ChickenLittle said:
I have the vet coming to check them out on Friday. The herd that they came from was a dairy Jersey herd that was grass only and the cows and calves were in great condition. We are a little concerned that the smaller brown one, although he looks okay might have an infection in his navel. We will have the vet check out the spotted cow as well and make suggestions as far as what we should do.
The small brown cow has great conditioning just with grass and milk right now. The other has not figured out how to eat the grass and hay and so isn't in as good condition.
I know that grass fed can be done with dairy cows as long as you have good pasture. The adds are full of heifers and bull calves that are raised on grass alone and most of them are dairy bred Jerseys and Holsteins. We have 12 acres of excellent pasture so we will be able to rotate them and give them good quality feed. I don't mind using grain as a supplement on top of hay as we aren't selling the beef as grass fed beef we are just growing for ourselves, but I would like the majority of their diet to be grass and hay. They will be healthier and in the long run the meat will be healthier for us to eat.
This is a dairy herd = milk production, not meat production. There's a big difference there. You want to try to raise meat, don't go the same route you got this dairy herd from. Your grass may very likely be different from theirs, with different nutrition value, which may affect (as if it isn't already) the health of your calves.
You want meat, NOT milk. You will be very disappointed when your "healthier" meat product will end up being the toughest, worse-tasting beef you've ever had in your life. If you want to find that out the hard way, so be it. But all of us on here are trying to get you to understand that dairy cattle are not beef cattle: they are not built like them, they don't grow out like them. Period.
Look, we want to help you as much as possible to raise your calves as best as possible so that you end up with some very good, tasty and still healthy freezer beef. But we can't teach if you won't learn.
We also understand that you want a healthy product and feedstuffs that is healthy for your animals. BUT, are you willing to compromise this "health" rut you've got yourself stuck in for quality? To me it sounds like you are, and that's not exactly a good thing. If you want beef from these calves that are a) healthy AND b) good to eat, you really must consider graining them. Otherwise you're going to have to sell them for some beefers, or force-feed yourself some beef that is healthy but poor quality. Or have to contend with some thin calves.
Again, I can't stress enough the difference in nutritional requirements between raising an animal for milk or for beef. Jerseys are dairy cattle, they are genetically selected to be thinner than their beef counterparts (like Angus and Hereford) and produce large amounts of milk whilst being at a poor body condition score of 3 to 4 out of a score of 9 (1 being the most emaciated). When you want to raise a bovine for beef, you have to have MEAT on the bones. In order to do that the animal had better have the genetics for putting muscle/fat on when on pasture (which Jerseys are incapable of), or else you will have to grain it like crazy (whether these calves come from a grass-fed operation or not is irrelevant here!!) in order to put some fat and flesh on their frames.
What I'm trying to put out there and I think you are interpreting it wrong is
that these calves do not have to be on a 100% grain diet. These calves can still be on grass, BUT if you want tender beef, supplement with grain. Don't think that we're implicating you feed them up like beef cattle in a CAFO feedlot!!!!!! PLEASE do not think that!! Because we are not implicating, mentioning nor encouraging such a thing!! All of us know that cattle in a feedlot environment are not healthy animals and the beef is not healthy coming off such carcasses, we know that. What we're saying is that there is nothing wrong--and nothing unhealthy, at all--about supplementing cattle with grain when it's necessary. And right now, until you put those calves-turned-steers to the knife, it's very necessary. Please, do not take this as a interpretation that these calves shouldn't be on grass for all their short lives; they should, but do yourself and your palate a favor by supplementing with grain or a similar supplemental feed.
California cowgirl is absolutely correct that these calves can't be put on grass alone at this age. They are too young, their rumens are too underdeveloped to be on such a harsh diet, so they need their milk, on a daily basis, until they are around 3 to 4 months of age. I've seen this personally, as I am studying Animal Science specializing in cattle production at a university in the location I've posted, the digestive system of a calf, and there is literally almost no rumen when a calf is born. The abomasum (true stomach) is the largest organ of the stomach chambers from when the calf is born until a month or so prior to the predicted time that a calf has a fully functional rumen. Grain is one of the important feedstuffs that encourage rumen development and function, grass is second to that. Milk is minor to that, but is still very essential to the calf at this age.
I hope you understand.
