Month old calf
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kenny thomas
Well-known member
I have always been taught that a calf needs no vaccines of that type until 3 months old. A month old calf if, not on a cow, should be started eating a little grain.
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Tomcolvin
Well-known member
My orphan calf is a month and 3 days old now. I am feeding her the powered milk formula 1/2 gallon morning and evening. I put out a little grain for her but she has showed little interest in it. I tried feed her some this evening with a little milk on the grain and she ate a very small amount but prefers the bottle. She appears to have grown some and is strong as an ox. I would guess her weight at 100 pounds now. I don't have scales to weigh her on.
kenny thomas
Well-known member
On the cow, 6 to 8 months.
kenny thomas
Well-known member
I took a heifer off the cow 2 weeks ago at 7.5 months weighed 730.
Passive immunity should protect the calf until around 3 months. But I do give my newborns Inforce 3. If you're banding or cutting prior to 3 months, tetanus is recommended.
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Tomcolvin
Well-known member
Sometimes her grain will be gone the next morning and some times not. I'm still feeding a half gallon power milk morning and half a gallon at evening feed. She must weigh at least 140-160+ now. I wish she would eat more grain. She is 7 weeks old today. She can vacuum a half gallon of milk in less than 5 minutes. She is about 34 inches tall at center back to ground. Strong as a grown cow.
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farmerjan
Well-known member
Cut one of her bottles back to 1/2 bottle.... which ever one makes it easier for you .... See if that will get her to eating, and cleaning up, a little more grain. If that works over the next week or so, then cut back the other bottle...
Sounds like she is doing pretty good... You ought to be able to wean her off the bottles at 12 weeks give or take... She will hopefully be at least 200 lbs by then....and eating more.
Sounds like she is doing pretty good... You ought to be able to wean her off the bottles at 12 weeks give or take... She will hopefully be at least 200 lbs by then....and eating more.
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Tomcolvin
Well-known member
Would this still apply to an orphaned calf? I know when the calf is on the mom this is so and her being on mom for a month covers her for a while but what about now. She was a month old when mom died. I did give her one shot for pasturella and Calvary 9 while I was working the herd.
farmerjan
Well-known member
Most of the immunity comes through the colostrum, so if she was on the cow for a month, she got pretty good start on immunity.
I like something like Triangle 5... killed virus... and the Calvary 9 should cover the blackleg end of it...
I like something like Triangle 5... killed virus... and the Calvary 9 should cover the blackleg end of it...
kenny thomas
Well-known member
The immunity comes in the first 24 hours from the colostrum. Thats why you want to always be sure they get colostrum.
Well, guess i typed at the same time as Jan.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
Maternal (colostral) antibodies may have precluded any immune response by the calf to the Clostridial components in Cavalry 9, so I would consider this calf to be, for all intents and purposes, 'unvaccinated'. Some time after 60 days of age, most colostral antibodies may have declined enough to allow calves to respond to most vaccines that the dam may have passed antibodies for. Other than a mlv intranasal IBR/PI3/BRSV or mlv oral rota/corona vaccine, most vaccinations given to calves under 2 months of age have little or no positive effect.
As to grain feeding... I always kept fresh palatable calf-starter out in front of those bottle calves, almost from Day One, and every time we fed a bottle, or just happened to pass by the pen, we'd cram a handful of grain into the calf's mouth. I wanted bull/steer calves off the bottle at 4 weeks, but would bottle-feed heifers on out to 6-8 weeks. Once a calf is eating 1.5-2# of grain per day, you can just stop feeding a bottle, and they'll pick up their grain consumption rapidly. Nutritionists are now recommending that you not feed any hay to dairy heifers until they are consuming 5-6 lbs of calf starter/grower ration daily... usually around 2 months of age.
Calves' rumens are not functional, and they cannot digest hay; grain feeding actually accelerates rumen papillae development in calves much more than feeding roughage .
As to grain feeding... I always kept fresh palatable calf-starter out in front of those bottle calves, almost from Day One, and every time we fed a bottle, or just happened to pass by the pen, we'd cram a handful of grain into the calf's mouth. I wanted bull/steer calves off the bottle at 4 weeks, but would bottle-feed heifers on out to 6-8 weeks. Once a calf is eating 1.5-2# of grain per day, you can just stop feeding a bottle, and they'll pick up their grain consumption rapidly. Nutritionists are now recommending that you not feed any hay to dairy heifers until they are consuming 5-6 lbs of calf starter/grower ration daily... usually around 2 months of age.
Calves' rumens are not functional, and they cannot digest hay; grain feeding actually accelerates rumen papillae development in calves much more than feeding roughage .
