Post by Lesli on Jan 17, 2008 16:25:04 GMT -5
A little Charolais bull calf lost his mama this morning. He is only about 2 days old. Friends of ours who run an old century ranch didn't want to raise him so they are giving him to us. We don't know why his mama died. We will put him in our broiler house tonight at our house in town but we get our baby chicks Monday. I was wondering how long you all would really personally keep him quarantined from the rest of your cows? I know someone recommended 21 days or so. We go to pick him up tonight. Gonna take a bottle of fresh warm milk in case he is hungry before the trip home.
It has been pretty cold (OK cold for us Texans , low 30's high 40's, gray and cloudy days.) Getting this little guy really works out fairly well for us since we are getting ready to wean Peekaboo and wanted to continue milking once a day. Daisy is giving much more milk than we need. But since we have basically been only letting Peekaboo nurse once a day after we milk, Daisy is being milked once a day. Depending on how much we let Boo have we get anywhere from 2.5 to 3 gallons a day. (more than we need) So often we just let Boo have it all- some evenings. We have colostrum and plenty milk in the fridge to give him a bottle for a while. Don't have Peekaboo's blab yet. This weekend will have to get it I suppose. Daisy's first calf for us was part charolais, and such a pretty boy he was, I guess we will see what kind of little bull this guy starts growing into before we decide to either castrate and butcher or sell, or keep for our girls. Would make keeping them bred back much easier. Keeping bulls can be a pain in the rear though. Maybe reinforced fences and his own hay bale in the back section of the very small 10 acres... ok, well until he has had time to breed them his first season, then he may be sold or butchered.
It has been pretty cold (OK cold for us Texans , low 30's high 40's, gray and cloudy days.) Getting this little guy really works out fairly well for us since we are getting ready to wean Peekaboo and wanted to continue milking once a day. Daisy is giving much more milk than we need. But since we have basically been only letting Peekaboo nurse once a day after we milk, Daisy is being milked once a day. Depending on how much we let Boo have we get anywhere from 2.5 to 3 gallons a day. (more than we need) So often we just let Boo have it all- some evenings. We have colostrum and plenty milk in the fridge to give him a bottle for a while. Don't have Peekaboo's blab yet. This weekend will have to get it I suppose. Daisy's first calf for us was part charolais, and such a pretty boy he was, I guess we will see what kind of little bull this guy starts growing into before we decide to either castrate and butcher or sell, or keep for our girls. Would make keeping them bred back much easier. Keeping bulls can be a pain in the rear though. Maybe reinforced fences and his own hay bale in the back section of the very small 10 acres... ok, well until he has had time to breed them his first season, then he may be sold or butchered.