Feeding Calves

[j.willard]

I am trying to learn as much about cattle as I can because I have a strong interest here.

My question is do calves nurse from the dam right up until they are weaned at several months old? If so along with the mothers milk what are they eating at this time? Are they simply grazing in the pasture just like the rest of the herd?

I was under the impression that weaning meant removing the calf from its mothers milk and moving it to eating solid foods or are calves eating solid foods prior to being weaned?

I have also heard of this "calf starter" is that simply for raising bottle fed calves that don't have a mother to show them how to eat?

By now I probably look absolutely stupid but I wanted to know :lol2:

 

[dun]

They nurse until weaned. They also start eatingright along their mother at a couple of days old and start chewing their cud by a week to 10 days. There digestive system isn;t developed well enough at that age to really get full benefit from what they are eating other then the milk from the cow. By a couple of months they can be weaned but they have to be kept on a higher level of easily digested protein. Dairy calves are typically weaned at about 2 months and are eating 3 or so pounds of grain a day at that point. They need to be kept on the grain or they end up looking potty and don;t grow to their potentail. Properly raised early weaned calves are impossible to tell from cow raised calves. The operative word being "properly"

 

[angus9259]

They nurse until weaned. They also start eatingright along their mother at a couple of days old and start chewing their cud by a week to 10 days. There digestive system isn;t developed well enough at that age to really get full benefit from what they are eating other then the milk from the cow. By a couple of months they can be weaned but they have to be kept on a higher level of easily digested protein. Dairy calves are typically weaned at about 2 months and are eating 3 or so pounds of grain a day at that point. They need to be kept on the grain or they end up looking potty and don;t grow to their potentail. Properly raised early weaned calves are impossible to tell from cow raised calves. The operative word being "properly"

Not sure if this is thread stealing or not, but it gets tricky with heifers. I wean at 4 months and calves, especially the heifers, can actually chunk right up. I've had to start putting some salt in my creep feed to slow their intake a bit. I suppose that fits into the operative word of "properly" though. Plus, the digestive system has come quite a long way in 4 months I suppose.

 

[dun]

I suppose that fits into the operative word of "properly" though. .

Properly is adequate nutritive value in a small enough quantity that they can intake what is required. Grass hay by itself isn;t going to do it.