Bottle Calves

So we decided to take on 7 more babies. Are we crazy? Yes. But so far it has been so fun. That's probably because I haven't had to feed them by myself yet. That will come when Matt is busy with corn harvest... But thankfully Matt and I have been able to feed them together and even his sister Tiffany came after volleyball practice yesterday to help feed them. I guess she likes the smell of the milk replacer!? Strange. But Matt does too. For a couple weeks we just had one calf. A black Angus from my sister. He was such a small calf when he was born but he is doing good and is even a little feisty.
Daddy helping Lillie feed little blacky. Or Mickey as the kids call him.

They both want to feed him.

It gets a little messy sometimes.

They love their calfy.


Just this week we got the other six calves. One is a brown Swiss, 2 are brown swiss/holstein mixes and the other 3 are holsteins. Male Holsteins are more readily available since dairies don't have use for very many males. So that is why we got holsteins. Also they are a lot more calm and docile. Don't I sound like I know a lot? HA! I really am pretty lost but Matt knows quite a bit and it has been a lot of fun learning from him and working with him. It's kind of something we can do together and work together on and it is great!
Here is the brown Swiss. It is so cute. Brown Swiss are a pretty big breed so he is the biggest of them all but he is one of the younger ones. They are all 2-3 weeks old.

Here is another picture of the Brown Swiss.

Here is one of the holsteins. They are all eating very well. We bottle feed them in the morning and in the evening. Sometimes during the day we give them electrolytes from the bottle as well. We will probably bottle feed them for another 5-6 weeks.

While they drink the bottle they butt their heads a lot(at least most of them do) so it is kind of hard to hold onto the bottle. At least for the kids and I it is. Matt can feed 2 at a time. Show off=) He gets 2 out of the main pen at a time and lures them with the bottle into a smaller pen so he can feed them without being head butted by all the others. Then he gets 2 more and brings them into another small pen and so on until they are all fed. Then he lets them all back together.


My favorite calfy. They are all males but Lillie informed me that this one is a girl. I asked her why she thought this one was a girl and she said because she saw its eyes and they were girl eyes=)