Farm idea

BA38

Hi lads i have this idea, I do a small bit of farming along with working full-time I buy in calves and rear them on milk replacer and then they go out to grass, but I want to rear more calves than I do at the minute and produce better calves also , my idea is to buy a cow in calf or rear my own heifer and put her in calf when she calves she rears her own calf during the day the two are separated at night and I milk the cow in the morning with mobile milker and cow and calf are let off for the day together and calf can feed when it wants and that milk is then mixed with milk replacer and fed to other calves to keep costs down and produce better calves, some people say can't you put 3 or 4 calves under the cow but due to work commitments I can't give that kind of time and I don't have that much ground either, so this is my solution to increase amount of calves and how to produce better calves

Would this work for me and is it a good idea

jaginsligo

BA38 wrote: »

Hi lads i have this idea, I do a small bit of farming along with working full-time I buy in calves and rear them on milk replacer and then they go out to grass, but I want to rear more calves than I do at the minute and produce better calves also , my idea is to buy a cow in calf or rear my own heifer and put her in calf when she calves she rears her own calf during the day the two are separated at night and I milk the cow in the morning with mobile milker and cow and calf are let off for the day together and calf can feed when it wants and that milk is then mixed with milk replacer and fed to other calves to keep costs down and produce better calves, some people say can't you put 3 or 4 calves under the cow but due to work commitments I can't give that kind of time and I don't have that much ground either, so this is my solution to increase amount of calves and how to produce better calves

Would this work for me and is it a good idea

I don't really know a whole poke about rearing calves, I'd love to try a few but only got the farm this year & it's not setup for calves (no running water not to mention hot water)
That sounds like hard work to go milking a cow & putting them in for the night. Might u be better off to buy the best milk replacer u can &calf nuts?
Not sure if u watch utube but "farmer Phil" used a different milk replacer this year, more expense but he says he has better calves & tbf they look good.
Do u mind me asking how many calves u rear?

_Brian

BA38 wrote: »

Hi lads i have this idea, I do a small bit of farming along with working full-time I buy in calves and rear them on milk replacer and then they go out to grass, but I want to rear more calves than I do at the minute and produce better calves also , my idea is to buy a cow in calf or rear my own heifer and put her in calf when she calves she rears her own calf during the day the two are separated at night and I milk the cow in the morning with mobile milker and cow and calf are let off for the day together and calf can feed when it wants and that milk is then mixed with milk replacer and fed to other calves to keep costs down and produce better calves, some people say can't you put 3 or 4 calves under the cow but due to work commitments I can't give that kind of time and I don't have that much ground either, so this is my solution to increase amount of calves and how to produce better calves

Would this work for me and is it a good idea

Fostering calves onto cows has to be the most frustrating time consuming process in the world.. Occasionally you will get a quiet cow that will let anything suck her, but 99% will not and mose will kick seven colours of shiite out of a calf..

Get better at bucket rearing would be my advice.. For what you have to feed a cow or two would run allot of sucks..

Nootdutch

Interesting idea, I was thinking along the same way. Depending on the setup if it works. I am doing something similar in work, but at a small scale. Im milking 3 and feeding 7 calves, just as a trial.may go bigger in the new year

Niallers87

We rear about 50 calves a year here, mixed between milk replacer and double sucking. (We got out of milking and kept on a few cows), We have no problem fostering on a calf when the cow is feeding her own calf, it just takes abit of time getting her use to it in the shed( usually a shake of nuts helps). This year has been a bit trickerier, a couple of the cows lost there calves and they are slow in taking. What we do, is shake a few nuts on front of the the cow in tje field and they will stand for the calf, we do this twice a day. Its a bit of a pain to be honest, but the calves are starting to outperform the ones that are weaned which is obvious i suppose. We are hoping they eventually take but if they dont, we will rear the calves until there strong enough to wean and then dry off the cow.