anyone eat holsteins?

[lorihadams]

My hubby hunts on a dairy farm property and the farmer offered to sell him some holstein males next spring for $45 each. He says that the beef is good but I will have to bottle feed them. Anyone do this? Did it work out for you or is it too much trouble?

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Lots of people have done it, and I know of someone that has raised a holstein steer for beef too. Quite frankly, the hamburger you eat at these fast food chains come from old cull dairy cows. But as far as beef from younger stock, it's common too, as a lot of the bulls that are born on dairy farms that are not slaughtered for veal are fed until they're 12 or 15 months of age before they are slaughtered for beef. Not all the beef you see at the grocery store comes from beef cattle.

As far as bottle feeding goes, it will have to be done once every 2 to 4 hours, and when they're 3 months of age, they are weaned and put on a grass, hay, and some-grain diet.

 

[she-earl]

The calf will need to be fed 2 quarts twice a day for 6 - 7 weeks. You can train them to drink from a bucket which will e less time consuming. I would recommend that if it is a bull calf that you have him banded or neutered. This will make the meat taste better and will make it safer to work with. We have at times had a holstein dairy cow butchered if she was injured. A young animal is better meat than an older cow.

 

[michickenwrangler]

I regularly buy grass-fed beef from a dairy farm that raises holstein steers. It's yummy! As DH says about grass-fed beef, "even the FAT is good!"

 

[goodhors]

While the purchase prices are low, the work to raise them to age so they can graze is HARD. For someone who has never done bottle babies, the calves can have LOTS of problems, sometimes they die.

We did a bottle baby last Christmas. Had seen them raised, gave bottles sometimes to help friends. Thought I knew how to manage, "how hard can it be, EVERYONE does bottle babies!" Well I was VERY ignorant of managing him and we had a TON of problems with that calf! He had to go to calf ICU and spent three expensive days at the Vet, getting hydrated and back on firmer footing. When we brought him home he still got VERY cold, so we kept him in the heated tack room for a couple weeks, before finally graduating to the barn stall. Sometimes getting his bottle down him was hard. As he got stronger, it got a lot easier. He was on a bottle for about 2 months, used up two bags of milk replacer at over $50 the bag. Had antibiotics in it, which I do think helped prevent worse issues. Then teaching him to eat calf pellets, get his stomach working to digest green food. Real time consuming and the good pellets are not cheap either. My experienced cow friend (40 years in dairy cows) at TSC helped me a lot, said not to be cheap and lose the calf. She advised the expensive milk replacer and pellets because they had worked best for her on many calves. Those pellets were not even TSC products.

Hearing stories from other Prospect Beef parents, the variety of problems to fight are quite troublesome. Some folks lost their calves. One person lost 2 out of 5, ignorance and no vet money. Went cheap or waited too long to call the Vet.

So for us, calf was pretty inexpensive to purchase. But like owning a horse, EVERYTHING else was expensive. $300 for IVs at the Vet, over $100 for the good milk replacer, $10 for good calf pellets. Then you add in time needed for two bottles daily, washing bottle, cleaning stall, handling. Can really add up in work and money. If you don't feed well, take the time for keeping calves in cleaner conditions, they get sick, and expire FAST. Never make it to the grazing size and turn into beef!

Other expenses could include horn removal. I won't have horned cattle, consider them dangerous after some experiences with friends. I will say that horn paste is a BAD choice. Really burns, and rubbing calf has a chance of smearing paste all over his face and body, leaving burns. Our calf almost lost an eye with smeared paste on the wall, before we rubbed the paste his off horn bumps and him. Still got some burns on skin. Tying him didn't help, he could still rub the post. Vet doing horn removal was over $100, because he hates doing it. Paste did kill some of the horn growth, he had none until a month before Fair. They have a horn limit of 2 inches, so daughter was filing horns down short every couple days to keep them short. He was within the limit, sold at Fair so I didn't have to deal with the horn issue later. Another $100+ expense, sure cuts into the profit margin!

So know all these details, possible surprise LARGE expenses you face, before jumping in, taking tiny little, CHEAP calves to raise. That purchase price is the cheapest part of all.

 

[lorihadams]

Thanks everyone!

 

[ALANB]

"COCIDIOUSIS" A desease picked up by contaminted (unclean pens and Drinking water ) is the most common problem , That and just plain too much MILK !!! , People like to force feed from a bottle when the Calf , Goat or Lamb is finished . BAD-BAD. Causing "SCOURS" and usually death ......... I'm one of the offenders , ....... , ALANB.

 

[jhm47]

The cocci that cause coccidiosis are found in soil, water, and many other things. Yes, unclean conditions are a source, but it can be picked up from many other sources. There are many strains of cocci, and some of them are basically harmless.

It's a rare animal that isn't exposed to the organism at some point in their lives. Many are able to resist it normall, but under stressful conditions, or at times when their immune systems are at a low ebb, the cocci can proliferate and cause problems.