I'm steveaust's son. Actually the older calf drinking barely any milk is 45 days old, over 6 weeks. All of a sudden the other day the calves cut down the amount of milk they drink by half. It funny that the older the calf, the less milk they are now drinking. Tonight the last calf to stop drinking was the youngest. There are unlimited calf pellets available, tonight, for:
one 45 day old calf
three 35 day olds
one 28 day old
...I put out 15.5 litres of milk replacer. I feed them twice daily. My dad is asking if it is possible for older calves to 'self wean' or just decide to eat grass (lota of it, thick lush green - had access to since arrival at 4 days old). Obviously it is of low nutritional value. He wants to know if he should take them to his house and put them in a shed without grass so they are forced to eat pellets & milk.
They're NOT sick, no scouring and they're hypo. I watch them running round the paddock, fighting, playing. It seems the last thing they're interested in are milk & pellets unfortunately.
Thanks for any help.
Brett Enright.