Building A Herd With Calves
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ธ.ค. 2016
- As a hired hand to finish grass fed beef cattle, I just purchased my first calves to start my own herd. In this video, I discuss some of the factors I just discovered. From feeding them a pellet until the rumen develops to vaccines.
The rumen is what helps them digest grasses and without it, pellets or some sort of grain will be needed. You should also offer a nice grass hay (1st cut) but understand they may only nibble on it at first. Over time you will notice they are eating more and more of it. At this time the pellet/grain can be slowly weaned away from calves.
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Thank you for being honest, and saying what you don't know!
Loved the bloopers! lol. Thank you for being organic!
She just would not leave me alone! lol
Thanks Jason, love your natural farming techniques and videos.
Glad to hear you enjoy them. I sure enjoy my time on the farm and sharing the videos!
Haha, you seem like a good guy, I hope this venture works out for ya. Cute calves.
very nice looking calves :) and thank you for all the helpful information.
Thanks. I really like them. The red one is a South Poll and the other is a Black Baldy. They are so much fun to work with at this age. The Baldy like to rub her head on my legs, it's funny to watch as she almost knocks me down. I am anxious to mix our bred cows with these young ladies once they calve. I have yet to have them mixed together.
Glad the video was helpful!
good help here, i just got jersey bull calfs and i got them on the botttle and grain they done well and got very big now at 6v weeks eating great .
Good to know. Thanks for sharing.
Good video and a beautiful calf. We started our first bottle calves, jersey cross, this last spring. The conflicting information we received was overwhelming, answers all depended on who you were speaking to and even then seemed to change. Ours were on milk replacer and hay until weaning. We started with 4 and lost one to pnuemonia, what a learning experience. I got a list of vaccines that were available and recommended for our area from our vet then did my research on each vaccine. I used just what I believe was needed, the calves are fat and sassy now and will go to the freezer next fall. When it comes right down to it, if our calves are our future breeders then why would I want to pump them full of vaccines which would likely just mask any weaknesses they have. Let nature take it's course and breed the strongest. Good luck on your operation, I'm subscribing.
Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed the video. I appreciate the information, I will contact my vet and see what they suggest. I have a lot to learn on things like vaccines and cattle diseases, I need to start reading up on them. Currently the 2 bred cows about to calve any day now. I am very excited for the new arrivals and want to make all the right decisions for their future livelihood. Thanks for the sub!
Thanks
Check out Joel Salatin's TH-cam Videos - no vaccines and no deworming used - all grass-fed beef; Joel has been doing it for decades. He travels the world giving lectures... has many books published. Best Wishes.
Yep! I know all about Joel but thanks for sharing!
I'll offer this as I don't know much either and am just getting started this year too. Like you I have worked with cows for a few years and now the market has cooperated and I bought in. It matters where the other cows coming to your farm come from.They always look good and healthy but if they come there from a stock market maybe get your breeders vaccinated. Just something to think about and look forward to learning together. I'm leaning towards vaccinating my heard even though I'm trying to be as organic as possible.
You know, I never once thought about it this way but it makes complete sense. I am thinking I will vaccinate my cattle since they are for breeding. Then once we get to our first steer to raise for butcher, I will see how he does without vaccines. It may be a risk but somewhere down the line I need to see what works and what does not.
Thanks for sharing your input on vaccines. It is much appreciated. Good luck with your new adventure!
Great video, thanks mate, as for vaccines, maybe only administer those to conditions that would destroy your operation if contracted (eg, Mad Cow's disease, etc). For less important ones, you may be able to avoid meds there, by simply providing clean feed and environment! Hope all works out for you!
I am 2 years in with my own cattle and so far we have avoided all vaccines. They are doing very well too.
Did I hear that right? You’re located in Ohio?
If you haven’t yet, you need to read the books Come Back Farms and No Risk Ranching. Written by Greg Judy out of Missouri. Completely blew my mind up with good knowledge answering a lot of the questions you’re asking.
Great video.
Yes, I am in central Ohio (Licking county). Are you also in Ohio? Where?
I have not read that book but have followed Greg for many year now. I would have to say he is one of my favorite people to listen to. He has such great information. Have you watch any of the videos with him here on TH-cam? Great stuff!
Grazing Acres Farm
I was loaned one of Greg Judy’s books and began following him on TH-cam. Both of Greg Judy’s books are awesome.
I am attempting his way of doing things on my small farm. We are located southeast of Buckeye Lake. Fairfield county.
Most people who are against vaccinating their Cattle still vaccinate against brucellosis as I'm pretty sure it is required, especially for breeding stock.
Check with your extension agent and/or vet for required vaccinations.. Good luck.
We try to avoid vaccinations if possible, so far we are 2 years in and doing great!
I researched raising cattle for a couple years before buying our cattle last spring.. Joel Salitan is our main source for info on grass fed cattle.. Our animals were purchase from a grass fed operation. No medications or vaccines. We had two calves in 2016 and have given no meds to them either. We at this point are willing to lose animals in the process of getting back to what nature intended.. Good luck, not easy :).
Great input, thanks I appreciate it. We want to be as natural as possible.
Bobby Rossbach how did it go so far?
Hey Jason. I really trust your opinion, so I have a question if you get free time to answer. Been starting up my first cattle operation since October here in Alabama. Ultimate goal is to eventually direct market grass fed beef. I have my pastures fenced now and am mob grazing 27 head on my place for a neighbor, to allow his pastures to begin recovery from years of continuous stocking. Pastures look great, his cattle are improving body condition steadily. They are all now trained to a single polywire, even the smallest calves. So, I am ready to start easing into buying some of my own stock. I expect to ear tag mine (his are not tagged) and then run them with his herd, since he's allowing me to make all the grazing decisions on when/where/how long to graze paddocks. Do you have any ideas on selection criteria for calves for a grass fed operation, Virtually all the producers in my area are cow/calf operations aimed at selling weaned calves at auction? I'd prefer to buy local to get stock that is appropriate for my climate (deep south, hot, humid, long summers, little cold temps, almost no snow), but everyone thinks I'm crazy when I describe what I want to do. Except my neighbor, who is a believer in mob grazing and full recovery periods now! :o) Do you have specific traits you look for in purchasing calves for your own grass fed herd? Thanks!
Glad to hear of your wanting to get some cattle. In the past while looking for calves to start my herd, my main concern was that they had no grain. But now that I have gained a little more experience, I plan to avoid bottle calves for my beef herd. I don't think they gain as well as a calf that's been weaned from it mother. I also ask about vaccines as we are all natural (organic) and would prefer to avoid them. If your on FaceBook, they have some nice calves/cattle for sale in some of the livestock groups. If not then you may want to check into that. I also would suggest Craigslist but have your guard up...people will straight up lie about their cattle to make a sale. Being in the hot climate, I would consider avoiding black cattle as they will spend the mid day in the shade. Of course if you had a portable shade structure then black cattle may not be too bad. Then you can control where they lay and control where soil fertility is increased. Do you have a certain breed in mind that you would like to have? The red Angus are really growing on me.
Thanks for the reply! If price wasn't a consideration, I'd like to try the South Poll breed; developed here in Alabama for this climate and to finish well on grass. They are a small to medium framed breed, which is what I struggle to find in an area dominated by cow/calf producers for commodity market. But, my goodness they are expensive. On that note; would you think that buying a quality breed developed for grass finishing in my climate would be worth paying the premium for, versus trying to select from commercial cross breeds readily available at about 1/2 the cost of the South Polls? Just trying to weigh getting twice as many cattle for my $$ but them not being genetically selected for grass fed or even for hot climate. Most producers have black calves because of premium at auction.
Im here in fla an i will tell u the buyers will dock u bad if u dont vaccinate castrate an dont have a lot of ear showing in ur cattle also take the horns off
@@davesipsy7587 have you thought of red devon or red Angus ?
I am having a pretty hard time trying to find a Non-GMO feed for my bottle calves, most feed stores just chuckle like its a big joke or something. Do you possibly have the link for the feed? Thank you Sir.
Depending on where you are, do a search on "Kalmbach Feeds". We are in Ohio and use the feeds. Also check "Hiland Naturals". A Google search could show a local dealer. Other than those I would suggest searching "Non-Gmo Feed dealers".
I totally know what you mean about feed store acting funny when Non Gmo is requested. The sad part is they are the uneducated one's. It make me angry when they do that. At the very least they should realize the market the are missing out on. That was the case with the dealer we buy from now. We called him years ago and asked for non gmo and he chuckled then said they didn't carry it. Two years ago, I learnt about Kalmback and did a search, turned out the guy that chucked was my local dealer. Ever since I have picked up $200 in a laying pellets a month, he also sells my raw honey at farmers markets. So people just need to wise up, it turns out we can all work together after we see we all want the same thing.
Good luck on your search.
Jason
+Grazing Acres Farm I have found local feed mills that will make Non-GMO feed but they want me to purchase $1,000 worth. But I am ordering from Azure now which carries a very good Non-GMO feed, but I would like to support local; I guess they will wise up eventually. I called a feed mill a few days ago and I told him that the Non gmo feed/food market is thriving and in my opinion is untapped and will only keep growing. I'm a small operation right now but I will be in the same situation with the feed store selling my products/honey hahaha. Thank you Sir, I greatly appreciate it.
+Grazing Acres Farm We are in Northeast Texas, and I will look up those brands. Thanks again; great videos.
I think you should know that the only medication the calfs will need is good health grass and they should be fine. They get sick, there are vitamines that you can give them. We dont use any vacines. Vitamines are best thing to use.
Okay so going by the comments it’s been a while since this video was posted. I was wondering on your thoughts now that you’ve grown and had time to observe. Did you vaccinate or not? We are thinking about starting calf’s in the spring time and I’d love to hear your thoughts from then to now and any suggestions you could give. Thanks and love Miley she’s adorable
To this point there has been zero vaccines used on my cattle. It was a very hard decision as I didn't want to lose any cattle. It seems everyone is convinced cattle will get sick and die if they don't have vaccine but that seems to not be true. Now keep in we do rotational grazing so we are not in one spot for very long. This is for sure the reason I haven't needed any medications or vaccines. If your cattle will be in the same area all the time I would probably suggest you do give vaccines.
@@GrazingAcresFarm what about scours? Did you ever have issues with that?
I have a question. Will the calves thrive if one were to simply give them goats milk until they start filling themselves up hay and pasture? I ask because it’s way cheaper to produce goats milk than it is to buy milk replacer, and I’d prefer if we could just keep them on milk for a month or two longer rather than having to supplement with grain.
Perhaps goats milk after 4-6 weeks.. They really need the fats from cow milk
when I raised calves. I bottled fed and hand fed calf manna when they ate calf manna on their own I put hole corm in the calf manna they can eat corn till about 350lbs. They sure do look good. Remember your replacing their mother. Give them a little attentions.
Whats your opinion on raising bottle fed calves up to 6 months to sell to feedlots. Is it a good idea and is it profitable. Thanks
If you have the ability & someone wants the young stock, you could try it small scale
Am in California an i have been raising calves now on my 3rd one but not sure where to start can u help me point me in the way
What would you like to know?
You’re on your 3rd calf and you don’t know what to do? Not trying to be a dick, but if you have the internet you literally learn anything you want.
Having worked on a lot of large dairy farms I have also vaccinated a lot of animals. There are plenty of different vaccines that you could use, but I would recommend looking at the risk and reasons to use each type. SRP/Endobac/J-5/Ultrabac/etc. all work on environmentals like salmonella, e-coli, and clostridia. Those bacteria are on every farm and how you manage will influence if you need to use them. Other vaccines are more for reproduction diseases/viruses like BVD, neospora, lepto, ect. These diseases are not on every farm, so you may not need to vaccinate against them. That said, if a dog, deer, or purchased animal brings the disease to your farm you may lose 30-60% of your calf crop for the year. The last type I have used are ones for Johnes and they are developing one for BLD. Many cattle have these diseases (40-90% in dairy herds), but they act slowly over the animal's life. They may cause you to cull a cow at 10 yo instead of 16 yo. Nutrition and welfare may extend their life further, but they will never live as long as they could have otherwise.
Environmentals are cheap: $5-10 per animal per year will give you some protection.
Repro vaccines are about the same: $10-15 per year but should give complete protection against these diseases/viruses.
The Johnes one will require a vet and is $50+ but is only given once.
I currently have three 450 pound steers eating grass and hay on my place, none are vaccinated and that doesn't worry me much.
Thanks for the information, Steve. Like I mentioned in the video is stage of cattle life is all new to me. I have been managing for four years and mainly I just move them daily (intensive grazing). With this form of grazing, I would think a lot of parasites and diseases would not be a worry for anything that is to be processed (24 months or younger). My concern is the ones I am raising to get bred. I want them to stay healthy for many years and not have any issues of any kind. This said, the majority of the cattle I manage are purchased as feeder each year and brought on to our farm. This COULD introduce any number of things on my cattle. We practice organic farming, in which up to now I always thought medication/ vaccines were not allowed. I know antibiotics are a big NO, NO.
If it were you, what would you do for the breeding stock? Our current bred cows are 4 years old, what should they be given if anything?
Thanks a million
Jason
I would consider asking a local vet what disease issues are a problem around your area. Even if you don't vaccinate against them you have some idea where to look if something goes wrong.
My biggest concern would be persistently infected (PI) calves with BVD that come in with your stockers. Most should be sickly enough that they don't live that long, but some will, and they would wreak havoc with your repro. However....I don't know if it will be worth the money/effort. If you continue to have more than one income source (aka not just a cow-calf operation) the financial setback won't be as devastating. Even if it did come through one year all the beefer mommas would be immune to it the next year anyway. That would be the only vaccine that I would worry about (Bovi Shield/Titanium/etc) and I am not sure that I would give it in your shoes. If your were only cow-calf I would vaccinate to prevent a financial meltdown.
Also, as a side note, the official organic rules are very lenient on many things.....not sure that is a good thing, but it is something to know.
I have 4 low lines and a Jersey cow with her calf, which is about half jersey, half other dairy breeds. Also three sheep. So far, I've been ok with no vaccines. Like you said, good pasture/hay, clean water, minerals, and move away from manure. And, as we get into winter or the heat of summer, giving them the adequate shelter that they will need. You're probably like me, and limited by your $$, so you have to make decisions based on that. If you got into a situation where you needed to vaccinate one or the whole herd, that's your choice to make since you know all the variables you're dealing with. If you needed to sell an animal and the buyer wouldn't take it without vaccination... You get the idea. We all have long term dreams and aspirations for our herds and land. A friend of mine says "Don't let your short term greed get in the way of your long term greed". In other words, you will sacrifice some principles here and there along the way to get to your goal. You did that when you bought those two calves. But, they're cheap right now and are allowing you to start your own herd. I'm probably not telling you anything you don't know, but it's good sometimes to be reminded: There isn't just one way to be successful in this business and make it work for you. You will constantly evaluate your situation and make decisions based on where you want to go. If you're successful/happy, and not hurting anyone else, no one can tell you you're wrong. You don't have to do it like Joel Salatin, Greg Judy, or anyone else, and you probably couldn't if you tried.
Ok, I'm just rambling now.
You are correct, I am trying to build my farm on a limited income. I end up trying to prioritize things that need done. I have not price vaccines at all yet but what you say here does make me think about it. After all, these head will be used in my breeding program so I am probably better to vaccinate them. As where cattle raised for butchering only live up to 2 years so the risk period is much shorter. Maybe that should be the way I look at it from now on. If they are breeders then Vaccinate. If they are for butcher, then avoid vaccines.
I have also been told that D.E. (diatomaceous earth) offered to cattle as a supplement helps remove toxins from vaccines. Have you ever heard this? I am already planning to use D.E. as a fly control this next year so it would be great to know it had several benefits for the herd.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Thanks and I hope you have a great holiday!
You don't do your cattle for blackleg at least?
Nope!
Going have to vaccinate for tb or u cant ship out out state
Why would I need to ship out of state? My market is here in my state.
If you buy healthy calves from locals you should not have to vaccinate. At least we never did and never had a problem. I believe it was because we had healthy fields that we rotated purposely and a good water supply. If you have poor fields you will be forced to feed and have poor cattle. Take the time to build up your fields. Buy some seed if required. Be realistic in the number of cattle you may raise and do not overgraze. After you switch your cattle to new fields drag a rake through the old field to break down the manure easily and fertilize your soil. If you are required to pick up manure in the field you are overgrazing and raising too many cattle. Those clumps of grass in your field are seed in the manure that was not raked out. Then this video is two years old and you have hopefully figured this out by now! LoL Good ranching!
Summerland
Another way to rake manure without a tractor is to put cracked corn on the pies and let your turkeys or big chickens tear them up. On Day 3 the baby flies are ready to be eaten by them, free feed
You need to vaccinate for black leg only one you really need
Been managing cattle for just over 6 years and never once have we worried about Black Leg and it's not been an issue. Everyone seems to push Black Leg being an issue though. Thanks for advice though but I am not seeing a reason to start vaccines and the customers like that.