Holstein Bull Pet??

[pdfangus]

I know im late with the discussion. I would sell the holstien calves and get some miniature cattle like circlet suggested. Those holstien steers will eat you out of house and home and won't produce any income to help pay for themselves. The only thing they are good for is meat in the freezer. When they reach 1200lbs they will be eating somewhere around 20lbs of corn a day on full feed. Corn is at 5.47 lbs a bushel. Im not sure how many lbs. are in a bushel but your feed bill is going to add up so fast it will make your head spin. I would get some registered mini cows and bull and have some sort of income from them. Cattle are not pets and do not realize their size and can casue seriouse bodily injurie to you and your family with out even trying to. Sure they might be friendly when they are on the other side of the fence but when a 1200lb steer wants to play with you or push you out of their way you can seriousley be hurt. Miniature cattle are dangerouse also and have their place but not as pets either. They weigh more than you and still can be dangerous. Hope you realize that cattle aren't pets but can be appreciated and treated right.

Why in the world would anyone feed a steer not destined for the slaughter market 20 lbs of grain daily? Pet steer ought to be able to make it on grass and or hay. a little treat now and then to keep them easy to catch and handle but 20 lbs of corn..... who is advising whom here.

 

[cattlemen01]

My wife and kids wanted a bottle calf to raise ( just for the cuteness I GUESS ), we have a Cow/calf op and sometimes run stockers.
Anyway, went to the sale and bought a day old jersey bull. GREAT
After several bottles and alot of time, he made it to around 275 -300 lbs. Not on Bottle at this point, feed and grass. My wife goes out to feed him (Has she has many times before, he is not afraid of human contact This is the KEY here) one morning by herself and he rears up , front legs over my wife shoulders and knocks here to the ground, they starts to head butt and push here around. Lucky she was able to get away from him. Just shook up and some minor injuries. It could have been a lot worst.

I think its ok to bottle feed a calf until he is able to go on feed and then wean him off the bottle. However after this then what do you do with them, They are not PETS in any way shape or form.
As small cavles 125 or soon they are easy to handle. After that you need a chute or horse to handle them or alot of experince.

I think your best option would be to sale the calves (as is) when you get done having fun with bottle feeding them. Use that money to help buy some weaned heifers or other cattle, not bottle calves.
It wont be much $$$$$$$$.
If you get into the cattle biz, Cow/calf that is,
You will have some chances to bottle feed an orphaned calf or supplment feed a heifers first calf etc. They sell her and the calf.

I am not sure how old your Nephew but if you decide to keep the bulls or steers, You must not let your guard down anytime. Steers can hurt your also. One step in the wrong place ( spleen, liver, lung can kill) alot of psi on one hoof.

 

[holly heifer]

:shock: ok- I am going to jump on this one. I did have a "pet" steer about 20 years ago.
He lived to the ripe old age of 8 ( grandpa one day snuck him off to the sale barn, and later
sheepishly handed me a check) . I was a little peeved, but could not stay mad at gramps.
As I grew up and older, i have raised LOTS of bottle calves . The second one I raised
i got attached to and kept him as a pet. He was 2 years old and huge. He would try to head butt me and knock me down. One day hubby was putting out hay and the steer dang near killed him. The "pet" went to the sale barn. I have not had a pet steer since then. All the bottle bulls are castrated and well fed but not played with. Their names are all
"food" :lol2: Now my bottle heifers are kept to be replacements( if they are nice enough)
and are treated like show cattle ( broke to lead and tie) not treated like dogs. The idea of
goats or mini herfs is a good onne for someone wanting pets. Rabbits are nice too. And
llamas! :heart:

 

[tup]

hopefully this won't double post i'm so clumsy. been around cattle all of my life. holstein cattle though now i raise limosuine beef. we just got rid of a bull that i i'm sure wanted to kill us. they get to a certain age and they just change. i know when a bull has wore out his welcome because my husband will say about said bull " he's givin me that look again.' lol. a steer for a pet maybe. a bull never. that is however my opinion, not a rule. my real advise is to just be careful. the cute bull calf of today might be a fence tearin, near ton of meaness in just a few years.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Ok, today is a new day and we have had time to reflect on everyone's expertise (which we are very grateful for) and have decided to keep the bulls.
Thank you

You sound almost as hard headed as I am. ALMOST. I learned a great deal the hard way too. Just make sure you have good health insurance on the wife and kids. You're probably going to need it. Don't be surprised if you come home one day and your wife has done put a bullet in the head of that "pet" she used to adore. Now that you have bottle fed those babies, they know not to fear humans. Carry a big hickory stick with you every time you go out there. Some day you are going to be glad you have it. Make sure it is a heavy one so that it doesn't break when you crack them over the head.

The horns would be the last of my worries about taking off. They make good handles when you are trying to escape the feet.

The goats will learn to keep out of the way of the steers, once the steers get a little bigger. You will learn to keep out of their way too.

Good luck.

 

[tup]

that is some good straight talk boogie and i would expect nothing less of a good texan.

 

[presmudjo]

We aquired a baby brangus bull that we bottle fed, mom wouldn't feed him. We actually had him on a rope for a while before we could build a shelter. We decided to keep him and get him a wife, then we could have the babies to raise and eat. We even added a fence in the front of property to help deter criminals. They love to sleep out there in morning and watch traffic. Now we think we may just forget this endeavor. He has had daily attention, and he loves attention. Now it is only over the fence for attention. We no longer want to go in the fence. He just doesn't know he is big and can hurt us.

My question is can you butcher a bull and still have good meat? He is well fed and cared for, but like all have said, you can never trust a bull. He is about a year and a half. I hope she has taken, but we have to decide soon since summer is coming and we will need to maintain the field more.

So I would say, don't even go down this road of raising a bull for a pet type animal. Wait until he finds a weak spot in the fence and you have to retrieve him. Not so fun and even more dangerous. Once out, they explore and don't want to come home no matter how they acted at home when you had food for them. They will just laugh at you and run off another way.

 

[bigbull338]

yes you can butcher an eat that bull.with him being well fed.he should have some good meat on him.