Post by happydog on Jun 9, 2010 9:39:19 GMT -5
I bought my cow two months ago along with a newborn foster calf. When we first got her we were getting about one third cream. Now, we're down to a half inch of cream. I'm having to combine cream from 2 jars to make whole milk. And worse, I had to buy butter at the farmers market again. Because she was born and raised on a dairy farm for 5 years and never had a calf on her I was hoping we wouldn't have this problem. But she really loves "her" baby.
We're letting the calf run with her all day then putting him in the barn at night. We only milk in the morning.
Besides holding up the cream the other problem is that we have a rodeo every night trying to get the calf in the barn. It's really bad if it's raining and muddy and they're at the far end of the pasture.
So I'm thinking, as long as we have to be home every evening at 7 to wrestle him into the barn we might as well go ahead and wean him and just milk twice a day. But he's barely two months old. He's eating grass, his little poops are very green and look like mom's. He will sip water from a bucket or stock tank, but he flat refuses to drink milk from a bucket, even after being in a stall for 12 hours. (I take the milk directly from the cow over to his stall, still steaming.) He will take a nibble of calf feed but that's it, just a taste.
Will he starve if he's weaned? She's due to be dried off in two months and the original plan was to wean him then. Should I just wait and give him that extra two months? (Maybe I can buy butter out of town to hide my shame.)
We're letting the calf run with her all day then putting him in the barn at night. We only milk in the morning.
Besides holding up the cream the other problem is that we have a rodeo every night trying to get the calf in the barn. It's really bad if it's raining and muddy and they're at the far end of the pasture.
So I'm thinking, as long as we have to be home every evening at 7 to wrestle him into the barn we might as well go ahead and wean him and just milk twice a day. But he's barely two months old. He's eating grass, his little poops are very green and look like mom's. He will sip water from a bucket or stock tank, but he flat refuses to drink milk from a bucket, even after being in a stall for 12 hours. (I take the milk directly from the cow over to his stall, still steaming.) He will take a nibble of calf feed but that's it, just a taste.
Will he starve if he's weaned? She's due to be dried off in two months and the original plan was to wean him then. Should I just wait and give him that extra two months? (Maybe I can buy butter out of town to hide my shame.)