Can someone please tell me
- Thread starter kslady
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You stop bottle feeding when the calf is eating grain well. If he isnt eating enough, then keep him on the bottle. As far as telling them apart, I have never seen anything different, except maybe better health later in life and higher weight if they were on a cow, then on a bottle.
kslady":ftmko9al said:
Different people do things differently... I quit bottle feeding just as soon as I possibly can. If I can get them on grain and they're growing well, I'll wean between 6 and 8 weeks. I've even weaned at 5 weeks. Some folks will bottle feed until 6 months. For me, the biggest thing is to get them eating grain; you can't quit feeding milk if they don't have another source of nutrition, and that matters more than just the age of the calf.
Most of the time you can, because most people don't raise bottle calves right... but if the bottle fed calf is raised right and given proper nutrition, you shouldn't be able to see a difference. IMO a bottle calf can and should be able to look every bit as good as a cow-raised calf.
TheBullLady
Well-known member
If the calves are heifers and I'm going to keep them for replacements, I keep them on milk longer so I can get the growth. The twin Brahman heifers I weaned at 4 months or thereabouts. Like Milkmaid suggested, they need to get on feed as soon as possible so you CAN wean earlier.
You can generally tell a bottle fed calf, as they tend to be rangy and pot bellied. They usually aren't as growthy as a cow raised calf.
You can generally tell a bottle fed calf, as they tend to be rangy and pot bellied. They usually aren't as growthy as a cow raised calf.
kslady":2n130gsb said:
I generally keep mine on a bottle until they are at least 2 months old, but it depends on the calf. Whether or not you can tell a difference depends entirely on the skill of the person raising the calf - usually, but not always, a bottle calf has a pot gut, tends to be smaller, and is overall poorer(is that a word?) doing than a calf on its mother.
dun":z5n8hjtm said:
I raise some of mine on nurse cows... I usually wean them a little later (between 12 weeks and 4 months) than I would wean a bottle calf, and no, there really isn't any difference in growth.
In fact, all my heifers of breeding age are bred except for the three 850lb'ers that I can't get to settle, and they're the ones that were all raised on the same nurse cow last summer. :roll: Go figure. All the other heifers (except one) were bottle-raised.
Victoria
Well-known member
4-6 months.
Poor nutrition, lack of sunshine and lack of physical touch can all cause bottle calves to have that bottle look. Give your calves high quality milk replacer for as long as you can afford to do so, leave them outside as much as possible, groom them and give them some friends. In other words, the more you take on the role of a mother cow and give them a normal calf life the more they will look and behave like a normal calf.
Poor nutrition, lack of sunshine and lack of physical touch can all cause bottle calves to have that bottle look. Give your calves high quality milk replacer for as long as you can afford to do so, leave them outside as much as possible, groom them and give them some friends. In other words, the more you take on the role of a mother cow and give them a normal calf life the more they will look and behave like a normal calf.
Victoria":esavm5fy said:
That pretty well sums it up. Too often when people wean them from the bottle they discontinue or at least cut back on the grain ration also. The grain consumption has to continue and gradually increase as they get bigger.
dun
