Anyone ever raise a bottle calf on goat's milk?

[MustangGal]

I know it can be done, just looking for tips, tricks, etc.

We have an abundance of goat milk - not quite enough for a bottle calf, so we will have to buy at least one bag of milk replacer. The price of beef at the grocery store is positively painful, not to mention who knows what in it.

[hellhound]

I did it when we lived in Arkansas. How much goat milk are you looking at as extra?

It is a pain, but if you are already milking twice a day you are already going to be around enough to make the commitment. Do you have the pasture to grow him out on? Are you going to butcher yourself or take him somewhere?
Those are all costs to take into account. Once we added it up it, we were better off catching one at the sale barn that only needed a few months time on the pasture to finish out. Beebee and Conway were good for that if you are close enough

[MustangGal]

We are getting around 1/2 gallon per day more than we can use. We have the land, so that won't be a big deal.

[hellhound]

1/2 a gallon a day isn't all that much extra. You would need a lot of milk replacer to make it work. I would consider buying a calf that is weaned and finding a use for the milk, or even buy a pig or two and make the milk part of their daily feed.

I wouldn't hesitate to do it with having the land if the calf price was right. I would even consider buying something like a dexter bull and heifer and starting your own little herd. With the dexters being fairly gentle and prices usually being low it might be worth looking into.

[MustangGal]

From what I have been reading, it would be about half of what a calf requires. Am I wrong? Plus, I am accumulating a freezer full of milk. I have also noticed milk production has been picking up in the last few days, 1/2 quart more than we were getting. I just don't have time to make cheese right now - not hard, just time consuming.

Pigs - we picked ours up from the butcher last Wednesday, so we are covered there for a while. Gave my folks half of a pig, but we have 1 1/2 in the freezer. The chickens like the milk if I let it set out for several days to clabber - they go crazy for it, but my husband would freak out if I tried to feed that much milk to the chickens.

Right now we have about four acres m/l, hopefully, in the future we will be able to purchase more. We don't have enough for a small cattle herd, because we have 16 goats. But we do have about 3/4 of an acre we can fence off specifically for a calf.

DH is really focused on remodeling the other house right now, so we may have enough milk frozen to feed a calf completely. Not that I don't want to get moved....

[hellhound]

If you are freezing and collecting ahead, you are probably going to be good. How much you need really comes down to what breed you end up with. Given you are probably looking for something cheaper for just a grow out you will probably end up with something midsized that you will be good with 2-3 gallons a day.

If your goats aren't too mean you can usually graze them and the cows together. Cattle graze and the goats browse so they can share the same space

I am hopeful that we get to make the move back to Arkansas this fall. I grew up in Batesville, and have really missed the ozarks.

[PerryJeff]

I have raised with milk replacer years ago. If you have that much frozen milk I think you would be just fine. I would try to get one that had been nursing for a few days, that first days milk is very critical for immune system. We used to add Corn syrup to the dry milk for the first week or two to give them more calories but since you have real milk I would think you would not have to do that. Good luck and have fun... Sometimes to get them started on the pail stick you finger in the pail and let them suck the milk from your finger then slide the nipple into there mouth beside your finger and when they start getting milk pull your finger out... usually only takes a time or two.

[MustangGal]

Just wanted to update you one the calf w/ goat milk. We get about 3/4 of a gallon of milk most days, so we have to supplement with milk replacer. Plus some milkings we keep for our use, so he gets a full bottle of milk replacers on those days. We got him mid April, we worked through all the milk in the freezers, then bought a 25lb bag of milk replacer. It looks like we will probably have to buy another 25 lb bag to make it to weaning @ 4 months, but we are very satisfied with the results. Estimating that between the milk replacer and a few bags of sweet feed, we will take him to weaning for about $100.

[BioG8r]

We usually start weaning at about three months, it's a little early but if the calves welcome the feed and forage we let them start to fill up on their own. If we see them dwindling,, even a little, we supplement with a bottle but only for a few feedings and make adjustments to the pallatability of the feed. (add corn syrup/molasses).
I bottle feed for two reasons - Make the animal a people lover & Save the animal from starvation or bullying.
We have never raised a cow on goat milk but have raised deer fawns on it.
Sounds like you have the situation under control and at a good price.

[MustangGal]

I have to update my cost assessment. I was blessed to find a bag of calf milk replacer on a pallet of bags that had been broken. The original price was $42, it was marked down to $17 and it appears that very little of it is missing! WooHoo! So, I get to drop my estimate to $75 to $80!

[tommixx]

yes we raised our show string calfs on goats