# How much milk for a bottle calf until week 16?



## GBov (May 4, 2008)

Just read this.................................

Birth to two weeks: Two one-quart feedings of colostrum the first day, then one quart of milk replacer three times a day. (Keep fresh water and alfalfa before the calves.)

Two to eight weeks: Two quarts of milk replacer twice daily. Begin feeding calf pellets (the best you can buy). Put salt in pen and continue to make water and alfalfa available.

Eight to 12 weeks: Start mixing pellets with a ground feed made by combining ground corn, oats, and bran with a little powdered molasses. (Gradually increase the ratio of ground feed to pellets.) Feed two pounds of grain per day per calf, plus two quarts of milk replacer twice daily. Continue to offer salt, water, and alfalfa. (Good green pasture may be substituted for the alfalfa.)

12 to 16 weeks: Two quarts of milk replacer once a day. Offer access to good leafy forage or good grass. If you're raising the calf for beef, you may increase the allotment of grain (mentioned above) ... otherwise â if grass is very good â the calf can graze through the summer. (In summer, our calves get just pasture grass, iodized salt, free choice minerals, and water.)

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Would the above be for full sized breeds or jersey or jersey crosses? 

And would real milk be fed the same amounts as milk replacer?


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## Wild_Bill (Aug 4, 2014)

Either. That's about how I do mine. Jersey Holstein or beef. Get a quality mr. I prefer non soy. If they are a larger breed just mix your milk a little stronger starting at about 2 weeks. Jerseys are just fine on the amount you listed


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## Calfkeeper (Feb 1, 2006)

GBov said:


> Just read this.................................
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Not sure about Jerseys, but that's pretty much what we do for our Holsteins. And, yes, real milk would be the same amounts.


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

We never feed much past 8 weeks. They should be eating several pounds of starter grain a day by then. We don't worry too much about forage till around 4 months. If they get anything it's some pretty good alfalfa and not much of that at all.
Water and starter is offered the second week. We never feed pellets the starter is a regular grain mix from the mill.


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## rosalind (Oct 6, 2014)

That's a very commercial ration, but it would be fine for Jerseys as well.

We feed 2 qt. colostrum for at least the first three feedings. Calves get 2 qt. milk twice a day for the first few weeks, then we up that amount to 1-2 gallons real milk per feeding, because we choose not to feed our calves grain. They grow excellent on it and are much less prone to sickness.


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## Agriculture (Jun 8, 2015)

What Sammy said. I can't see why anyone would do all the extra work to bottle feed for more than 8 weeks when it is completely unnecessary, to say nothing about the cost. There are even some studies which say that weaning can be done at 6 weeks. That seems a little early to me, but I have had some which pretty much self weaned by about 7 weeks. Same with goats.


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## FarmerJoe (Nov 14, 2009)

We used 3 qt. bottles. We also fed whole milk. New born Jerseys wouldn't drink that much but larger breeds would by a few days old. (twice a day) When we got them trained to buckets . We would mix 1 gal. of milk with 1 gal of water to make it warm. (twice a day) We didn't have a way to have water separate. Think about a beef calf nursing it's mother, it's drinking a lot more than a gallon a day. That's why they grow so fast.


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## Gretchen Ann (Aug 30, 2010)

We milk Guernseys. Every calf that is born on our farm receives 1 Gallon of colostrum within 1 hour of calving and a 2nd gallon 12 hours later.

If they won't drink off the bottle, we use an esophageal feeder.

My FIL didn't feed that much, but when I took over raising the calves, I raised the amount of colostrum they received. My husband noticed an immediate difference in the health of the young calves.


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## Wild_Bill (Aug 4, 2014)

How do you just come up with random amounts of colostrum to change your feeding habits? Where would a person come up with a second gallon of colostrum if all calves are getting it?


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## Gretchen Ann (Aug 30, 2010)

When a cow first calves, she gives colostrum. We milk the cow and get the colostrum. We feed the calf. Any leftover colostrum is frozen just in case a animal calving in the future doesn't have enough colostrum.

I didn't say we feed it for all the feedings, just the first two.

Colostrum contains antibodies which are important for the calf to receive.

I switched our calves to this amount because I had read an article in the Hoard's Dairyman. A dairyman fed this amount of colostrum to his newborn Jersey calves. I decided if he could feed that much to puny little Jerseys, then I could feed it to our Guernsey calves.


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