holestien steer nurse calf

[Petercoates87]

Hey guys it's been awhile since I have posted on here. I got my herd up to 9 head now. I started to do an experiment this year. I have a jersey and a jersey cross cows and I have read that jerseys are great nurse cows so I decided to try this out. when my jersey calved this June I went out n bought a holestien bull calf and she took to him best kind. I am wondering how good he might grow. the lil guy is doing just as good as his belted Galloway jersey cross "brother " at this time. I know it's a holestien he won't be amazing just wondering if anyone has done this and how do the calves grow compared to on milk replacer. with that said I plan on keeping him on the cow til they r about 6 months old too.

 

[Logan52]

Do you plan to turn them out on grass or keep the calves up and feed the cow? She will get thin turned out and could maybe raise three if they are kept up and the cow fed.
I would rather have the Holstein than the Jersey X Galloway calf. It will grow faster and bring just as much.

 

[Petercoates87]

well lucky for me I raise my calves and I can have them butchered and sell them at my local farmers market. I raise them on pasture but give them grain as well. so far I have been happy with my beef mix calves.

 

[farmerjan]

I have several nurse cows. Mostly jerseys, and jer x hol cows but a couple of guernsey crosses also. Right now I have 2 jersey 1st calf heifers that have a total of 6 calves on them. One will let anything nurse, the other isn't too happy about it but will tolerate and the more aggressive older calf will stick with her. The one who will take any calved about a month ahead of the other one. They get approx 10-15 lbs grain each a day. I purposely want them to raise at least 3 each and the one that is great with the calves, I may pull off the 2 biggest ones and put a couple more on her.
I try to get beef x dairy calves to put on them. Many farmers here are now breeding their top cows to dairy semen and the rest to beef so there are more beef x calves available.

Since you are feeding some grain as well as pasture, which is what I do, the cow ought to do fine. The calves will grow good and if they learn to eat some grain too, then weaning will be easier. Mine all learn to get in the bunk and eat grain right along with the cows. I will have 4 more calving in sept and oct and they will all get at least 1 or 2 more calves each. One is an old cow that only can raise 2 and one only has 2 quarters and will raise 2. The other 2 usually will get a total of 3 calves each and one of them will take anything so often will get a second set of calves at about 4-5 months. All depends on when she gets bred back. I try to breed at least 1 breeding AI, sometimes twice, then use an angus as a cleanup bull.

Any calf on a cow is going to do better than on milk replacer if she has a fair amount of milk and the calf can learn to eat some grain too. On the holstein, he won't get that pot belly that they often get after coming off milk replacer at about 10-12 weeks , and getting just hay and grain. They look much more filled out and healthy coming off the cow.

 

[Petercoates87]

farmerjan you are right bout looking good and doing well. that holestien calf looks great right now I'm just wondering if he will keep growing descent considering he got a much better start. and well I always pasture and grain raise my cows it makes for a much nicer animal. I'm considering getting another calf soon to put on my hol x jersey cow. she is a first time momma n her calf it 5 months old on the 4 th n he is pushing 400lbs and almost totally on grain all by himself with out any weaning. so I'm going to get another calf to put on her so she don't start to dry up.

 

[Son of Butch]

Hey Peter good to hear from you again.
The Holstein calf will make a good steer, they just eat a bit more per pound of gain than beef steers.
Whatever happened with that 750 lb Jersey bull that was having seizures last spring?
Could the Vet figure out what was the cause and did he get cleared for slaughter?

 

[Petercoates87]

so Butch I had the vet in the check him out. he passed that and she said he was good to slaughter. so because he was getting big n had horns still I decided to have him slaughtered. the vets wanted the head to check it out but nothing ever came back from that. I did remember that he had been fighting with the bull tied next to him n he had gotten a swollen eye from it. I had wondered if he had gotten some brain damage from it.

 

[farmerjan]

The only problem with putting another calf on the cow that has the 400 lb calf is if she will take it. Some cows will not take a later calf when you wean off the first calf. I try to start a new calf(s) on a cow and let "her calf(s)" come in to finish her off and then gradually cut off the older/bigger calves so that the new calf gets all the milk. But I had one last year when her calves were completely off her, she just decided that the "newer" calves were not gonna get any milk and that was it. No amount of putting her in the barn or anything would convince her to let those calves continue to nurse. They had been on her for almost a month with the older ones. She had 3 to start, then I started putting 2 new ones and weaning off the 3 older ones. NO DICE. Another very tolerant cow let them suck her so they did get to be cow raised but it didn't follow what I had planned. If she pulls that this year, I will leave her own calf with the 2 newer ones, and hope she will then be agreeable to that. If she doesn't have mastitis. I am not liking the way her udder is looking and if she has problems, and I can't get her cleaned out, then this will be her last time. We'll see. She might be closer to calving than she was checked preg to. Bull bred so a guess... Not gonna worry about it until she comes fresh.