Calf Pics

[Keren]

Cheers Larry and rego, those are my thoughts exactly. I havent had huge problems with suckers but then again I dont do it on as large a scale as you. The very few suckers I had always stopped once they were eating feed.

Funny, the one time I did have quite a bit to do with calf rearing in large numbers, we had a home made calfeteria on a trailer, 60 teats on it, it was great, I'd hook it on to the four wheeler and fill it up at the dairy, drive it down to the calf barn. I'd do three runs because this place ran the calves in three batches according to age - between 30 and 60 in each batch. I know it is better if you pen them individually or even in small groups but this is how that place did it and it worked for them. After the three runs with the calfeteria all I had left were the very young calves - they were fed by hand with a bottle and kept in individual pens. But boy, that calfeteria on the trailer made things easier. Wish I had a pic of it.

My daughters argue about who "gets" to feed the calves-and not just the first week we have them, either

You are very lucky. My nephews lose interest after a day or two.

 

[regolith]

Pretty much everyone I know out here runs their calves in batches about that size.

I'll chuck up a picture given a few minutes... those trailed feeders are expensive and I'm not up to the home-made variety. I use the same large group feeders that I feed them with when they're in the sheds, hung on the back of the tractor. With two 12-teat feeders and a ten, I can get 34 calves in a group - in theory I could back the tractor off and use a fourth side if I wanted to.
Next year I get to rear 65 calves only (that's what my contract allows), so I'll probably stick with this system.

 

[regolith]

*Please ignore the result of my laziness + careless driving hanging off that back rail* (the idea is to turn the side feeders in before racing through gateways)

 

[larryshoat]

*Please ignore the result of my laziness + careless driving hanging off that back rail* (the idea is to turn the side feeders in before racing through gateways)

Looks good, I think the weather here would make that difficult, but maybe a big group in late summer might work .

Larry

 

[Keren]

cool idea rego :clap:

 

[donnaIL]

nice lookin barn and baby calves, i personally like the calve in the middle second pen back with the heart shaped marking on his head...hope you make lots of money *thats what im always hoping for* donna

 

[larryshoat]

nice lookin barn and baby calves, i personally like the calve in the middle second pen back with the heart shaped marking on his head...hope you make lots of money *thats what im always hoping for* donna

Thanks donna, if we don't make money just look at the fun we've had :lol2: .

Larry

 

[Keren]

nice lookin barn and baby calves, i personally like the calve in the middle second pen back with the heart shaped marking on his head...hope you make lots of money *thats what im always hoping for* donna

Thanks donna, if we don't make money just look at the fun we've had :lol2: .

Larry

Thats the spirit! :lol2:

 

[GMN]

Thanks angie, we mix milk 60 gallons at a time and have a pump and hose to fill the bottles, so it's not so bad .

Larry

How much do you have in cost of milk replacer and grain for that many calves vs, how much you actually make when you sell them?

GMN

 

[gberry]

That's an interesting setup Larry. Calves look really good. How often do you have to change the bedding? How old are they when you wean them?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Sounds like a lot of PERSONAL questions to me.

 

[larryshoat]

Thanks angie, we mix milk 60 gallons at a time and have a pump and hose to fill the bottles, so it's not so bad .

Larry

How much do you have in cost of milk replacer and grain for that many calves vs, how much you actually make when you sell them?

GMN

I usually figure 50 lbs milk replacer@ $34 per calf, $30 in vaccines and medicine, 150bu.corn @$4, $50 for the calf, $50 labor . That brings us to $764, the contracts we have now are for 78 cents, .78x1300=$1014, $1014-$764=$250 . Nothing in that for fixed cost, by nature the fixed costs would be there whether you fed the cattle or not .

Larry

 

[TexasBred]

Looks like a barn full and alot of work. I have a friend that does 400 bottle holsteins a year. How many do you lose a year? He loses just 1-2 a year.

Wow he's good. Thought my wife was good as anybody and she would get close to that many years but then you always have the "off year" when it seems you can do nothing right and nothing else works.

 

[larryshoat]

Looks like a barn full and alot of work. I have a friend that does 400 bottle holsteins a year. How many do you lose a year? He loses just 1-2 a year.

We usually run somewhere around 5% . Sounds like your friend is a lot better at it than I am :tiphat: .

Larry

 

[Latta]

Larry, do you feed any hay or supplements/minerals? You didn't mention these. Just curious, we bottle raise holsteins to and I thought hay and supplements were a must along with everything else you mentioned.

Latta

 

[larryshoat]

Larry, do you feed any hay or supplements/minerals? You didn't mention these. Just curious, we bottle raise holsteins to and I thought hay and supplements were a must along with everything else you mentioned.

Latta

Latta we use a commercial pellet when the calves are small, then slowly switch to bean meal, then at about 300 lbs we switch to either DDGS or corn gluten pellets, right now corn gluten pellets are cheap ($67 per ton) so probably we will be on that over the summer . We have minerals epecialy formulated for DDGS and corn gluten pellets ( different for each one ) . As far as hay we use very little .

Larry

 

[Jogeephus]

Nice calves Larry. Clean conditions too. Says a lot about you and your operation.

 

[Latta]

Thanks Larry, always interesting to hear how someone else is feeding.