How long to feed bottle calves?

[KenB]

How long should I feed a bottle calf, and how should I go about weaning?

Thanks in advance
Ken

 

[dun]

Typically bottle calves are weaned at 6-8 weeks. About 1 bag of milk replacer. They should be eating a minimum of a couple of pounds of calf starter grain a day when weaned. They need to continue getting grain along with hay/pasture. We just cut them off one day and they're weaned. By then they're more interested in the grain in the pan then the milk in the bottle anyway.

dun

 

[Farmhand]

We do the same except for cutting off the milk cold turkey. We go down to one bottle a day for the last 2 weeks. Our feeling is that it helps make sure the calf is getting on grain better before we go to just grain.

 

[jerry27150]

they used to say they should be eating 4-6 lbs of grain a day before weaning

 

[Amanda Michelle]

It is suggested that you bottle feed a calf for approximatly 2 weeks, then feed milk in a bucket for 2 to 4 more weeks, When the 4th or 6th week, depending on how long you want to feed them, drop them back to feeding them milk once a day, a little less everyday. Make sure they have water and grain when you start them on the bucket.

 

[Crowderfarms]

I may start some controversy here but we have always fed em' for 12 weeks. And given a 18% medicated starter as soon as they show interest in eating. Being in the feed business we seem to run into calves pretty often.

 

[Farmhand]

Nothing wrong with feeding them longer.

 

[dun]

Nothing wrong with feeding them longer.

They can be fed as long as someone wants to. But for cost considerations, they don;t need it. I've seen enough calves weaned at 8 weeks and those that were kept on milk for 4 months and I can;t see the difference. The ones that are weaned earlier do seem to develop larger barrels, but by the time they're 4-5 years old you can;t tell the difference.

dun

 

[Farmhand]

My thoughts exactly. Looking back I should have said what you said. Thanks for fixin' it up.

 

[texhallMT]

Fed about 80 this past year, and still learning here. I do basically what's said before: grain/creep always available from day one, two bottles for a six weeks, one a day for a week, and then every other day for a week (a gradual weaning), total of two months. That's mainly a cost issue for me as well since I use powdered milk replacer. Met a dairyman up in PA last week who feeds LOTS more, but he has plenty of milk available from his discarded milk (medicated teats, etc.). Feeding more often than twice a day helps elminate pot bellies.
SOME KEY POINTS: (1) Always get colostrum in them. (2) Spectam (Red syruppy stuff for pig scours) works GREAT for clearing up scours -- you can put it in the milk or straight in their mouths. (3) Clean the pens out between calves or sets of calves. Bleach water in a sprayer works well. Individual pens are nice, but not always practical,,,I put four to six in a pen at around the same ages (+/- a week or so).
Good luck with the calves, but at today's prices I think I'll just re-sell the ones I get instead of making and cleaning all those bottles this year

Tex

 

[carla]

Thinking about feeding several bottle calves this year. How did you come out $ wise. What do you think was your cost per calf up till weaning off of the bottle? Was that 80 all at once or scattered through out the year? Sorry I'm full of questions but I have not had a chance to talk to someone that had raised that many. Thanks!!

 

[Medic24]

One very importand note....always buy the best milk replacer you can find......the one with REAL milk protien instead of soy protien....makes alot of sifference.

 

[Crowderfarms]

Minimum of 20% fat, 20% protein as well.

 

[texhallMT]

Thinking about feeding several bottle calves this year. How did you come out $ wise. What do you think was your cost per calf up till weaning off of the bottle? Was that 80 all at once or scattered through out the year? Sorry I'm full of questions but I have not had a chance to talk to someone that had raised that many. Thanks!!

Hey Carla...best of luck :help: as you go into your calves. I came out fine money wise...no cash on hand from it (go figure) BUT I was able to add nine more mama cows (two paired, five others heavy bred) to my beef herd in '04 -- got a pretty good deal on them as well. Results aren't typical . Your actual results may vary
I figured feed costs at about $0.50 per calf per day until weaned. But I made some package deals (five to ten bags of milk replacer at a time) with the local feed store and also bought some when it went on sale. HINT: when Milk Replacer goes on sale, buy several bags (depends on how much you can properly store). Check their stockage levels and then get a raincheck from them for more so that you get the sale price for your next batch.
Mine were spread out across most of the year. But I had a big concentration from mid-JAN thru MAR with 20-something on bottles/weaning at one point. I raised mostly dairy calves, but my few beef bottle calves sold just as well as mine that were raised by their moms. I only lost three bottle calves out of the whole batch.
My youngest daughter did the best with hers: over $500 for a six month old calf!
Some keys that helped me succeed: (1) Great vaccination program by the dairyman that sold me his bull calves (2) All calves got colostrum (3) Clean pens (old Ostrich pens here were awesome!!!) and separation between groups for first couple of weeks with an additional isolation area (4) If one calf in a group started to scour, we gave the Spectam to all in that group (5) Deal, deal, deal with your CO-OP or feed store. Buy your creep in bulk whenever possible (6) Good pasture for the bottle babies that was separated from the other cattle and close to the house (let me check their progress and monitor my hernia boys that showed up) (7) Limited risk by not buying many calves from the sale barn (took NO chances at these prices on those that we used to think might make it if we vaccinated in the trailer immediately after purchase). Looked over all calves in the pen before they got in the ring at the sale barn. Didn't buy those that were penned with other sick calves, were nursing mastitis cows, or didn't stretch upon rising (along with other sick symptons).
Crowderfarms and Medic made some good points (although I did feed soy sometimes...couldn't see a significant difference) on feed in general. But here's the quote worth re-quoting (nope, not mine...I stole it ;-) ): Talk cost per gain instead of cost per pound when buying feed. Don't matter if the feed/milk only costs you 20 cents/pound if it don't get you the weight gain you need. Similarly you don't need to spend $200/ton feed if you get the same weight gain from $150/ton feed.
I'd bet Crowderfarms was talking 20% USABLE proteins vice crude protein in the replacer. My creep was 14% protein a lot of times so I added to it some. But I've got another source that I'll be working with soon to custom blend feed for me. Yup it will cost a little more but I'll have a better cost/gain.
Hope this helps some, keep us posted on your successes. But you gotta keep doing the bottle thing through FEB to get the real feel for it (ha ha)... don't want no fair weather surrogate mama cows :roll:

 

[KenB]

Thanks for all of the good info.
I believe my question was well answered.

Ken

 

[cowspider]

Just had a friend call, she was weaning 4 bottle babys about 6-7 weeks old.
they are eating hay and grass well. after about 48 hours no milk, she gave each a half bottle to finish a bag of milk replacer. in a 1/2 hour all were down with bloat. one died before she could stick them. any ideas as to why they would bloat and die so quick???

 

[texhallMT]

cowspider, might be a worthwhile expense to have a vet do a necropsy. I would suspect a problem with the milk replacer (molded, vermin infestation, or ???) since all bloated. but it could have been the hay/feed as well. Too many factors to guess at with the information at hand. We had one bottle calf who bloated badly when eating a grass/alfalfa mix. Scared the devil out of me the first time he did it. But he got over it (luckily caught him pretty quickly and could help him get to his feet) and repeated that a few times, but never as bad as the first time.
For all four of them to do it I'd suspect something common to all. Check the pasture and all feed that they got, but still might be a question for the vet.
Tex

 

[Farmhand]

I would definitely talk to a vet. I think it may have something to do with the hay or feed rather than the milk. Think it may just be a coincidence that it happened after giving the milk. It would have happened anyway. We feed a lot of bottle calves and have never had this happen. Let us know what you find out. I'm interested.