“Jeanette why do you feed the calves that kind of milk?” said my little cousin. My little cousins use to drive me crazy when I would feed my calves, because they would always interrogate me about feeding calves. So in a way, this essay is in response to their always asking why I feed the calves the way I do. Caring for the calves has always been my chore on the farm. I was not only responsible for their overall health and making sure they were not sick, but I was also in charge of tending to the calves; which included feeding them milk, water, and grain. When a calf is first born we feed them milk for two months. For the first four to five days after a calf is born I feed them milk from their mother in a bottle. It is vital for them to be fed their mother’s milk because the first milk, called colostrum, contains elevated levels of vital vitamins and antibodies that the calf needs to grow properly. After the calf is approximately six days old, sometimes a few days earlier depending on the calf, I start feeding the calf from a bucket with milk replacer. Milk replacer is powdered milk with vitamins and minerals that needs to have water added to it. I usually mix up the milk replacer in a bucket with a cooking whisk. The bucket, when full, will …show more content…
When they are about two weeks old I start feeding the calves grain to supplement their diet. The grain gives them the minerals and vitamins they need to grow into healthy heifers. I start giving them about two handfuls of grain and as they begin to start eating it I keep increasing the amount slowly as they clean up what I give them. The grain has molasses on it which provides a sweet taste to the grain to make them want to eat it. I work them up to about a eight quarts of grain or as a I measure it, a coffee can full every feeding. As they get older the type and amount of grain changes but for the rest of their life they will get