gass-fed calves

[catdance62]

Hi All
I haven't been to this forum for a while but I have a question. I have successfully been raising dairy goats and hair sheep for a few years now. I just got a couple of Jersey hybrid steers to raise for the freezer. The person I had gotten them from had started them on a grain mix, but I am wanting to raise them on grass/hay. However, I want them to gain weight properly. Should I just not feed them any grain mix of any kind at all and just make sure they have plenty of hay? The field they are in is about 2 acres, but it is the end of the season and our drought has been moderate. I feed my goats and sheep alfalfa pellets, but taht will be too pricey to feed the calves too (plus, I read they can get bloated from too much alfalfa). Advice?

[SpaceCadet12364]

Slowly wean them off the grain less and less till they are are on just grass/hay and free choice mineral on real cold days you can give them a treat as a boost. You don't want to rapidly change their diet or you can end up with a couple of poop fountains. So gradually change their diet till you have them eating what you want them to eat.

[G. Seddon]

Does the answer to this depend on the age of the calves?

[SpaceCadet12364]

Not if they have been fed a grain heavy diet Calves do not do well on a quick diet change and will end up with scours an adult cow will have the squirts for a few days or more but will not lose much weight. But when you are talking 150 lbs or less 5 to 10lbs(sometimes more) is allot. That and they can dehydrate and that is another can of worms. So the smaller they are it is better to error on the side of caution. It sucks getting one that far and loose it.

[Allen W]

The smaller they are the more likely they are to need grain supplement in my opinion.

[catdance62]

thanks for the advice everyone. They are about 12 weeks old (or a little more). I will not take them off grain right away. I got a bag of what they were being fed from the lady I bought them from. I am going to take to the feed dept manager about a custom mix that is closer to what I want for now. (our local feed store has a great feed manager)

[myersfarm]

sure you can put a jersey steer on just grass but you will have at 1 year old a 250 pound steer if that and at 2 years old a 500 pound steer

[Allen W]

Feed them adequately when they are small and they will be a better doing animal through out their life.

[MO_cows]

12 weeks, a beef calf would still be on its mama and getting milk. The bottle dairy calves get weaned much earlier and the grain makes up the shortfall. A young, growing calf needs more than forage. You can convert them to grass without killing them, but unless you have fantastic grass with legumes in it you will have stunted animals.

[lonelyfarmgirl]

'Gain weight properly" and 'grass-fed' do not belong in the same sentence when speaking of modern dairy calves. If you feed no grain, it will take a full 3 years for your calf to be up to weight.

[sammyd]

I would continue feeding grain till at least 5 months. Then I would make sure that the pasture or hay I was feeding was pretty decent.

[BlackWillowFarm]

I have Jersey cows and raise the bull calves for the freezer. I always feed milk until at least four months old. Longer if I have extra milk. No grain at all. I got a 900lb Jersey steer at 14 months and a 1100lb Jersey/Brown Swiss steer at 14 months. Twelve weeks is too young to switch to completely grass fed in my opinion. Keep them on grain for awhile longer or put them back on milk if you have it.

[Ronney]

Cat, there is no reason at all why you can't grass feed your calves if you have the grass for them - and it should be reasonably good grass too. However, if they have been grain fed, continue with this in conjunction with the grass, gradually decreasing the amount of grain over a period of several weeks to allow gut transition.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[haypoint]

hybrid?