# New bull calf questions?? Disbud? vaccine? casterate?



## pinellisdreamfarm (Feb 19, 2012)

I am new to this calf thing. I have a 4 day old brown swiss bull calf. When do I disbud/dehorn? I have goats and I disbud at 3-7 days old. When do I casterate? I do goat kids at 6-8 weeks old using either banding or surgical. What method should be used for this calf? When and what do I use to vaccinate? I have CD/T that I give my goats but do I use that on my calf? I was told to protect him from clostridium will this vaccine work or do I need another? when do I vaccinate? 
I am feeding him 2 1/2 qts is this ok? he seems hungry. They were doing 2 x a day and I want to do 3 x a day so how much each time? We are using nursing formula. But when my goats kid can we use goats milk in 4 weeks? feed same amount? dilute it?

Thanks for any help! Last time I did a calf it was raised on mom.


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## Cricket (Feb 19, 2012)

I have my vet disbud--he says 1 inch or less and he does surgical castration at the same time.  I only vaccinate for rabies when they're older, but maybe that depends on where you live?  I assume you mean that you are feeding 2 1/2 quarts per feeding 2 times a day?  I wouldn't go to 3 times and I wouldn't increase--I tried that once on a huge belted something dairy and he ended up with bloat and died.  If he's looking good and doesn't have scours, I'd call it good!  They ALWAYS act starved!  I wouldn't think it would be a problem switching them to goat milk, just do it really gradually.  I usually only go through bag of milk replacer and then plan on having them weaned at around 2 months.  The steer I have now went through another 1/2 bag, mostly just because he is stubborn and it seemed easier to keep him on milk longer than fight with him! (holstein/jersey cross).  

Good luck with him!


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## WildRoseBeef (Feb 19, 2012)

Pinellis, it would be wonderful if you could let us know where you're located.  You may have to be vaccinating for more than just Clostridium spp., you should consider vaccinating against BRD, BVD, IBR and PI3 as well as variants of Blackleg. I don't know where you live so I don't want to hazard a suggestion on a type of vaccine because chances are you may not have access to that vaccine.

Dehorn and castrate any time.  A lot of producers can dehorn and castrate right after the calf is born.  In your case, you can do it as soon as possible. At that age you can band him and dehorn him with the same tool you use on the goats, though, as Cricket says, you could also just let the vet do it instead.


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## she-earl (Feb 19, 2012)

I would make sure he has access to a calf starter feed.  I also would not feed more that 2.5 quarts twice a day.  When he is six-weeks-old, you could consider weaning him if he is eating the recommended amount of calf starter.  He can also be given hay when you start to wean him.  We try to spread out the dehorning and castrating to lessen the stress on the calf.  I would make sure he is started good and then castrate him.  We use the bands.  Several weeks later you could dehorn him.  Our neighbors get a couple of bull calves every so often and raise for 12 - 18 months.  We band and dehorn for them.  As far as I know, they don't vaccinate them for anything.  We raise our dairy heifers and have a vaccination routine that we follow for them.


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## brentr (Feb 19, 2012)

We dehorned our dairy heifers at 60 days on the farm I grew up on (Guernseys).  They had a little bud maybe 1/2" long.  We used an electric de-horning iron.

As for castrating, just make sure both testes have dropped and are on the right side of the band.  60 days is an okay time to do that as well.


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## redtailgal (Feb 19, 2012)

We castrate by banding, after usually around 3 months old.  We dont have to disbud except when I take in a bottle baby from the dairy and then we disbud as soon as the "Nubs" break the skin (vet burns them off).

As far as vaccinations go, We vaccinate when we castrate with a product similar to the one in the link below (cant remember our brand right now) and repeat it yearly. Check your local farm store for a bovine   7 or 8 way shot.  It won't be very expensive.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e0763c-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5

As for bottle feeding, follow this link to see my method:

http://www.backyardherds.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2952-bottle-calves

A well fed calf should have a flattened out belly line, it should not bulge out or be hard and round.  It's hard to  keep from overfeeding them, so be tough here.  Even a well fed calf will still ACT hungry.  They will easily trick you into thinking they are starving, but then when you feed them more they WILL scour.


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## kelsey2017 (Feb 19, 2012)

Thank you for asking this question! This is such good information. I am following this thread with great interest!


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## Royd Wood (Feb 21, 2012)

We use burdizzo clamps for castration when our Galloway bull calves are around 5 to 6 months of age this allows us to get a good look at the calf in case its a potential Grand Champion (I wish)
The burdizzo method crushes the blood vessels, interrupts the blood supply to the testicles which kills the testicles. Good restraint is essential because the burdizzo must be in place for around 10 seconds to crush the artery, usually 3 of us - 2 holding and 1 pinching. 
No blood, no infection, and less reduction in weight gain after castration compared to surgical or banding. 
My Galloways have no horns but we used elec iron on my dads dairy cattle when they were really young when the buds were 1/2 inch or slightly more.
Good Luck dreamfarm


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