# New Calves



## cjc (Nov 12, 2017)

I just got this little guy Petey from a cattle rancher friend who raisers show Shorthorns and has a beef line of Angus. This poor little guy was an orphan that had almost died a few times. Became an orphan and wasn’t feeding after, then had a big growth on this neck that needed surgery, then almost drown! My friend didn’t have the heart to send him to the feed lot and besides he is tiny. He’s 7 months and he’s a good 100lbs smaller than my jersey heifer calf of the same age. So I did the right thing and took him. My family was thrilled to say the least haha. Another pet to feed  oh well he’s a cutie. Needs lots of TLC but he will get it with us.




 


 


This other calf is one I got a few months back to keep my jersey heifer company. He is the best bottle calf I have ever raised! He’s about 7-8 months old and MASSIVE!!! I cannot believe his size, he’s a good 200lbs bigger than some of my 14 month bottle calves. He’s a big food bully as you can see


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## farmerjan (Nov 15, 2017)

The black one really looks like he misses too many meals LOL.   The shorthorn will be a pet as you say, but you put alot into your "babies"  so yeah, he will get treated right.  If you don't get too attached he can be beef...  Maybe make the angus a beef and keep the shorthorn for company for the jersey.  
Did you sell the jersey cow?  With you expecting and all I know you didn't have alot of time for the bottle babies and she wasn't making a very good nurse cow was she?  
How is your little one?  About 6 - 8 months old now?  Bet he is growing like a weed.

I have a jersey that I bought off a dairy 2 years ago as a springing heifer because she had a quarter that swelled up and got mastitis/infected before she calved.  She was bred AI and had a jersey heifer calf.  I milked her and she raised her calf.  This time she was bred angus due to the bull was running there with our first calf heifers.  She had a bull calf which was fine, but came in as a 2 quarter cow and is a positive WITCH in the barn.  Put a second calf on her and she will only  tolerate the second calf nursing from the back and only when she is in eating grain.  So, as soon as these calves get some size, she is leaving.  Her heifer is bred so I hope to get a better attitude when she calves.  Have got 2 others that have calved in the last month;  the old guernsey has 2 and a 3rd calf that starts out on her then goes over to the  jersey/hol that has 3 older calves on her.  The  other 3/4 jersey has 3 on her and all 3 of them will let other calves suck so they are doing a good job.  The old guernsey doesn't have alot of milk but is pretty tolerant of most anyone who wants to suck her so she gets a pass. Even though she isn't the most profitable, she pays her way.  The other 2 do a real good job.  I found a dairy that I just started testing that has mostly jersey/holstein and some have swedish red or montbeliarde in them.  I have gotten several heifers and a couple of bull calves and they are really healthy, active calves.  Got 4 for a friend and he says they are the best calves he has had in years.  It's great to finally find a good source that the calves are healthy and spunky. 
So I am going to wind up with some bottle calves as I hate to lose the source.  Plus we are still calving our fall group of beef cows, and I want to have one or two just in case.... even though I hope we don't need to foster a calf on a cow that loses one.  Since I have one or two, we will not have any cows lose calves which is fine.  I am taking all the heifer calves that he is having that are jersey/dairy cross and will have a bunch of nurse cows in the future.  He is starting to breed some to beef so any heifer calves will make good beef cows in the future.  Many of the "half" beef/dairy cows can raise a second calf if they are grained a little so I will see.  If they come in with alot of udder, I will put a second calf on them.  Even if it is a holstein bull calf, it basically gives me an extra $3-400 per cow for the year so there is some profit as opposed to only getting what their own calf brings.  
Prices on 4-6 wt angus steers is back down to the 1.30-1.60's  and the heifers are in the 1.20's mostly; anything with dairy in it is in the 1.00 range. Beef  heifers barely pay for the yearly cost of the cow to raise them;  and they are all not good enough to make replacements.  We have been culling pretty heavy the last 2 years for replacements and trying to improve our cow herd.


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## cjc (Nov 20, 2017)

farmerjan said:


> The black one really looks like he misses too many meals LOL.   The shorthorn will be a pet as you say, but you put alot into your "babies"  so yeah, he will get treated right.  If you don't get too attached he can be beef...  Maybe make the angus a beef and keep the shorthorn for company for the jersey.
> Did you sell the jersey cow?  With you expecting and all I know you didn't have alot of time for the bottle babies and she wasn't making a very good nurse cow was she?
> How is your little one?  About 6 - 8 months old now?  Bet he is growing like a weed.
> 
> ...




My little one is growing fast! 6 months in a few days, cant believe it! It has slowed things down for me but they are starting to pick up again. We actually upped our hen count this year and have been selling a fair bit of eggs of the farm. The cows are tough for me. I grow way too attached to them and beef gets more and more scarce from our farm every year. Not at all what the family wants but its just how things seem to be happening. We will see how my bottle calf heifers do this year and what kind of calves they give us.

Interesting what you say about how your jersey would tolerate a second one well nursing her calf. I am hoping my Lucy does the same this year. She actually isn't a very good mother at all but I have heard that is a Jersey trait? Do you find that?

Winter is always a bad time to sell around here how about for you ? Are those prices you quote super low? I got $1,500 for 2 - 400lb dairy cross calves at auction. They were twins and actually yearlings but super tiny. First twins I have ever raised and I wasn't expecting them to be so tiny a year in.


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## farmerjan (Nov 20, 2017)

@cjc;  no I don't find that the jerseys are any better or worse than any other breed for taking calves.  I think the guernseys that I have had may be a bit more accepting, but in the past I have had several jerseys that take the calves just fine.

  One thing, it seems the ones that I have gotten over the years as "older animals" rather than raising them up myself, tend to be less tolerant than the ones I have hand raised.  Even the ones that are raised on their momma's , but come into the herd to be nurse cows, are usually a bit more accepting than the ones I have bought as ready to calve heifers, or older cows.  Again, I say that tongue in cheek, because this guernsey is a "rescue" cow that was bought as a mature cow; starving but adult.  I think she has appreciated that I saved her life though.  She is a GRAIN HOG, and will push open gates etc to get in for grain;  but since she lets most anything on her, I tend to be a little more forgiving.  Plus I make sure any gate is hooked when I go through it before I am ready to let her in !!!!
Prices I quoted have been the average for feeders at the auctions.  Some has to do with the JBS company problems, and their plant in Pennsylvania has been "off-line" for over a month due to contamination (rats/mice)  I heard, so slaughter cattle have been way off in price too.  I know there is a conversion difference between your Canadian dollar and the US dollar, but it sounds like your prices are still better than ours.  A 400 lb dairy cross calf here, even being a steer, would barely bring $1.00 to 1.20/pound so maybe in the neighborhood of $500 US dollars.  Your prices sound alot better.

So now I have 3 cows in the barn with a total of 7 baby calves on them;  and then the other one has 3 - 5 month old calves plus the new little heifer that insists she wants her for a mother.  The cows stay in the barn and lot for 5-8 hours a day with the calves, so the little heifer does get a share of milk from the one cow.  She refuses a bottle and really could use a little more milk...but is insistent that  801 is going to be her momma.  I want to wean off the 2 holsteins on her and just leave her own calf on her which will leave more milk for the "new" baby.  The holsteins are twins, a bull and a heifer, and they were what was available at the time.  They will be worth maybe $3-400.  each, but that will pay for the cow for the year so her calf will be "profit".  And she will stay as she is 1/2 angus 1/2 dairy.  If 801 raises this new heifer up too, then she is more than paying for herself.  I bred her AI to a breed called Aubrac.  It is supposed to be more like the double muscled breeds and will hopefully make the calves more muscled and therefore worth more.  And any females ought to make good beef cows.  I bred 8 to the Aubrac...3 older cows, this first calf cow, and 4 first calf heifers.  I bred the jersey heifer to jersey and another jersey heifer to a guernsey.  Don't know who settled to the AI yet, they have since gone out to pasture with a cleanup angus, but I didn't see repeat heats so hope most are bred to the Aubrac.  Have more semen to try to breed some more this next year to this breed and see how the calves do.
  I am also thinking of trying some piedmontese or some belgian blue to add muscling on these dairy crosses.  One of these days I am going to graduate to a digital camera, or even to a phone that is compatible with uploading.  Mine is an OLD OLD flip-phone and does not do any of that fancier stuff.  When some of these calves are born I want to be able to send pictures to the guy I bought the semen from.  Guess it is time to get into the "modern age" !!!!!

Congrats on your growing son.  They do grow so fast, next he will be walking......
Glad the egg business is doing good.  And yes, you just have to try to not so attached so you can have some steak to eat!!!!!!


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## greybeard (Nov 25, 2017)

farmerjan said:


> I am also thinking of trying some piedmontese or some belgian blue to add muscling on these dairy crosses. One of these days I am going to graduate to a digital camera, or even to a phone that is compatible with uploading. Mine is an OLD OLD flip-phone and does not do any of that fancier stuff.


Get a new set of OB chains if you go the BB route. 

I use a flip phone as well, that has a camera. Only problem is getting the image off the phone and on to my computer. 
I did this:
In contacts (on the phone) I made a new entry. Just typed in my computer's email address where the phone number would normally go, gave that contact a name (donmail) and I select 'send' from the phone's picture options.  
Select "from contacts" and then 'donmail' and send.
Works pretty good except I can only send one picture at a time.


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## greybeard (Nov 27, 2017)

not a good picture and I forgot to switch from B&W to color, but saw a little set of legs under a long bred cow I had earmarked as a cull to sell next trip to the salebarn. 
Pretty shaky and laid/flopped right back down and momma went to work cleaning it off.

Born minutes before. 


 
Means I'll have to hold on to her a little while longer.


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## frustratedearthmother (Nov 27, 2017)

Ahhhhh - good mama!  She musta known she was on the "list."


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## farmerjan (Nov 28, 2017)

frustratedearthmother said:


> Ahhhhh - good mama!  She musta known she was on the "list."


Seems like most of them "know" they are on the list and do something to redeem themselves.....
Of course I have been known to tell them that they are writing their ticket out of here if they don't get their act together....
Also, I tell them this is not a democracy but more like a dictatorship.  If they don't like this job then, then they can have a permanent one at Mcdonalds....


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## greybeard (Nov 28, 2017)

The momma. I call her 'retard'. She just acts that way..and has that dumb look about her.
Last calf she had, when I went to get her up, she suddenly jumped up, took off running like a banshee, straight for the shop area, bounced off a tractor, then ran pell mell the other way and crashed into, then thru a barbed wire fence. 2nd time she's done that immediately after calving. Instead of nosing this calf around to her udder, every time he got close to a teat, she'd nose him back up to her front. She finally settled down and let him nurse. Not the best formed udder either, but fairly functional.


 

This is the sire..another one that was earmarked for a ride into town, but the flood and other priorities got in the way. Too short, sheath's too long, just bad conformation in most areas.


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## Baymule (Nov 29, 2017)

At least you got a calf out of Retard and the lacking in the finer points of conformation bull. I guess it won't be a keeper? Heifer calf or bull calf? Do you ever send one of yours to slaughter for your own eating?


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## greybeard (Nov 29, 2017)

Heifer calf. Might keep it...have to wait and see. Need to replace a couple that drowned. 

Been a long time since I butchered one of my own. Beef prices dictated it was far better to sell them and buy my table beef retail. That's changed now. Prices have plummeted this year.  Intended to eat that bull, but had too much going on in personal life the last few months to feed  it out and finish it.


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## farmerjan (Nov 29, 2017)

How is your brothers" family doing?  It's a wonder you have been able to think straight with all that's hit you this year.  I am sure you are missing him too, but it is nice to see the new calf and know that life does go on and renew its'self.


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## Baymule (Nov 29, 2017)

greybeard said:


> Heifer calf. Might keep it...have to wait and see. Need to replace a couple that drowned.
> 
> Been a long time since I butchered one of my own. Beef prices dictated it was far better to sell them and buy my table beef retail. That's changed now. Prices have plummeted this year.  Intended to eat that bull, but had too much going on in personal life the last few months to feed  it out and finish it.


I totally get that.


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## greybeard (Dec 15, 2017)




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## Baymule (Dec 16, 2017)

Those are some good looking calves. Heifers? Did you buy them at a sale barn or through an individual?


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## greybeard (Dec 16, 2017)

Raised them. Born here earlier this fall. They were in the pen to be worked. Just didn't feel like creating a new thread.
The 2 red & white bulls went bye bye to Livingston.


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## greybeard (Dec 23, 2017)

Another new one this morning. 


 
I had to fight the buzzards off the momma as she was having the calf. 20ga did the trick, but those devils are really hard to kill, even with 1/0 buck.


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## frustratedearthmother (Dec 23, 2017)

Yay!  Glad you were there to keep the buzzards away!


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## Baymule (Dec 23, 2017)

Were they those $%&% black headed buzzards? glad you were there to assist the cow and save the calf.


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## greybeard (Dec 23, 2017)

Baymule said:


> Were they those $%&% black headed buzzards? glad you were there to assist the cow and save the calf.


yep.


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## Baymule (Dec 24, 2017)

I hate them.


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## greybeard (Dec 29, 2017)

Should be the last 2 of the year.


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## Baymule (Dec 30, 2017)

Nice calves. You have some really nice cows. You mentioned going back to west Texas, going to take your cows too?


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## greybeard (Dec 30, 2017)

no.  that's too far of a geographical & climate move for them. 
Same reasons I prefer not to buy any raised west of I-35 or North of I-30.


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## Baymule (Dec 31, 2017)

I kinda figured you'd sell and restock for that reason.


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