Salebarn bottle calves

[Ky hills]

:cry2: I'm sorry,. I am sad I get attached to them so fast .

Sorry. It's impossible to know, but I'd be curious as to how long your calf went without milk before you got him. Calves that are weaned too young can lose the ability to digest milk, but not yet have the ability to survive as a ruminant. That might have been what happened to yours. You were probably doomed before you started.

I agree when buying calves from those situations it's just a big gamble at best and many times the deck is stacked against you figuratively and literally too.

 

[Ky hills]

:cry2: I'm sorry,. I am sad I get attached to them so fast .

It's sad but that's just a part of it, you tried and gave it your all, no shame in that. Everyone in the business deals with it at some point. I sure had several of those times raising bottle calves. I had much better success when I got in with a couple good dairies that gave their calves a good start in life.

 

[Hereford2]

Thank you all for your Advice and Support. When I saw the calves, before I bought them I had this gut feeling that they weren't going to make it. Speaking of Dairy Farm's I just got a contract 3days ago, with one 20 to 30 minutes from my house, (Depending on the road conditions). To get all of their bull calves!! It's something I have wanted to do for years! So I'm excited about doing it.

 

[Ky hills]

Thank you all for your Advice and Support. When I saw the calves, before I bought them I had this gut feeling that they weren't going to make it. Speaking of Dairy Farm's I just got a contract 3days ago, with one 20 to 30 minutes from my house, (Depending on the road conditions). To get all of their bull calves!! It's something I have wanted to do for years! So I'm excited about doing it.

I'm glad you could get in with a dairy. There aren't many at all left around here, I had to travel 50 to 60 miles to the two that I bought from the most and now they have quit milking. I dealt with probably 10 dairies some were just one time and a few more were just a few times. The ones that I stayed on with took good care of there calves and iodined their navels and kept them for round 3 days on colostrum.

 

[Hereford2]

This dairy gives Clostrum, a scour vaccine, and bands them. They also keep them for 4to 5 days before I get them!

 

[MurraysMutts]

O man! Now all ya need is a couple nurse cows to help lighten the load.
Ur gonna be a busy busy... lol
Dont worry. Itll be fun!

 

[darcelina4]

Will that dairy sell you a couple of low production cows you can make into nurse cows?

 

[Hereford2]

I don't think I could afford one of their cows, they are all Registered.... I do have 1 nurse cow.

 

[Ky hills]

I don't think I could afford one of their cows, they are all Registered.... I do have 1 nurse cow.

If you are considering more nurse cows, that dairy may sell you a cow or two even if they are registered they likely have the same issues as any other dairy as far as culling due to production issues. Another option would be if there are dairy auctions that you could buy some breedable heifers or cows. Once we acquired a few nurse cows we AI bred them and raised some of our own. I preferred Jersey but had some of about all dairy breeds even some beef crosses.

 

[Hereford2]

Ok thank you for the advice!