Post by spiritedrose on Nov 14, 2008 20:10:24 GMT -5
I'm interested in knowing how people feed their calves. This is a question more intended for people that raise a lot of calves and are not on the mother. I didn't graduate in Dairy Science, but I have a lot of experience raising animals and our family has never felt the need to feed young stock grain. (My steer was two years old, had never had a drop of grain, and was almost TOO chunky!)
So, if anyone would please like to answer these questions for me:
Do you feed your young calves whole milk while they're on the bottle or half milk half water?
Do you use a powdered supplement with minerals and antibiotics?
When do you feed grain and how much of a problem are birds/how do you deal with birds?
Do you have any dairy science studies that back up your methods of feeding?
Here's how I feed calves (when I'm the calf feeder, which I'm not right now):
1. Three milkings of colostrum, fresh from mom.
2. On bottle for around 2-3 weeks, full bottle of fresh, warm milk twice a day.
3. Transition to bucket, closer to 1 gallon fresh, warm milk twice a day.
4. Around 2 months old, I start feeding just a bit of hay after milk-feeding, and work up to feeding them a whole flake every other day. They are still on whole, fresh milk, but have access to water 24/7.
5. I gradually transition from milk to water and hay. Then I consider them weaned.
-No antibiotics or mineral powder, no grain, no bird issue
Here's how others on the farm feed regularly:
1. Three milkings of colostrum, fresh from mom.
2. On bottle for around 2-3 weeks, full bottle of cold milk mixed with half warm water, twice a day.
3. Transition to bucket, same amount as bottle feeding, cold milk/warm water even parts, twice a day. At this time, they also have grain in front of them 24/7.
4. At three months old, they tranisition to water and grain only for about a week.
5. Then the calves are moved to a barn where they are put on grass and alfalfa hay, with two feedings of grain, and water.
-Antibiotic/mineral powder (1T per calf per feeding, the whole time they're on milk), birds everywhere infesting the farm, eating calf grain and pooping all over in their domes/buckets.
So, my problem is:
1. Yikes- antibiotics full time? Why not give whole milk with natural antiboties?
2. Isn't a calf supposed to be on a majority milk diet for the first few months? Doesn't two buckets of grain (about a coffee can in size) each day and only a half gallon of watery milk sound like too much for their little tummies? How does this affect their ability to digest milk properly (like, through the valve that takes the milk to the fourth compartment, which is where the rennet coagulates the milk. I thought this valve shuts off when a calf goes on a solid diet?)
3. Wouldn't a transition from milk to hay be less stressful than from milk to grain to hay with no "transitioning" inbetween?
So, if anyone would please like to answer these questions for me:
Do you feed your young calves whole milk while they're on the bottle or half milk half water?
Do you use a powdered supplement with minerals and antibiotics?
When do you feed grain and how much of a problem are birds/how do you deal with birds?
Do you have any dairy science studies that back up your methods of feeding?
Here's how I feed calves (when I'm the calf feeder, which I'm not right now):
1. Three milkings of colostrum, fresh from mom.
2. On bottle for around 2-3 weeks, full bottle of fresh, warm milk twice a day.
3. Transition to bucket, closer to 1 gallon fresh, warm milk twice a day.
4. Around 2 months old, I start feeding just a bit of hay after milk-feeding, and work up to feeding them a whole flake every other day. They are still on whole, fresh milk, but have access to water 24/7.
5. I gradually transition from milk to water and hay. Then I consider them weaned.
-No antibiotics or mineral powder, no grain, no bird issue
Here's how others on the farm feed regularly:
1. Three milkings of colostrum, fresh from mom.
2. On bottle for around 2-3 weeks, full bottle of cold milk mixed with half warm water, twice a day.
3. Transition to bucket, same amount as bottle feeding, cold milk/warm water even parts, twice a day. At this time, they also have grain in front of them 24/7.
4. At three months old, they tranisition to water and grain only for about a week.
5. Then the calves are moved to a barn where they are put on grass and alfalfa hay, with two feedings of grain, and water.
-Antibiotic/mineral powder (1T per calf per feeding, the whole time they're on milk), birds everywhere infesting the farm, eating calf grain and pooping all over in their domes/buckets.
So, my problem is:
1. Yikes- antibiotics full time? Why not give whole milk with natural antiboties?
2. Isn't a calf supposed to be on a majority milk diet for the first few months? Doesn't two buckets of grain (about a coffee can in size) each day and only a half gallon of watery milk sound like too much for their little tummies? How does this affect their ability to digest milk properly (like, through the valve that takes the milk to the fourth compartment, which is where the rennet coagulates the milk. I thought this valve shuts off when a calf goes on a solid diet?)
3. Wouldn't a transition from milk to hay be less stressful than from milk to grain to hay with no "transitioning" inbetween?