Now that we have this calf bucket trained...

[emke]

when do you think it would be OK to turn her out into the pasture?

We have either kept this tiny calf in the stall, a small enclosed pen, or on a rope tied to her halter/collar. She now comes running when she sees us coming with her bucket. We used to have to entice her to eat. Now she walks up to the nipple and goes to town on it. We still have a ½ bag of milk replacer left and want her to finish it. No sense in letting it go to waste.

When I have went up there our larger calf will be laying at the stall gate and the baby calf will be laying on the other side, so they interact well together. What I am wondering is should we just wait to let her finish all of the milk replacer before we let her have free range of the pasture with the other calf, or should we go ahead and let her loose now?

[tyusclan]

You don't mention how old the calf is but they usually start nibbling grass pretty soon if they have it available. If you don't have any problem getting up to her to give her the milk, I would probably go ahead and let her out to get the benefit of the grass. I usually wean them off the bottle at between 4 and 6 weeks depending on how well they're eating.

[quailkeeper]

Is your pasture barb wire? Are there cows in a near by pasture? If so you probably shouldn't let it out. I first let mine in the main pasture when they were a month old. They both walked right thru the barb wire and into the neighbor's pasture. Where they proceeded to suck off every cow that would let them. They ended up chasing the cows into a panic and my neighbor caught them and brought them to me. He was not happy to say the least. They are now two and a half months old and still in their little pasture pen (half acre) that is hog wired in.

[emke]

We were given the calf at, near as we can figure, 3 weeks old. It was a tiny little thing. There are no other cows near, except the pasture she came from over a mile away. We had our first calf go down there the day we got her. Our fence is barbed wire. I was just thinking she would stay with Dora, our bigger calf, or I should say heifer now, and not want to wander around.

Boots, the calf, is eating grass and sweet feed, and gets cattle pellets as treats. She spends most of the day in a small enclosed pen that is grass, with a bucket of water. We turn her out there after she drinks her bucket of milk. We give her another bucket of milk before we put her back into the stall at night.

Occasionally we move both cows to the yard on ropes. They are close enough to touch noses, but far enough apart that their ropes don't get tangled. They interact well, is why I was thinking Boots would do OK in the pasture. Since DH is out of town I will probably wait until he returns. That way if she does walk through the barb wire he could help round her up again.