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God's Country (N.C. Ia) | There's a couple fellers doing this a few miles west of me. Talked to one of them last spring and he said biggest thing he's learned is if the cow doesn't claim the calf in the first day, he just bottle feeds it in a hut by itself. Obviously when you're buying old cows, you're usually just buying someone else's problems to a point, so you can end up with some poor mothers (ask me how I know!). I'm not quite sure you can figure on getting the calf for free in this type of deal, but there may be a few dollars saved vs. buying feeders. His basic cow ration consisted of sweetcorn silage (which you can usually get for the trucking around here), and wet distillers. The way he made it sound, he probably does this with a couple hundred head a year, but his neighbors do I think around 500 a year. I agree with it being a nice way to turn your money over faster, but I think you need to be prepared to deal with a lot of different, quirky old mommas. Good luck with whatever you decide! | |
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Buying bred solid to broken mouth cows??
