Goats and calves

[marusempai]

So I'm thinking about buying a steer calf from the local dairy to raise up on our extra milk, so he can become hamburger later. One thing I'm having a hard time finding data on is appropriate pasture arrangements. Would it be ok to just run him with the herd? Should he be on a separate rotation? If he needs to be separate from the goats, does he need a friend of some sort, or would he be ok just sharing a fence with other critters?

My goat mentor runs her steer calves with her bucks, but I don't have any bucks and won't for some time yet. What do you do?

[Allan Mistler]

I've run my beef animals with the dairy goats for over thirty years with nothing but funny stories to tell about their antics. When you see a 1,000 pound Angus steer going forehead to forehead in a pushing contest with a 80 pound whether, you'd think someone was about to get hurt. Instead, the Angus was backing up letting the little whether push him... must have done wonders for the little guys confidence!

Bottom line is that they get along just fine.

[marusempai]

Good news... I'll just plan on running him wherever's convenient then. Which is probably with the does and their kids, as opposed to separate, or with the weanlings later in the year. Thanks!

[farmmom]

I ran mine with the herd all through bottle feeding/weaning and growing. When it came time to fatten him up, he was separated. I had the feeding arranged so he could not get the goat feed (bunk feeder wrapped in a cattle panel). He ate happily by himself and the goats pretty much left his feed alone.

[Frosted Mini's]

I have ran calves with goats before, but the calves were past weaning and the goats were not small babies. I would be a little bit worried about it, especially until you learn your calf's personality. Some are really rambunctious and others are more mellow. Good luck finding a calf! Right now they are REALLY expensive...the most expensive they have ever been...ever! Day old Holstein bull calves are $420-470 around here. But I can get jersey's from the same place for $20, so I'll probably get one or two of them. I could get 21 jersey's for the price of one holstein!! Ridiculous!

[Kasidy]

I occasionally had steer calves that would try to "ride" the lambs or kids. I watched them very carefully and had to separate a few. The heifers were always just fine. Having cut back on all livestock (and with calf prices what they are) I only raised one calf last summer--she became very good friends with the lambs and kids!

[marusempai]

Hm, I'll keep that in mind. Won't be doing this until spring after everybody kids, but right now dairy steers (when you can find them) aren't too expensive here. I hear they are cheaper in the spring when there are lots, which would be good too, of course. Just want to have a plan before I go calling the dairy. If you separate them to they need a buddy? Or are they ok in a pasture on their own?

[marusempai]

Originally Posted by Frosted Mini's

Day old Holstein bull calves are $420-470 around here.

That's crazy! The same calves are going for more like 150 on Craigslist around here, or at least were last time I looked.

[Frosted Mini's]

Lucky you! What are beef prices like there? Very expensive here. And I live in dairy land, so there are tons of calf raisers...might be part of the problem. They were going for $350 last summer. I did not buy one then either lol. Usually around here, the price goes down in the winter when fewer people have pasture and don't want to feed hay.

[marusempai]

Oh beef prices suck - the cheapest ground is around four dollars. Beef breed calves cannot be had for love or money, and prices for heifers of any breed seem really high. Dairy steers, for whatever reason, are still quite reasonably priced though. Lots of folks raising beef cattle though so I think the thing is that all the people interested in raising their own beef, for the most part, already have cows, or have a relative raising cows.

[jemma weller]

one problem i would think of, if i were you is... i like feeding bottle fed calves grain and stuff, and the goats will probably scoff all the calves feed....

[marusempai]

I had thought I could feed the calf like I feed my young goats, give them their own pen and their own bucket of grain while I'm milking then take it away when I turn everybody back out. I don't like having grain out free choice generally because the chickens will yuck it up. I haven't decided how much I'll be graining, if at all, yet though.

[mygoat]

There are some disease considerations especially if you're growing out to around 2 years of age. Johnes is what scares me, personally. Doesn't always take 2 years to show up in the feces, that's just average. Just something to consider, know the herd you're purchasing from.

[Frosted Mini's]

Dona, is a critter considered infective before they start passing Johnes in their stool?

[mygoat]

Johnes is transmitted mostly through feces but also milk and in utero. For feces to be infective they have to be shedding enough and then the other animals have to come in contact with it. Wether or not it shows up in feces before in milk or infective in utero - say, in a goat which are generally lower shedders and can still take 18 months to show positive on occasion (thus past their first kidding) is hard to say. Especially since animals go through shed cycles, times of high shed and low shed. However, 18mon is the best age to start to test because positives can be detected with more reliability at that age and thus most effective in a test and cull program. They can shed younger/test positive younger on occasion. Probably has a lot to do with management, stress levels, genetics of the animals etc.

The main risk of infection would be if you had young kids in the same pasture as johnes contaminated feces or feeding young kids milk out of an untested/unknown status dairy cow.

So yes, it is fairly low risk because of the age of the beef calves as most don't shed in quantity until up to around 2 years of age, but it could be a risk. Good cleanliness management would be important especially where kids are raised.

[menollyrj]

We run calves with our goats. We just pen up the calves at night so they can eat their feed ration without the goats harassing them.