2 week old calf Self weaning

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Hereford2

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I have a head scratcher for you all. I have a 16 day old Brown Swiss steer calf I started giving him grain 3 days ago, it's a 15% Calf Grower from my local feed mill, (they don't sell calf starter) . This calf has decided that he didn't want his bottle this morning he sniffed at the bottle and stuck his nose in his empty grain pan and bawled, so I gave him a pound of grain and he went to eating it, I was just giving him about a half of a pound, so what is going to happen to him if he won't drink any milk. ? I don't remember having a calf that preferred grain over milk that young? I had a 5 month old calf that self weaned 1 time.
 

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At that age, his stomach is nowhere near ready to process strictly solid food. And I wouldn't call missing one bottle self weaning, he just didn't want it for whatever reason. Try again later.
 
Yes probably
At that age, his stomach is nowhere near ready to process strictly solid food. And I wouldn't call missing one bottle self weaning, he just didn't want it for whatever reason. Try again later.
Yes I agree, wrong terminology. I'm not going to give up on him taking the bottle.
 
I always tried to get steer bottle calves weaned by 4 weeks, 6 weeks max. Heifers... I'd bottle them on out to 8 weeks, if need be. I'd cram a handful of calf starter in their mouth at each feeding and any time I happened to be passing by. Once they were eating 1.5 lbs a day, I cut the bottle off and rapidly bumped them up to about 5 pounds a day, and started letting them graze or have access to good quality hay at about 8 weeks, in addition to their starter/grower ration.
2 weeks is pretty young, and I'd probably keep on trying him on the bottle, but if he'll eat enough of a good quality grain/SBM-based ration, he can do OK. Plenty of digestible nutrients in a grain ration... hay/grass - not so much; the grain in those starter/grower rations does a much better job of pushing rumen development than does early forage/roughage ingestion.
 
Just asking because I really don't know. Isn't 2 weeks old a bit early to push calf starter and stuff? Yes they nibble on hay and stuff when they are with the herd, but that's about it.
Again....... I really don't know. Just asking.
 
I like to have my calves, even those on beef cows, coming in the creep gate and putting their noses into the bunk. Bottle calves I try to get them eating some by 2 weeks.
Brown swiss are also very difficult calves. The breed is known to have an actual syndrome that makes calves not want a bottle if they have sucked a cow. They are also picky..... I am thinking that your calf just didn't want the bottle that feeding. I would definitely keep on trying it and trying a little milk in a bucket might do it.
 
I always tried to get steer bottle calves weaned by 4 weeks, 6 weeks max. Heifers... I'd bottle them on out to 8 weeks, if need be. I'd cram a handful of calf starter in their mouth at each feeding and any time I happened to be passing by. Once they were eating 1.5 lbs a day, I cut the bottle off and rapidly bumped them up to about 5 pounds a day, and started letting them graze or have access to good quality hay at about 8 weeks, in addition to their starter/grower ration.
2 weeks is pretty young, and I'd probably keep on trying him on the bottle, but if he'll eat enough of a good quality grain/SBM-based ration, he can do OK. Plenty of digestible nutrients in a grain ration... hay/grass - not so much; the grain in those starter/grower rations does a much better job of pushing rumen development than does early forage/roughage ingestion.
Last night I ended up putting the milk in a pan and he drank some of it, then I poured the milk into the bottle and he finished it! I took his water away overnight and he drank his bottle this morning and ate grain! He was drinking 3/4 of a gallon of water plus grain plus 2 bottles and I think it caught up to him ?
 
sunnyblue...
Feeding milk replacer is the most expensive and labor-intensive part of raising 'bottle calves'. The sooner you can get them weaned and eating sufficient amounts of a good quality 16-20% protein calf starter/grower ration, the better - for you and your wallet. I always made fresh calf-starter ration available for my calves from the time I got them, at 3-4 days of age, to encourage them to try it - and would cram a handful in their mouths after each feeding, or any time I just happened to be passing by. Current nutritional recommendations (for dairy heifers, but no reason not to follow for steers) is not to feed hay before 8 weeks of age, and even then, it should be a high-quality product with 18% CP and 35% ADF.... which would probably have to be an early-cut alfalfa/grass mix... not many mixed grass hays will have that sort of quality.

Farmerjan,
There's an old veterinary joke about the vet who received a call from a dairy client who had a problem with a Brown Swiss bull calf... something was wrong with him! "What seems to be the matter?" , asked the vet. "He know how to nurse!", replied the dairyman.
I had very few clients who milked Swiss cows, so I had little to no firsthand experience with them. We bred some of our beef cows to Braunvieh bulls for a few years, but never had any issues with those calves.
 
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