Showing posts with label cattle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cattle. Show all posts

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Cow Adopts Calf After Losing Her's

I would like you to meet Texas and her new baby Poo 2. So I bet your wondering what happen to Poo 1. I will spare you the gory details about the coyotes getting it and ripping it apart, alive, at two weeks old.  I couldn't really give the play by play,  because I didn't see it first hand. Only found the aftermath.

So now I'm betting, you would like to know how there is a Poo 2. Well her story is not all that interesting, simply put her moma was too old. If I would have let her try to care for little Poo 2, she would have died trying.

So just like on Farmers Only, we got a match... Texas and Poo 2. It takes a little more work than a online dating profile or just putting them in a small pen to let nature do it's thing.  You must help the bond along. 

Like a redneck shotgun wedding, it takes some effort. I let Poo 2 have a day away from her moma but before bed I gave her pint of milk replacer from a bottle.  The next morning fed Texas in the chute area some tasty grain product. While she got her smack on, I gave Poo 2 a cup of milk replacer from a bottle. Then showed her Texas' milky factory or we in the buzz like to say "her bag. "

Ding ding, we have a match. Poo 2 grabbed hold of an utter nursed it down and went to the next.  I love happy endings. 

Friday, December 28, 2012

Feeding Baby Calves

I know it has been a long time since I updated a post for feeding baby calves and I have been trying to get a post in but just have not had the time. This year has just zoomed by and it must have seemed like I gave up on feeding baby calves all together.

Well not so. This year has been a little slower than those in the past for bottle feeding calves, but there was still a good number of calves raised on the bottle.

Just last month ten Holstein steer calves was weaned from the bottle and right now there is one Angus heifer calf on bottle. Four Holstein steers have just arrived from the dairy farm.

These four came from the same dairy the other ten did. This has been a new dairy farm that we started to get our calves from. The previous dairy we used went out of business. It didn't surprise me. The price of milk has not been good for the dairy farmers last year. The owners operating the old dairy really  made their living by selling real estate.

The good news is this new dairy is a little bigger and can supply a few more calves. We should have no problem with raising full groups of Holstein calves this upcoming year. 

Just weaned Holstein Steers



Trudy getting some bottle


Trudy still after the bottle 


The four new guys