How to Raise Bottle Calves

Raising calves from birth requires immediate attention to feeding and preventative health care. Newborn calves should be fed colostrum during the first hours of life to provide their bodies with nutrients for growth and antibodies for immunity. Bottle calves, also known as bucket calves, can be purchased from dairy farms, feedlots and sale barns. Bottle calves may be raised as 4-H projects by schoolkids or as heifers and steers by small scale beef producers or hobby farmers. Purchased calves are usually able to drink from a bottle or bucket without help and generally have been vaccinated.

Things You'll Need

  • Bottle
  • 2 Buckets
  • Calf Starter Pellets
  • Hutch or Boxstall
  • Grain
  • Hay
  • Water
  • Milk or Milk Replacer
  • Iodine
  • Vaccine
  • Syringe
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Instructions

    • 1

      Feed your calf a bottle of colostrum during the first 12 hours after its birth. Colostrum is the first milk produced from the mother after giving birth. Colostrum is vital to calf health as it contains antibodies for building the immune system. Frozen colostrum or colostrum from other cows should be used if the mother is unable to produce milk.

      Newborn calves should also have their umbilical cord dipped in iodine to reduce the risk of infection. They should be vaccinated for clostridial diseases.

    • 2

      Place calves in individual clean hutches or box stalls. Young calves will suck on each other and anything in their pen; therefore, it is imperative to keep their pen clean and free from loose objects. If you are not able to place calves in separate pens, teach them to drink from a bucket to ease feeding. Let the calf suck on a nipple and gradually submerge the nipple into a bucket of milk.

    • 3

      Feed 80 to 90 pound lb. calves 1/2 gallon of milk in the morning and 1/2 gallon in the evening. Feed smaller calves 1/3 gallon in the morning and 1/3 gallon in the evening. Gradually increase the milk for the smaller calves until they are drinking 1/2 gallon of milk at each feeding. Feed calves fresh cow's milk or milk replacer.

    • 4

      Introduce dry feed and water to calves when they reach two weeks. A dry calf starter feed can be purchased from farm stores and feed businesses. Teach calves to eat dry feed and water by letting them suck on your hand as you gradually lower it into the bucket. Place your hand in the feed or water, so the calf will consume feed while sucking on your fingers.

    • 5
      Calves should be kept in separate pens until they are weaned.

      Wean calves when they are consuming around 1 1/2 pounds of dry feed each day. Calves should be weaned gradually by reducing bottle feeding to one time per day for three days before stopping all bottle feeding. Refrain from adding stresses, such as vaccinating, castrating or relocating, during the first week of weaning.

    • 6

      Add soft, grass hay to the calf's diet when it reaches 8 to 10 weeks of age. Begin mixing a calf grower feed with the calf starter when calves are 10 to 12 weeks. Gradually increase the grower-to-starter feed ratio over a one-week span, until calves are consuming 100 per cent grower feed.

    • 7

      Dehorn, castrate and vaccinate calves when they are 6 to 8 weeks of age. Both bulls and heifers grow horns, which should be burned off with a dehorner when calves are small. Likewise, bull calves should be castrated during 6 to 8 weeks of age. Many farm stores sell dehorning tools and Elastrators with rubber bands for castrating. Vaccinations and syringes can be purchased from a large animal veterinarian.