How to Hand Raise a Calf

Newborn calves frolicking in the fields with their mothers are common springtime sights on the farm. But if the cow is injured or dies during calving, hand raising the calf may be necessary. Calves are also raised by hand for a number of agricultural programs such as 4-H, and raising a calf can teach young animal enthusiasts proper animal care and responsibility. Raising a calf by hand is a rewarding experience, although it does require work and dedication.

Things You'll Need

  • Barn or shelter
  • Straw
  • Livestock scale
  • Calf bottle
  • Calf nipple
  • Calf milk replacer
  • Bucket
  • Calf starter pellets
  • Shallow feed pan
  • Hay
  • Grower feed
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Instructions

    • 1

      Set up a safe, draft-free pen for your calf. Clean any manure or debris from the ground, and bed the pen with at least 4 inches of clean straw. A 12-foot-by-12-foot stall with an adjacent turnout is small enough to give your calf a sense of security, yet big enough to accommodate the calf as it grows.

    • 2

      Weigh the calf to determine how much it should eat for proper growth. The calf needs approximately 10 percent of its body weight in milk at each feeding, so weigh the calf daily and adjust rations as necessary.

    • 3

      Mix the recommended amount of milk replacer powder with water in a calf bottle and shake vigorously to combine. Hold the nipple near the calf's nose so it can smell the milk; then press the nipple gently against its lip. If the calf doesn't latch on and nurse immediately, squeeze a little milk out onto your fingers and rub it over the nipple and along the calf's lip until it sucks on the nipple. Bottle feed the calf every four hours until it is two weeks old.

    • 4

      Pour the calf's ration of milk replacer in a bucket to wean it off the bottle once the calf is three weeks old. If the calf is reluctant to drink from the bucket, stick your fingers in the milk and let the calf lick them, lowering your fingers into the milk to lure the calf's nose into the bucket.

    • 5

      Fill a shallow feed pan with calf starter and offer this to the calf once it starts drinking from the bucket. Calf starter is high in protein and introduces your calf to solid food slowly to prevent scours. Add a splash of milk replacer to the pellets if the calf is uninterested in eating.

    • 6

      Wean the calf slowly off milk once it is consuming 2 lbs. of calf pellets a day. Decrease the calf's milk by one-fourth each day for four days days, filling the bucket with water so the calf learns to drink water. Give the calf as much hay as it will eat, shaking the flakes out near the feed pan to loosen them up.

    • 7

      Increase the calf's rations up to 5 lbs. of pellets a day and unlimited hay until three months of age. After the calf is three months old, swap the starter pellets to grower pellets until the calf reaches six months of age. At six months, the calf is old enough to be fed strictly a diet of clean, fresh hay and water.

    • 8

      Schedule your vet to come out at four, six, and eight weeks of age to administer vaccinations and worming medication to the calf. After this initial series of treatment, a final booster vaccination should be given once the calf is six months old.