink out of bucket tried for several days and he kept sucking the milk up his nose. The heifer did find with the bucket. But just went ahead and weaned them both from the milk.

For 2 or 3 months I was feeding Calf Manna but it didnt seem to make a difference on the heifer and at 50.00 a bag. I quit. If you think I need to put her back on it I will. They split about 5lbs once a day of Standlee Alfalfa/Timothy pellets put on top of their hay. They get about 5 to 6 flakes twice a day. There is no grass yet. I do feed them their grain separate but the hay and hay pellets they share.

They have been wormed twice with SafeGuard...

Here are several pictures of her and one of the steer, now the steer is smaller in height than she is.

Here is the heifer














Here is the steer


It is so muddy out front of the barn, i have them in this little area today because I dont want them to get sick. The weather keeps changing, yesterday it was 71 and today the winds are 25 to 30 miles an hour and only in high 40s. They go up at night in the barn in a big foaling stall and going out during the day as long as it is not raining and cold.

So am i worrying for nothing or is she really to skinny? TIA P.s. these were not sale barn calves, i bought them from a dairy farm down the road, that we knew the owner

[springvalley]

I think they look wonderful, wait till grass time rolls around, they will blossom. > Thanks Marc

[collegeboundgal]

really nice beautiful looking cattle! very good job on them. are you planning on butchering the steer for yourself or selling him? the only reason I ask, is that if you can get him dehorned, you'll get a better price if selling him.

[myersfarm]

I agree wait till they get on grass...look good to me going though the winter

[countryfied2011]

Thank you, i feel better now. I worry about not feeding her enough but I also know that you shouldnt over feed. This is my first time with cattle, I have always raised horses and chickens. I do a lot reading of other threads and I appreciate all the info that is given on HT. I plan on having the vet out in the next few weeks for their first overall check up and any vaccinations they might need.

We do plan on butchering the steer for ourselves, that is if I can get passed those BIG brown eyes and the MOOing I get every morning when I drive in from work...lol

Thanks again.

[haypoint]

I think they look good.
What are those pointy things sticking out of their heads? You might want to have them looked at and removed?

[BlackWillowFarm]

They look good. Keep doing what you're doing. Have to agree about getting them de-horned. They can do a lot of damage with them. I left horns on one of our steers. Big mistake. He used them to tear up fence posts, barn doors, cow shelters, cows and anything else he felt like goring. The worst was when he came running at full speed towards my dairy cow, never slowed down and rammed her full on in the belly. Luckily she only got a flesh wound the size of a half dollar. That's the day I decided, "No more horns on my farm!".

[countryfied2011]

Thank you Haypoint and BWF, so it is not to late to de-horn them? DH has said a few times I needed to have it done, but I figured it was to late at this time, for some reason I was thinking it had to be done when they were young and we had missed the opportunity of doing.

I was just going to get some dog Kongs and put on them. So at this stage of the game would it be safer and healthier to have the vet do them? They do get to playing ruff and was thinking they could easily poke each other's eye out or something yesterday when they were playing.

[BlackWillowFarm]

I think a vet is your best option for de-horning now. I know there is some kind of bander that you can use, but unless you can borrow it, it's more expensive than having the vet do it. It's better to de-horn when they're little, but it can be done at any time. It will set them back, and you want to time it before fly season begins. Are you keeping the heifer as a future milk cow? If yes, I would have her done for sure.

[tinknal]

Beautiful calves. I'm thinking that maybe you are used to looking at beef calves. Dairy calves just don't bulk up like beefers do.

[countryfied2011]

Originally Posted by tinknal

Beautiful calves. I'm thinking that maybe you are used to looking at beef calves. Dairy calves just don't bulk up like beefers do.

Thank you Tinknal, to be honest I never really paid much attention to the beefers. My inlaws ran cattle on the 63 acres that my horses are on for a few years, and except for them coming up to my barn occasionally and me giving them a few flakes of hay because I couldn't stand them looking at me like I was meanie for not giving them any, I never really noticed. I think i was basing my concern because I have read before that the dairy calves should be getting 16% protein and they aren't, and then because her ribs show so much at times, I thought maybe I was doing something wrong.

I will definitely talk with the vet about de-horning. I hope to be able to get him here in the next week or two. I dont have a cattle vet and my horse vet doesnt do cattle. I do have a recommendation for great cattle vet, now if he will come out. I like to give my vacinations in March or April because I know with horses it can sometimes cause them to be off a couple of days and with our humidity in the summer I like it to be over before that starts.

[Tad]

Nope jerseys are just a little boney any ways. The look great for thier age. It is never to late to dehorn, they can dehorn aged cows, just the longer you wait the more of a project and the bloodier the mess.

[myersfarm]

I use a bander on old cows ...no blood ... but it takes awhile to fall off