# Anyone have a milk cow and do bottle calves?



## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Er rather, adopt some bums from the sale barn/neighbor/etc. and put them on a milk cow?

DH and I have been trying to figure out how to best approach this. Bottle calves fed via bottle is not exactly a wise business model. 
But how about aquiring a milk cow and starting our beef herd that way? Get a few, mixed gender, keep the good heifers, sell the rest in the fall...

Anyone tried this approach?


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## B Adams (May 10, 2002)

Yes I own 5 milk cows that I raise orphan calves on. I am fortunate that I seldom have to buy from the sale barn though. People bring me their orphans or call me to pick up. Sometimes I do get to many, as people just drop them 
off in the barn lol.

I have raised some wonderful heifers, all that I keep are gentle, having been around me 2x a day 7 days a week.

Sounds like what you want to do but there are some down sides to this here's a few
Finding the right cow
buying from the sale barn (stressed calves, illness, calf that was sold because it won't nurse)
Milk replacer is costing me 72.00 per 50#-you can really have to many calves lol

Bottom line it is not as easy as you think it might be.
Do you own cattle, ever been around them, have pens and pasture?
I will answer any questions you might have and wish you the best of luck and I am not trying to be negative, just been doing this for 12 years.

B Adams


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I live on a 600 head cattle ranch in Nebraska. (smallest one I've ever lived on, actually)
My husband runs it for an out of state investor. _I've_ only been in ranching for ten years, but he grew up doing this. So yes, we have a little cattle experience. 

And he just bought a bag of milk replacer yesterday. It's $60 for a 50# bag here... Like I said, not exactly a good business model, there. lol

The only part we're unsure of is the hassle of having a milk cow or two for bums, rather than bottles. I've never had a milk cow at all, and growing up, his milk cow was _milked_!


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## B Adams (May 10, 2002)

If you could find the right cow at the right price it would not be such a bad deal. Say you ended up buying 6 bags of milk replacer @60.00 that money would have been well spent on the investment of a nurse cow. In the long run you need to make that cow pay for herself. You could also milk the cow plus feed the babies (bottle with her milk) if you needed the milk, or just leave them on her 24/7 or let her nurse them 2x per day. There is many ways to go with having a nurse cow and you may have to go through several cows before you find the right one.

Since you are on a ranch your chances are better that you would not have have to buy calves, but they do belong to someone else, but I'm sure the owner would rather let you have them versus letting them die. Hopefully anyways. Or offer to buy them from him for a small fee.

I enjoy fooling with my cows and orphans, but it is something that I can't go off and leave overnight without finding someone to feed for me. Which makes it hard.

I have 3 jerseys, 1 holstein and 1 hol x jersey and they are great nurse cows. I even have a char x that I raised that I use for a nurse cow on occasion.
B Adams


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## Wintersong Farm (Aug 22, 2007)

B. Adams: How hard is it to get a cow to accept multiple calves? If stated on a percentage, do 90% eventually accept the "nurse cow" job, or is it more lie 20%?


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

How many orphan calves could I put on a milking Jersey at one time? I've heard tell that they can raise 3 calves at once easy. True?


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Growing up, DH had a Jersey that they milked. She not only gave milk twice a day, but she always had a calf on her, too. (That way if they had to be gone and miss a milking, she wouldn't be hurting!)
DH says she could easily have had another... So by his experience anyway, I'd bet three would be feasible...


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

ErinP said:


> Growing up, DH had a Jersey that they milked. She not only gave milk twice a day, but she always had a calf on her, too. (That way if they had to be gone and miss a milking, she wouldn't be hurting!)
> DH says she could easily have had another... So by his experience anyway, I'd bet three would be feasible...


Good to know. Thank you.


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## R.Adams (Sep 21, 2004)

We've raised as many as 4 calves on 1 jersey at a time. It really depends on the cows milk production. A jersey will usually let the calves nurse round the clock without any intervention on your part. All you'll have to do is really feed the cow good food twice a day. Make sure she gets plenty of alfalfa so she can make lots of milk and keep her weight up. You can usually raise around 10-12 calves off 1 cow every freshening. Just wean her calves off at 3 months and bring in babies again.

If you get a holstein the majority of them will not let calves nurse round the clock. Our holstein nurse cows would only let calves nurse when they were eating grain themselves. In our experience jersey's make the best nurse cows. The only down side is they are very hard to dry up as they will let the calves return to nursing in a heartbeat even after they've been weaned. My jersey cow right now has been dry for 4 months but when someone gave us a calf she was trying to get the calf to nurse her.

Good luck with them, either way it beats feeding milk replace by a long shot.


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## leefarms (Dec 10, 2007)

I have 15 jerseys I use as nurse cows. I have set down and done all of the math and you can buy a $2000 jersey to raise calves on cheaper then you can buy milk replacer if you are going to raise a lot of calves. I Alabama medicated milk replacer cost $84 for 50 pounds. To feed a jersey it cost me $72 a month and she makes me $16 a day profit raising 4 calves every 6 weeks. They pay for themselves fast.


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## B Adams (May 10, 2002)

Everyone one has posted excellant information. R Adams posted what I would have replied, leefarms is spot on with what it cost for the cow verses the milk replacer. All of my cow including the hostein will let the calves nurse around the clock. My jerseys will try to steal babies also. I put 3 calves on each cow as my cows have lots of years on them-some really need a dental plan lol. But they are fat and healthy and do their job. Every once in a while I will have a cow that just does not like a particular calf and I just switch them to a different cow. Each cow raises 2-3 batches a year. I have not had much headache with the cows with the exception of one that just came out of a dairy and as long as you put her in a stanchion she was fine with the calves nursing, after she calved she was fine, just plug them in. It can be very rewarding if you can make it work for you or it can be a pain in the rump.
B Adams


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

As a general rule, jerseys are in fact good natural nurse cows to orphans. The heifer that my daughter owns that calved last Wednesday is an exception to the rule. She won't let any calf other than her own withing five feet of her unless she's in a stanchion eating. Otherwise, she'll head butt them across the lot. I'm hoping she will settle down with time. At this point, all I'm doing is keeping her calf from her and letting them only be together for twice a day feedings. I figure that she'll eventually decide to let the foster calf suck peaceably if that's the only time she gets to be with her calf. I've done a lot of nurse cow and calf raising in the past and this is the first time I've seen one be this resistant. (especially a jersey) It may also be that she's a heifer and new mom and is still kind of nervous about the newness of it.


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