Buying and reselling holstien bull calves

[WBar Farms]

Any one on here do that? Is there any money in buying the calves for like 50 bucks then reselling them however much time later? Ive been considering doing this to make a little money but was wondering if it was really worth it. Any info would be great. Such as whats the best kind of feed? How long should i feed them milk? How long should I keep them? How much work is it gonna take. Whatever info you could give me would be great.
Thanks
Steve

 

[backhoeboogie]

In my opinion you are better off buying splits at the sale barn. If someone sells an aged cow with a calf paired up and no one bids much, they'll split them. The calves generally have had a full start already. You have to put them in a chute and force the bottle in the first time. After that they are big friends with ya. Lots of those calves are out of a terminal bull and no one wants them for this climate so they go cheap. They sell better that dairy calves when you turn them.

There are a lot of hispanics buying holstein calves and turning them as pot gutted doggies. Before I got into holsteins, I'd get a market and I'd feed them properly so they wouldn't doggy on me.

Now someone is going to pm me again so I'll answer NOW. A doggy is an orphaned calf. Have you ever heard the term "get along lil doggy?" A doggy will have a pot gut and stick legs (a.k.a. grass belly).

If you have a dozen nurse cows, you can turn more beef calves than someone running a hundred head. You'll also turn more profit (if you have the time). It costs me 70 to 80 cents a day per calf to let them nurse for 100 days, innoculations, feed and hay. A good nurse cow can raise 8 calves per year.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Here's a pic of my nursing crate: http://ranchers.net/photopost/showphoto ... puser/2144

I was stripping colostrums in the pic. The cow goes in and the calves are crowded in to her. After they have nursed this cow three days, they all have her scent. I can then turn all 5 out to pasture with no problems. She's 1/2 holstein and 1/2 jersey so she doesn't look so hot. She's made me a lot of nickels.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

. A doggy is an orphaned calf. Have you ever heard the term "get along lil doggy?" A doggy will have a pot gut and stick legs (a.k.a. grass belly).

normally I don't go around correcting spelling but this is kind of a special case. A doggy is a grown up puppy. A dogie is an orphaned calf. In different parts of the county they may both be pronounced like the first (although doggy tends to be used more by the pre-school set). In my part of the country, dogie is pronounced with a long o like that sandwich that has many names, a hoagie. ;-)

and be careful looking up doggy or doggie as you will get lots of info on an adult topic (that would be dodgy at work)

 

[3waycross]

BHB thanks for the info. Who cares how it's spelled. It's the content that matters.

 

[backhoeboogie]

BHB thanks for the info. Who cares how it's spelled. It's the content that matters.

No Problem. Hippie is right. Forgot to mention it is good to let a 3 week old calf get a little hungry before crowding it towards the nurse cow.

Another trick (without a headgate or nursing crate) is to take milk from the cow and sponge it onto the calf. It has worked and it gives the calves her scent. Keep her natural calf penned with the graft calves (if applicable) until she accepts them all.

Thanks Hippie and 3-way too.

Never heard it in the Hoagie fashion but it aint no big deal. Heck I had never heard a brindle referred to as a Tiger Stripe til I came here.

 

[kscowboy]

In answer to your question can you make any money , if you are located somewhere where there is a market for holstein steers probably.I see in Cal they run in the .90 cent range. Here in kansas they rarely bring more than .70 cents a lb at sale and it's usually lower. I have some i sell as butcher beef and do ok with that but you can only move so many of those. Heavy dairy states are better . After having these fellas I'd say always get a beef breed even if mixed breed cuz you can sell them at market when you need to and not take a beating like you may on dairy steers.

 

[TexasBred]

Any one on here do that? Is there any money in buying the calves for like 50 bucks then reselling them however much time later? Ive been considering doing this to make a little money but was wondering if it was really worth it. Any info would be great. Such as whats the best kind of feed? How long should i feed them milk? How long should I keep them? How much work is it gonna take. Whatever info you could give me would be great.
Thanks
Steve

Back to your original question. I assume you're talking about buying baby holstein bull calves. If so they're worth more like 5 to 15 bucks.....so don't start off at $50 as it's going to be an uphill battle even starting with a cheap calf.

 

[novaman]

I think you could make money once you got set up for it and had your ducks in a row. I generally sell all my Holstein bulls because I just don't have the time or energy to put into them. If you have time and energy you could make it work. I think you would have to grow them out to a pretty good size before selling them, possibly even finished. The thing with Holsteins is it usually takes longer to get them finished than your typically beef animal. Like TB said, if you can pick them up cheap enough there is always a chance to be profitable. The key is minimizing death loss and sickness. If you can do that you are in good shape to do well. Good luck.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Who cares how it's spelled.

I do, that's why I posted. :tiphat: (and that should have had a question mark instead of a period. )
Also stated I don't normally go around correcting spelling. Was trying to continue passing on some info about the subject in a gentle but humorous way. Someone was explaining the concept and terminology of orphan calves. Just wanted to expand and clarify. When everybody understands what is meant, spelling isn't as important, but when the subject itself is misspelled it could be confusing to somebody just learning. :wave:

 

[3waycross]

Who cares how it's spelled.

I do, that's why I posted. :tiphat: (and that should have had a question mark instead of a period. )
Also stated I don't normally go around correcting spelling. Was trying to continue passing on some info about the subject in a gentle but humorous way. Someone was explaining the concept and terminology of orphan calves. Just wanted to expand and clarify. When everybody understands what is meant, spelling isn't as important, but when the subject itself is misspelled it could be confusing to somebody just learning. :wave:

Don't you have someplace to go for another year, or so???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? :tiphat: :wave:

BTW Saying I don't usually go around correcting spelling and then correcting spelling is kind of like saying "you don't sweat much for a fat girl". It's disingeneous at best and disrespectful at worst. I say again,"Who Cares?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[3waycross]

One last thought, and then I will go away on this thread. You are CORRECT. there is, however evidence of more than one accepted spelling for the term.
In this case different than BHB's version but the meaning is the same, and since it is a coloquialism, who's to say which version is correct??????????????????

Songs by Woody Guthrie and Guitar, Recorded in the Phonoduplication Studio by Alan Lomax and John Langenegger
Stewball 4491-A1 Jan 4 1941 Vocals / Guitar
Stagolee 4491-A2 Vocals / Guitar
One Dime Blues 4491-A3 Vocals / Guitar
Woopie Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Doggies 4491-B1 Vocals / Guitar
Trail To Mexico 4491-B2 Vocals / Guitar (fragment)
The Gypsy Davy 4491-B3 Vocals / Guitar
There is a House in this Old Town 4491-B4 Vocals / Guitar

[edit] American Studio of the Air, Radio Show


source Wikepedia

 

[backhoeboogie]

Woopie Ti Yi Yo

Shucks 3 way, I don't even have that one in my vocabulary. Reckon I ought to learn the spelling and pronouciation too!

Git Along Little Doggies 4491-B1 Vocals / Guitar

Maybe I should have stood my ground???

I have always seen it spelled as doggy (doggies plural) but really didn't have an absolute and it comes from laymen who aint all that particular. Most times I hear the term verbally. Things like, "Look at this bunch of doggies coming in the ring" by folks sitting with me at the sale barn.

I used the term on here once and got some pms. So I tried to clarify it this time.

It aint no big thang. It is just a look for a malnourished calf. Lots of bottle calves get that look.

 

[3waycross]

Woopie Ti Yi Yo

Shucks 3 way, I don't even have that one in my vocabulary. Reckon I ought to learn the spelling and pronouciation too!

Git Along Little Doggies 4491-B1 Vocals / Guitar

Maybe I should have stood my ground???

I have always seen it spelled as doggy (doggies plural) but really didn't have an absolute and it comes from laymen who aint all that particular. Most times I hear the term verbally. Things like, "Look at this bunch of doggies coming in the ring" by folks sitting with me at the sale barn.

I used the term on here once and got some pms. So I tried to clarify it this time.

It aint no big thang. It is just a look for a malnourished calf. Lots of bottle calves get that look.

Well buddy i learned it the same as you did. What was different from me was hearing my Grandpa say it with an Italian accent. I can't even begin to spell what that sounded like. Like you say it's no big thing. Just old cowboy talk and I guarantee nobody ever cared how it was spelt :cowboy:

 

[hillsdown]

Woopie Ti Yi Yo

Shucks 3 way, I don't even have that one in my vocabulary. Reckon I ought to learn the spelling and pronouciation too!

Git Along Little Doggies 4491-B1 Vocals / Guitar

Maybe I should have stood my ground???

I have always seen it spelled as doggy (doggies plural) but really didn't have an absolute and it comes from laymen who aint all that particular. Most times I hear the term verbally. Things like, "Look at this bunch of doggies coming in the ring" by folks sitting with me at the sale barn.

I used the term on here once and got some pms. So I tried to clarify it this time.

It aint no big thang. It is just a look for a malnourished calf. Lots of bottle calves get that look.

Well buddy i learned it the same as you did. What was different from me was hearing my Grandpa say it with an Italian accent. I can't even begin to spell what that sounded like. Like you say it's no big thing. Just old cowboy talk and I guarantee nobody ever cared how it was spelt :cowboy:

Shouldn't that be spelled ???????? :lol2: :help:

 

[3waycross]

Woopie Ti Yi Yo

Shucks 3 way, I don't even have that one in my vocabulary. Reckon I ought to learn the spelling and pronouciation too!

Git Along Little Doggies 4491-B1 Vocals / Guitar

Maybe I should have stood my ground???

I have always seen it spelled as doggy (doggies plural) but really didn't have an absolute and it comes from laymen who aint all that particular. Most times I hear the term verbally. Things like, "Look at this bunch of doggies coming in the ring" by folks sitting with me at the sale barn.

I used the term on here once and got some pms. So I tried to clarify it this time.

It aint no big thang. It is just a look for a malnourished calf. Lots of bottle calves get that look.

Well buddy i learned it the same as you did. What was different from me was hearing my Grandpa say it with an Italian accent. I can't even begin to spell what that sounded like. Like you say it's no big thing. Just old cowboy talk and I guarantee nobody ever cared how it was spelt :cowboy:

Shouldn't that be spelled ???????? :lol2: :help:

Shouldn't you be somewhere spoiling a Border Collie.???????? ;-) ;-)

 

[Hippie Rancher]

BTW Saying I don't usually go around correcting spelling and then correcting spelling is kind of like saying "you don't sweat much for a fat girl". It's disingeneous at best and disrespectful at worst. I say again,"Who Cares?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Um, seems like YOU do, judging by all your replies. Your sweaty analogy doesn't really make sense, other than a tenuous connection to rudeness. I do agree that correcting someone's spelling can be rude and/or disrespectful, that is why I don't normally go around doing so, as I explained. Disingenuous? Hardly. Now searching far and wide for a spelling example to back up a losing argument? THAT might be called disingenuous.

Googling "doggie" gives me either dog-related or human sexual references (no calves on the first 3 pages – that is as far as I went)

"doggy" the same as doggie – three pages, all dog or position

"dogie" the first 3 pages are all about orphan calves except for two entries and some images, with a few misspellings for the "dog" version

----------------------------------------

Dictionary.com says this:

doggie, doggy [daw-gee, dog-ee]
(wants doggie to be doggy, and my spell check doesn't like the "ggie" version either)
–noun,plural-gies.
1. a little dog or a puppy.
2. a pet term for any dog.

Also, doggie.
Origin:
1815–25; dog + -y2


do·gie [doh-gee]
–nounWestern U.S.
a motherless calf in a cattle herd.
Also, dogey, dogy.
Origin:
1885–90, Americanism; orig. obscure; alleged to be doughg(uts) + -ie

related word: leppy

In the language of the American West, a motherless calf is known as a dogie. In Western Words Ramon F. Adams gives one possible etymology for dogie, whose origin is unknown. During the 1880s, when a series of harsh winters left large numbers of orphaned calves, the little calves, weaned too early, were unable to digest coarse range grass, and their swollen bellies "very much resembled a batch of sourdough carried in a sack." Such a calf was referred to as dough-guts. The term, altered to dogie according to Adams, "has been used ever since throughout cattleland to refer to a pot-gutted orphan calf." Another possibility is that dogie is an alteration of Spanish dogal, "lariat." Still another is that it is simply a variant pronunciation of doggie.

And finally,

Don't you have someplace to go for another year, or so???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? :tiphat: :wave:

YOU can always add me as a "foe" and you won't have to see my posts, 'cause unless the site owner wants me gone, I'm not going anywhere. :tiphat:

 

[longtimelurker]

The thing with Holsteins is it usually takes longer to get them finished than your typically beef animal.

How come?

 

[3waycross]

BTW Saying I don't usually go around correcting spelling and then correcting spelling is kind of like saying "you don't sweat much for a fat girl". It's disingeneous at best and disrespectful at worst. I say again,"Who Cares?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Um, seems like YOU do, judging by all your replies. Your sweaty analogy doesn't really make sense, other than a tenuous connection to rudeness. I do agree that correcting someone's spelling can be rude and/or disrespectful, that is why I don't normally go around doing so, as I explained. Disingenuous? Hardly. Now searching far and wide for a spelling example to back up a losing argument? THAT might be called disingenuous.

Googling "doggie" gives me either dog-related or human sexual references (no calves on the first 3 pages – that is as far as I went)

"doggy" the same as doggie – three pages, all dog or position

"dogie" the first 3 pages are all about orphan calves except for two entries and some images, with a few misspellings for the "dog" version

----------------------------------------

Dictionary.com says this:

doggie, doggy [daw-gee, dog-ee]
(wants doggie to be doggy, and my spell check doesn't like the "ggie" version either)
–noun,plural-gies.
1. a little dog or a puppy.
2. a pet term for any dog.

Also, doggie.
Origin:
1815–25; dog + -y2


do·gie [doh-gee]
–nounWestern U.S.
a motherless calf in a cattle herd.
Also, dogey, dogy.
Origin:
1885–90, Americanism; orig. obscure; alleged to be doughg(uts) + -ie

related word: leppy

In the language of the American West, a motherless calf is known as a dogie. In Western Words Ramon F. Adams gives one possible etymology for dogie, whose origin is unknown. During the 1880s, when a series of harsh winters left large numbers of orphaned calves, the little calves, weaned too early, were unable to digest coarse range grass, and their swollen bellies "very much resembled a batch of sourdough carried in a sack." Such a calf was referred to as dough-guts. The term, altered to dogie according to Adams, "has been used ever since throughout cattleland to refer to a pot-gutted orphan calf." Another possibility is that dogie is an alteration of Spanish dogal, "lariat." Still another is that it is simply a variant pronunciation of doggie.

And finally,

Don't you have someplace to go for another year, or so???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? :tiphat: :wave:

YOU can always add me as a "foe" and you won't have to see my posts, 'cause unless the site owner wants me gone, I'm not going anywhere. :tiphat:

You must feel a lot better now. I was just kidding about you leaving for another year. God only knows how the rest of us communicated and spelled without you to correct us while you were gone. I personally hope you stick around we could use a little more NM perspective on here.

No lighten up and "get along little doggy"

 

[ga. prime]

Spelt and spelled mean the same thing and can be used interchangeably. Both are the past tense of the verb spell- meaning to name or write in order the letters constituting a word.