Well I'm back! My dear, wonderful husband was left home alone with the computer a few days ago to tend to some much needed, end of the year bookwork, only to upload a virus to our dear computer! We luckily have a computer guy in the family and he was willing to take a look! We got the computer back before Christmas but I haven't had the chance to post anything until now.
I hope the Holiday Season is finding all of you in good spirits! Winter has decided to take a break here at Orange Patch Dairy. We were unable to attend 2 of the 3 Christmas celebrations we were planning to go to this weekend, thanks to some new calves. We had 8 calves born in the past 4 days (6 before Christmas & one on Christmas morning!). So far the total is: 5 heifers, 1 bull and 1 set of twin bulls. Since we have 8 new babies to feed, calf chores now take an additional 40 minutes each time, or 80 extra minutes a day. Bottle feeding calves is very time consuming but I love bonding with my new calves! I have pictures to be posted soon of my new babies, but for now I best be off to bed...we have at least one more calf coming tomorrow (I induced her mother today, since she is 5 days past due) and 5 more due before New Year's! Stay tuned for more posts!!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
2 comments:
I write this blog to share my passion for my cows and farming, please be respectful of that. I reserve the right to delete those comments which portray hate, call names, and are out right disrespectful. If you have an honest question, I will respond, to explain what we do on our farm, why we do it and how we do it. Please read with an open mind. My time to blog is short, as most of our days are spent caring for our beloved cows. Thank you!
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How long do you keep the bull calves before they are sold? Are they allowed to grow to maturity? I have seen stories on the internet of days old calves being shipped to slaughter.
ReplyDeleteI realize that bull calves are of no use to a dairy farmer, but I hope that they are treated humanely.
We keep our calves on farm until about 5-7 days old. I like to make sure that my bull calves have a great start on milk as well as have their vaccinations. Once they have a clean bill of health I sell them to my neighbor (who also is a dairy farmer but also raises beef steers). She keeps our bull calves and raises them for about 1.5-2 yrs of age.
ReplyDeleteAll of our calves, regardless of their gender are treated humanely, it's what we do, because we care. Thanks for your comments!