Post by raerae on Dec 5, 2013 12:53:45 GMT -5
New here, and new to cattle.... my family has raised racehorses my whole life, and while I have four (grade) pleasure horses I am determined to raise cattle (much to my mothers chagrin) i am an Ag student in my third semester, and have spent time with ranch owners, but nothing could have prepared me for the experience of owning my first calf. I chose a red Dexter heifer, 3 months old, perfect and beautiful, until two hours after I got her home and my jack russell terrier ( no bigger than a small cat) nearly killed her. (looked like she had a run in with Freddie Kruger, no joke) well, the dog lives about 3 hours away now, (lucky that he lives at all) and after months of antibiotics, force feeding, debriding and removing necrotic tissue, stitches, lancing abscesses, curing coccidiosis and scours, and pneumonia, she is now 10 months old and perfectly healthy ( I even managed to save her right ear, what was left of it) The problem is, that I spent all of the money for purchasing the other three calves I had lined up on saving her, not that I regret it, she is now the family pet, sweet as a kitten, but that means that she is spending her first winter ever completely alone. So, I have two questions, one: any guesses as to how she will handle the winter (she is in small pen with one stall) without anyone to huddle up with? ( we are in a very open and very cold area of north east oklahoma, the north wind whips through here viciously) , and two: I occasionally give my horses feed as a hot mash, simply adding hot water to their grain/alfalfa chop mix and serving it warm, can I do the same with my cow? To add a Third random question, does anyone (close by) have any young or bottle calves they'd like to sell?