newbie... bought new calves.

[TXMike]

I just got home with 3 new calves. After doing alot of reading and finding a good price I bought some super baldies, 2 black and 1 red. I was going to get longhorns but these were just a little bit more and everybody told me that I wouldnt be happy with longhorns. They seem healthy and very tame. Loading them up was actually a bit of a challenge since they didnt wanna move away from us when we got next to them. They are seven months old and im not sure if they have had any vaccinations or wormer or anything. I figure I should let them settle in a little before I mess with them at all since they havent stopped mooing since they got here. What all shots/vaccinations should I give them? should I go ahead and worm them just to be safe? What should I feed them? Ive been feeding the older heifers I already had cubes and sweet feed. The other heifers I have to my knowledge havent had any shots or anything either. Should I do all them at the same time? Is there any other things I should know about? I was going to post some pictures tomorrow. Thanks in advance.

 

[Gators Rule]

I would put them on pasture and let them graze if you have good grass... As far as wormer, yes, I would worm them all at the same time

 

[gonzo]

I wouldn't wait on worm'n them. If you can't get to'm with a pour on put safe guard in some grain it'll get'm on there way.

 

[TXMike]

I'm starting to get a little concerned... They didn't stop mooing all night and now they are still going and one of them sounds like a scalded ape.... I know cattle will moo when you change stuff up on them but none of the other cows I got were this bad. Is it because these are calves and I've bought older cows? Is there anything I should be doing to ease their transition?

 

[cowmilker]

Were they weaned?

 

[Tim/South]

It sounds like they are missing their momma. If they are just now being weaned then expect them to moo for a few days.
Also expect them to lose some weight. This is a stressful time for them.
Feed them to fill the belly and take their mind off what they miss.

 

[Jogeephus]

Sounds like he weaned them when he brought them home. They'll stop. Eventually.

 

[TXMike]

Sorry I posted prematurely.... I called the guy i got them from and i thought they had already been weaned but He said they had been in the pasture with their momma until I said I wanted him and he put them in a separate pen with some sweet feed and creep feed. So I'm pretty sure it's a combination of both weaning and separation. I put a 50lb sac of calf pellets and sweet feed and mixed in 2 cups of powdered milk replacer but they didn't seem interested in it at all... I work nights so I told my old lady to see if they eat any from time to time. I did notice they were eating grass but not grazing if that makes sense... Thanks for all the quick replies!

 

[Arkansas]

Congratz on the Purchase hope all works out well for you bub

 

[TXMike]

Well they did better after they finally went to sleep last night. They shut up and today they seem to be pretty quiet. There's one that try's to be extra explorative and then when she realizes the other 2 haven't caught up to her she will start crying until they catch up. My girlfriend stayed with em all yesterday evening and night and couldn't get them to eat anything. When I woke up this morning I went outside and she said she had put some carrots in the trough and they were all gone and Some of the sweet feed was gone but none of the calf pellets had even been touched.... Id done some searching and read about mixing some hay in with the feed to try and get them to eat it do I went and bought a bale of alfalfa hay and a bale of costal. I grabbed a handful of each and walked out there and they tore the alfalfa up. They ate it out of my hands but had no interest in the coastal. I mixed a little of both hays in the feed and they ate some more of the sweet feed but still weren't interested in the calf pellets. I ran out of sweet feed but had a couple sacks of horse and mule which is similar so that's what they've been eating and seem to like it, that shouldn't be bad for them? I've had a couple people tell me it doesn't have enough fat in it to feed to cattle, is that true?

Here's a picture of em trying to stay in the shade.

 

[dun]

Eating straight pellets seems to be an acquired taste. To get them to eat them I used to mix some in a grain mixture and gradually phase out the grain till it was all pellets. Even then we still had one cow that would fish through the grian mix and need eat the pellets if she could manage to push them aside.

 

[Suzie Q]

I just put two of mine onto pellets. They wouldn't eat them to start with. In the end I poured boiling water over them to soften it and put it on their hay, then when they started eating that I put that down for them and then put the pellets on top. Once they were eating the pellets I stopped pouring boiling water over them.

As above said they will call for their Mum's for about 3 days but don't worry you get used to it and won't hear them call any more.

They will probably lose weight with not being on their Mum's any more.

Please read the thread about city people and pets and do not make pets out of them. Get your girlfriend to read the thread.