Hello. You mentioned getting the calf for 4H. I take that you eventually plan to show it and then either breed it (if a nice heifer) or auction it off as beef. You should plan on getting the calf so it will fit in with show schedual. Around my area I only have 2 county shows available to me per year, within 3 months of each other, I don't know how often you have them in your neck of the woods but you should probably look into that. What I mean anyway is, say you get your calf in December of 2006. Being a bottle calf you'll probably get it at a few days old, so it will be ready for slaughter/auction at an average of 15-18 months of age, in March 2008 at the earliest. So you should have a show/auction within a 3 month period of them reaching average age.
You also need to look into locating a local vet that deals with cattle, just in case of an emergency. You need to know that they need to have their hooves trimmed, and who you can contact to get that done. They may need to be de-horned. They may need to be castrated. Your vet should be able to handle those. Some states require they be vaccinated prior to reaching a certain age. Your vet should know this info as well.
Your 4H leader may be able to help you. If you need further info you should also try contacting any of the local FFA leaders. They will probably be very glad to get you some help.
You'll need a small baby-cow-head-sized rope halter. I used a rope lamb halter on mine. It fit perfect. Also the bottle, milk replacer, ect.
When I got my first bottle calf it was a do or die spur of the moment type thing. A dairymen from the edge of town donated her to our FFA chapter after her momma died during birth. He dropped this little day old heifer off at the highschool in at the start of the day. When I first saw her she had been there for a good 5 hours. All these kids clammerin to pet on her, no milk, 100 degree weather. She looked like a bag of antlers. The teacher was busy with work, so I voluntered to go get some milk replacer. We used a glass coke bottle and an old nipple we found in a shed to give her her first bottle. Poor little thing couldn't get it down fast enough. Later that day I paid 100 bucks to try to grow her up. She got sick, sometimes severely, off and on for the first month but I kept her alive somehow. She learned to walk on her halter within a few days. And I had her setting her feet within a month. Due to limited space she lived in a pen with my show steer. He was a big brute but as sweet as honey, they got along great and he loved havin the company(i wouldnt recomend tryin this, I only did it because we didn't have any other place for her). After a few month I had to decide what to raise her as. I planned on raising her for beef. I switched back and forth on beef or breeding, breeding or beef, it's the whole getting hooked and wanting to hold on to your 'pet', but you'll need to get over it. At 14 months she reached 1,100# just in time for the last show of the year. Sold her for half of what I put into her. I sure learned alot though.
I wish I had more of an opportunity to learn and plan out the process of raising a calf, before I purchased her. My experience was mostly by trial and error. I feel I could of produced a much better calf if I understood a lot more about the nutritional factors that bottle calves require. So you should probably look into that sort of stuff as well.
:oops: Here I am chatterin away about nonsense when all you wanted were some good links ;-) well here ya go:
http://animalscience.tamu.edu/ansc/...gingbeefcattleshow.pdf#search='show beef age'
http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docus...95/N-135_web.pdf#search='bottle feeding beef'
(this first two should work if you copy and paste ;-) )
http://www.motherearthnews.com/top_articles/1978_March_April/Starting_Right_with_Bottle_Calves
http://www.calfnotes.com/
Good luck with everything. Make sure you update us, or me at least, on your plans. I'd love to hear about it!
