Bucket Calves Costs?

[bverellen]

Does anyone have a handle on costs to get bucket calves to pasture?

Purchase price aside, how much milk replacer, meds, calf starter and grain is required to get them from 2-3 days old to weaned and on straight pasture?

Thanks.

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[suzorse]

1 to 2 bags of replacer per calf and that is not the cheap stuff , 20/20 all milk ( NO SOY) and the meds depends on if they need any treatment or not, 2 bags at least of starter per calf , and then I keep them on grain till they are 6 months old 1/2 a large can morning and night, so about 6lbs a day
Suzanne

 

[bverellen]

Thanks Suzeorse.

So maybe 2 50# bags of replacer, 2 50# bags of starter and 6# of grain for 5 months is about a 1/2 ton, or rather, 1000#.

Are you buying your grain from a feed store or getting it from a mill? Mixed grains or straight?

I'm thinking maybe $25. for meds, vacs, wormer and a quality mineral/salt per calf. Sound about right?

Thanks for helping me get this penciled out.

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[alisonb]

Don't forget to include your labor costs...

 

[Bez__]

Don't forget to include your labor costs...

LOL

Really?

I think some here (not me) would rather forget those costs!

Bez__

 

[bverellen]

Don't forget to include your labor costs...

Thanks. I'm also needing to figure in pasture lease costs and fuel. I want to do a comparison to buying stockers.

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[Lucky_P]

I made some GOOD money on bottle (mostly Holsteins) calves back in the mid-1980s - but had minimal illness/death loss. Made enough $$ on the steers to pay for raising a bunch of heifers, and sold them as breds for a nifty profit.

Last time we fooled with any, in the late 1990s, we took a big hit with pretty high mortality from coronavirus scours - and the market tanked - 4-5cwt calves brought just about the same $$ we paid for the things as 1-3 day old calves.
I don't have any intention of trying that again...

 

[bverellen]

Why couldn't a person wean them off calf starter by introducing hay to them to build the correct rumen microbes and then kick them out on grass and forego the cost of grain?

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[TexasBred]

1 to 2 bags of replacer per calf and that is not the cheap stuff , 20/20 all milk ( NO SOY) and the meds depends on if they need any treatment or not, 2 bags at least of starter per calf , and then I keep them on grain till they are 6 months old 1/2 a large can morning and night, so about 6lbs a day
Suzanne

Everybody has their own methods but most around here figure using 1-50 lb. bag of milk replacer and get them eating a good calf starter ASAP. They should be eating 2-3 lbs. of calf starter by the time the milk replacer is gone and we able to graze.

 

[Nesikep]

bverellen

The calves would probably survive that way, but they aren't going to grow at all... I don't see how feeding them hay is going to change their rumen compared to eating grass, and certainly not in a beneficial direction. I'm sure you could play with the amount of grain a bit either way

 

[regolith]

Why couldn't a person wean them off calf starter by introducing hay to them to build the correct rumen microbes and then kick them out on grass and forego the cost of grain?

†

maybe because they're still pre-ruminants?
You can grow calves without grain but you need to extend the milk feeding time to do it, and when the budgets are done, most find that grain and grain by-products are cheaper to feed than milk.

I probably run similar to Suzorse's figures for milk and feed (using milk from my dairy herd at 4 - 5 litres a day for ten weeks) because I like to grow the calves properly. It can be done on around half the feed but your risks of a poor result are much higher.
For my own system, I figured if I could sell a weaned calf for $NZ250 (not counting labour and equipment as I'm raising a group of replacement heifer calves anyway) I'd break even on feed and calf costs. Most years the dairy bulls can make $NZ350plus at 220 - 250lb. At that age they're vaccinated twice for blackleg and wormed twice, no other meds unless they're sick.

 

[M.Magis]

Why couldn't a person wean them off calf starter by introducing hay to them to build the correct rumen microbes and then kick them out on grass and forego the cost of grain?

†

With the only two bottle calves I've ever messed with, that's exactly what I did. I did give them some calf starter for the last few weeks before weaning at 10 weeks (I think). After that they went with the rest of the cows until I sold them as yearlings. As mentioned, they didn't grow anywhere near what you would expect a calf to grow. On the other hand, I made money on them. Not much, but it's better than losing money, which I also have experience in.