Buy or pass?

[frenchie]

Contrary to popular opinion(as usual)I would never buy a bottle calf in hopes of making her into a brood cow.

Based on a number of responses to different things here lately, it would appear that you are a bit narrow-minded with a cut and dried approach to a lot of things. I must say, I'm more than a little surprised at that.

He speaks his mind ..thats all..to each his own

 

[HOSS]

OK.....I loaded them up last night and brought them home. BA heifer works pretty easily. Baldy heifer is somewhat flighty and nervous. I hope this improves with time. During the loading process she turned and tried to go through me. Thank goodness for the bat length piece of 2" pvc pipe that I was carrying, one hard swat on the nose turned her around. I have them in a 2 acre holding pasture now letting them get aclimated to the new place and watching them for any illnesses. If all is well they go in with the others.

 

[Caustic Burno]

.....they have been babied so much that they fall apart for a month or two when they have to go to work for a living.

Not necessarily. There are actually a number of people out there that don't baby bottle calves - at least in this area. I would be willing to bet the same is true for other area's, as well.

I have never had a bottle calf turn out worth a piece of dried up monkey crap. That goes for show heifers as well, I have bought a box car load of them to help kids. Only one ever stayed she was a Brangus.

 

[Alice]

My Daddy had one of the finest holstein herds in the state...and that's not brag, just fact. Every single, solitary holstein heifer born on my Daddy's dairy, then used as a replacement was, of course, bottle fed.

And, of course, the bull calves born were bottle fed. Some he kept, cut, and sold at the sale. Most were sold to people that knew the quality of cows that Daddy had. I do not remember there ever being more than a handful of calves, heifers or bulls, that did not grow and thrive, while I was feeding them, under Daddy's supervision, as a teenager.

When I left the dairy, my aunt took over, and in the 15 years that she took care of those calves, and I mean meticulous care of those calves, according to her records, 5 live birth babies died...2 of them killed by dogs.

Quality cows, quality care and proper AI selection goes a long way.

Alice

 

[peg4x4]

But them and try them..at that price,unless something goes drasticly bad,you can't go wrong

 

[MillIronQH]

Here's the Cuero prices from last Fri.Z

http://www.cuerols.com/marketreport.html

 

[msscamp]

Contrary to popular opinion(as usual)I would never buy a bottle calf in hopes of making her into a brood cow.

Based on a number of responses to different things here lately, it would appear that you are a bit narrow-minded with a cut and dried approach to a lot of things. I must say, I'm more than a little surprised at that.

He speaks his mind ..thats all..to each his own

You're right, and I can (and do) respect that. Please forgive me for not thinking about my response prior to responding.

 

[msscamp]

.....they have been babied so much that they fall apart for a month or two when they have to go to work for a living.

Not necessarily. There are actually a number of people out there that don't baby bottle calves - at least in this area. I would be willing to bet the same is true for other area's, as well.

I have never had a bottle calf turn out worth a piece of dried up monkey crap. That goes for show heifers as well, I have bought a box car load of them to help kids. Only one ever stayed she was a Brangus.

Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but since one stayed you can't say you've "never had one turn out worth a piece of dried up monkey crap", now can you? ;-) I agree that bottle calves rarely make the cut, but it is possible - we've had a few who made the cut. Sometimes genetics overcomes environment.

 

[dun]

With proper nutrition there is no reason a bottle calf can't owrk out as a productive cow or bull. The operative word is proper. Too many people wean a calf off the bottle at 8 weeks and either quit or decrease, or never increase their grain consumption.
If a bottle calf couldn;t be made to become productive the dairys would be out of business since they wouldn;t have any replacements.
It's not as easy as raising calves on a cow, but in some ways it falls into the same category as AI. If you don;t want to invest the time and management required, don;t do it.

dun

 

[msscamp]

With proper nutrition there is no reason a bottle calf can't owrk out as a productive cow or bull. The operative word is proper. Too many people wean a calf off the bottle at 8 weeks and either quit or decrease, or never increase their grain consumption.
If a bottle calf couldn;t be made to become productive the dairys would be out of business since they wouldn;t have any replacements.
It's not as easy as raising calves on a cow, but in some ways it falls into the same category as AI. If you don;t want to invest the time and management required, don;t do it.

dun

Valid points.

 

[Caustic Burno]

.....they have been babied so much that they fall apart for a month or two when they have to go to work for a living.

Not necessarily. There are actually a number of people out there that don't baby bottle calves - at least in this area. I would be willing to bet the same is true for other area's, as well.

I have never had a bottle calf turn out worth a piece of dried up monkey crap. That goes for show heifers as well, I have bought a box car load of them to help kids. Only one ever stayed she was a Brangus.

Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but since one stayed you can't say you've "never had one turn out worth a piece of dried up monkey crap", now can you? ;-) I agree that bottle calves rarely make the cut, but it is possible - we've had a few who made the cut. Sometimes genetics overcomes environment.

Reread that is a show heifer that stayed not a bottle calf. So as I obviously stated the bottle calfs were crap.

 

[holly heifer]

:lol: I have raised lots of bottle heifers and steers. The heifers
all have become good mothers with the added bounus of being
able to go out into the pasture , halter them and lead them to
where ever. They all " fit into the herd" and had no trouble
adjusting to a " harder" life. The steers were gentle and
I have a neighbor that always wants them to feed out for his freezer. I sell them at 500 lbs for $1.00 to $1.50 per lb.
To say that all bottle calves are crap is false.

 

[Caustic Burno]

:lol: I have raised lots of bottle heifers and steers. The heifers
all have become good mothers with the added bounus of being
able to go out into the pasture , halter them and lead them to
where ever. They all " fit into the herd" and had no trouble
adjusting to a " harder" life. The steers were gentle and
I have a neighbor that always wants them to feed out for his freezer. I sell them at 500 lbs for $1.00 to $1.50 per lb.
To say that all bottle calves are crap is false.

I will say it again they are crap to take to the salebarn and let some one with nothing to do buy. I raise beef for the most pounds and least input. A bottle calf is nothing but an anchor.

 

[stocky]

There has become quite a difference of opinion on this board on bottle calves. Some of it seems to be that bottle calves are too much work. That is a seperate and individual issue of whether or not you have time to raise them on the bottle. There is the other issue of whether or not they make good cows to keep. As far as the dairy industry goes, every calf is a bottle calf, so if they are all crap, there is no dairy industry. So, that statement is obviously false. The debate seems to be about beef cows. For many years, all of our beef cows came out of the dairy herd and were all bucket or bottle raised. They were very easy to work cows and gentle all over the field. They didnt get excited and our old fences were never a problem. You didnt need an expensive corral, because they didnt get excited and they didnt take off to try to break out. When we quit milking, we started adding beef cows that were raised on their mommas. It was very hard to get used to the difference in their temperaments. We had to build pipe corrals and buy headgates and build lead in fences to get these cattle rounded up and work them. We ended up learning that the easiest way is to train them with a sack of grain. We still have some cows that were raised on the bottle, they are old, but they are a true joy to work with. Those cattle raised monster calves, but that was genetics, being 1/4-1/2 dairy (different subject). It is obvious that alot of people want nothing to do with cows that were bottle raised. Because I have had so many of both and I hated all the extra effort and expense to change from bottle raised cows, I dont understand this. I would be interested in hearing from the people who hate bottle raised mommas what problems they have had that make them feel that way.

 

[TnWI]

I have been given the opportunity to buy a BA heifer about 600 pounds and a black baldy heifer about 500 pounds for 1.00 per pound each or 1000 dollars for both. Strictly commercial stuff, well fed and decent builds albeit a little shorter in the legs than I prefer. I know the guy that owns them well and he bought them and they were raised on a bottle. I have never bought bottle fed heifers before. Ya'll think that they should be worth a buck a pound?

I have raised bottle babies - they end up being easy as heck to handle, and most of the time you can catch something going wrong before it turns into a issue because you are handling them so much. And believe me, when calving time comes, and you need to be one on one with that heifer - her being so easy to handle will be a huge asset.

 

[DOC HARRIS]

[quoteIf I am not happy with them I will ship them to the sale barn and get my money back.][/quote]Good decision, Hoss. "Tough Love" -which you should be prepared for in advance - will probably be 'tougher' on you than on the calves!

DOC HARRIS