Does a calf need more milk as it grows

How much milk replacer should I be feeding a week old calf and will the calf need more milk replacer as it grows?

Two solid questions that anyone attempting to raise a calf on a bottle will need to know. The amount of milk replacer needed for calf is two four pint bottles twice a day. I have raised hundreds of bottle calves through out the years and it has been my experiences when bottle feeding calves that this same amount of milk replacer will work for 98% of the calf out there on a bottle.

How often should I bottle feed a calf

It has been a tied and true fact that calves respond to bottle feeding best when fed twice a day. It is optimal if the calf can be bottle fed every twelve hours. I prefer bottle feeding a calf at 7 am and then at 7 pm but when the clock hands show 6 works good also.

Due to busy schedules, it is not always practical or possible for bottle feeding a calf every twelve hours apart. Most calf raisers can find time in the morning when they start their day and then only have time at the end of the day. This might put bottle feeding the calf at 6 am and then again at 8 pm or even earlier such as 5 pm.

Importance of feeding calves starter while bottle feeding milk replacer

The biggest mistake I have found in regards to bottle feeding calve milk replacer is failure to feed calf starter. I have bottle fed hundreds of calf through the years of dairy farming and cattle ranching. My love of cattle has always provided me with little calves to bottle fed.

People have always asked what was the one must do when bottle feeding calves. The answer is simple- feed calf starter grain right from the start. There are special formulated grain feeds for new born calves. The stomach of newborn calves are different than those of older calves.

Cattleman and Goliath- Bottle Feeding the Giant

A fellow cattle rancher I had never meet before stopped by the house a few weeks backs. I walked out to the drive as he was pulling up. He had driven by the house a few times and notice that I always had a few bottle calves. He wanted to know if I would be interested in one more.

He had a 20 day old calf that it's mother had passed away the day before. I didn't get all the details on what happen to the mother, I was mostly concerned with the calf. I followed him over to his ranch and right away I was thinking this could be interesting. We drove through a pasture with some of the biggest Brangus cattle I had  ever seen. I noticed all the calves were crossed with a Charolais bull and were carrying some size to them.

Sure enough I follow the cattle rancher to his pens to where inside stood large calf. I had to question him if he was sure that calf was only 20 days old. He assured me that it was. I loaded up the calf and took it home knowing this could be a challenge. Any orphan calf that has been nursing form it's mother for three weeks isn't going to want to be handled or feed from a bottle. When you add the size and strength of this calf, things may not go well trying to get it to nurse a bottle.

Goliath quickly meet my expectations with the first attempt to feed him from a bottle. I placed him in a pen with another calf for a few hours to get use to the new place. I figured having a buddy would help him settle in. Goliath was doing fine until I stepped in the pen to feed the other calf. He ran over to the corner and just kept staring me down, snorting some, and shaking his head letting me know I shouldn't come any closer. After the other calf was finished it was Goliath's turn.

I tried walking up to him slowly but he just kept moving away. Finally I  got him in one of the corners of the pen with one arm around his neck and holding the bottle in the other hand trying to get his mouth open. He rose up to his back feet pawing and clawing with his front trying to climb over me. I stood my ground holding him in the corner but it was taking all I had. I got a finger in the side of his mouth avoiding the rear teeth. Calf have an extremely powerful bite that can do some serious damage to your fingers but I needed to pry his mouth open to get the nipple of the bottle in.

Most calves I a can simply hold them in a corner and kneel on one leg to get to their height and pop the nipple in, but not Goliath he would have steamed rolled me over in a blink of the eye. Instead I had to stand holding him in place and fighting to get the nipple in. After getting the bottle in place he didn't want anything to do with it shaking his head from side to side and fighting the whole time. It took about 40 minutes to get a half of bottle in him. It was all I could do.

The following morning was round two. It went pretty much like the first attempt to feed him but little better. I was able to get a bottle down him by letting it run in his mouth and him just swallowing. On the third feeding he was still fighting the whole time and never sucked but would swallow. At least he wasn't clamping down and stopping the flow of milk replacer.

Finally during the fifth feeding and after half a bottle of just swallowing he took his first draw from the nipple. It didn't last long but he did try. The next feeding he started suckling the nipple and on day five of working with him he quit running from me, by the seventh day he was coming to me to suckle form the bottle.

I can't say he was the hardest to take to bottle feeding because I have had calves take up to fourteen days before they sucked. He was definitely the strongest. It scared me some placing my finger in his mouth to get the bottle in. His mouth was big enough to fit my whole hand in there. I wanted no part of those teeth. He is a good baby now nursing off the rack and growing.


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Cattle Colostrum, The Magic Moo Juice

First milk, the good stuff, top shelf, the best milk a calf can get. Otherwise this milk is known as colostrum. Colostrum is the milk produce by the cow in the first few days after birth. This special milk is full of vitamins and loaded with the cows own antibodies to fight illness. This milk gets a new born calf off to a great start in life, but not all calves are able to nurse on this magic moo juice.

The cow might die in the birth process or became too weak to stand up for a few days after birth. Sometimes the tits on the cow’s bag are too large for a newbie to nurse; there are many reasons why a calf could miss its colostrums. This does not have to be the end for the young calf. It still got a good chance of living with some help form a nursing bottle.

If I find the calf in the first ten hours after birth, then I will mix up the first bottle of milk replacer with a colostrum supplement. I will let the baby calf nurse as much of the bottle as it can. Only give this supplement for one bottle and then go with a regular milk replacer. If the newbie is older than ten hours, I feel that colostrum supplement does not do the calf any good, so strait with the regular milk replacer. I always like to use a natural milk replacer that is rated for one to ninety days old. I think it is important that the milk replacer provides enough nutrients of the age of the calf, so be sure you read the bag. Many times when a baby calf is sickly or recovering from illness, I like to use grade A ultra milk replacer, so the weak calf will have something extra nursing on.

We have raised many calves that were not able to nurse a cow’s first milk. These calves seem to have a bit more problems. They have the tendency to get sick much easier and once ill, they are slower to recover from the illness. The odds of these calves making it to weaning age differently goes down. There are several reasons that can cause a calf not to live ninety days and be old enough to get off the bottle. Most cows are unable to raise every calf they give birth to. In fact, the chances of a first time mother cow are only about half the time she will raise her first calf. Mother Nature is on the cows side while for us with a nursing bottle, were fighting an uphill battle for the first week or two.

It takes a lot of effort to bottle feed a calf. You’re committed to feeding twice a day sometimes three. This is not a situation most ranchers like to find themselves in. There were problems with the cow that that force the rancher to make this effort. If you find that you have calf that is in need of a bottle, the newbie will die without milk, and then roll up your sleeves, mix up some milk, and place that nipple in its mouth. In a few days, you might just find that this calf punches hard for not getting its first milk.

Please, Will This Calf Nurse form a Nipple Already

Here we have a nice red heifer calf only eight days old. I know exactly how old this calf is, because I watch her being born. Her mother has passed away. The cow was sick and weak for two months right in the middle of winter. I found her unable to stand on her feet, just lying on her side not able to get up by herself. So I tailed the cow up, which means lifting up on her tail with both hands giving the cow a boost up. First on her back legs then the cow gets up on her front feet while I am still holding her tail.



The cow was heavy from being pregnant, and also weak from being sick, so I placed her in a pen by herself. Twice a day I would go and check on her, bring her feed and water, and tailing her on her feet. I was hoping that once this calf is born, that she will be able to get up on her own, get better, and raise her calf. The cow had no trouble having the calf.

First few days went well, cow got up, calf nursed its mother, but then the cow went down again. This time the cow would be unable to stand up any more, and passed away the next day.

Now with the mother gone, this just left the calf, me, and a bottle of milk replacer. The calf having nursed its mother for the first seven days of its life doesn’t want anything to do with me, or this different tasting new milk. So here I go, run the calf in the corner of the pen, stand over it, back its butt up against the fence, and stick the nipple of the bottle in her mouth. This heifer spits out the nipple and fights with the bottle, while I try my best to stay calm.

For twice a day, morning and evening , I go through this process, using half a bottle of milk replacer, mainly because its half the weight and easier to manage. I place the nipple in the calf’s mouth, let a some milk full the back of her mouth while gently hold her head up, then with the other hand I place my thumb on back of the calf’s tongue and make her swallow the milk. I am always very careful not to get my thumb in between her back teeth.

Wishing the whole time “Come on and nurse this bottle already!” for three days. Then on the mourning of the fourth day, I go out, back the calf in the corner of the pen, stand over it, and place the nipple in her mouth. The calf sucks the nipple of the bottle. I can’t believe it; finely this heifer is nursing the bottle. For the next few feedings, the calf strips off the nipple and I have to place it back in her mouth. Soon the calf is chasing me down, and I can’t get out of pen fast enough when the bottle is empty. The calf punches my legs, circling in front of me to stop me for more milk, just like I was her mother.