Calf Sharing?

Calf sharing? Not on this farm. While it does have a place, it’s not here.

Having multiple cows in the herd, our calf sharing experiences have not been favorable.

•The newborn scour stage—the calf disappears and after hours of searching, you might find him. He’s probably too weak to nurse and dehydrated, and you’ve got a 30% chance he’ll live.

•The independent cow—she has her calf in the field, why should she come up for milking?!

•The independent cow—fidgets, holds back milk, is impatient to get back to her calf.

•Calf decides that one mama is good, two or three is better—3 half nursed cows this morning.

•Cow is a good cow and saves the cream for her calf. Goodbye butter!

•Cow decides she’s tired of feeding calf, but calf persists nursing—resulting in sore, sensitive teats.

•Calf or Cow refuse to stay separate and now you have created 2 trained fence jumpers.

•Calves are harder to wean, and harder to handle.

•”Weaned” yearling heifers in your herd (and maybe the bull too) see calf nursing and decide to join calf—you have a mess.

Calf sharing also allows you (the new cow owner) to easily neglect your cow and not pay attention to her body condition or udder condition. If you’re not out milking, why feed her?! And pretty soon, you won’t have to feed her anyway because she’ll be A-dead on a hillside. Or B—too wild to handle. This isn’t assumption, it’s experience. I’ve been this person. Cows are flexible and incredibly adaptable. But—if you want a milk cow, treat her like a milk cow!

I grew up calf sharing and it fit our unpredictable lifestyle and our single beef x Holstein cow did well with it. However, we didn’t expect much from her. Milk for only 6 months, 1/2-2.5 gallons a day, no milk on the weekends, or when the calf refused to cooperate, mostly skim milk. She was a range cow, and she did her job well.

If this is what you’re looking for, I’d strongly encourage you to look for a beef x dairy. You’ll probably have to buy her as a newborn calf or off of some beef farmer. She probably won’t be tested or trained, but you’ll only give market price for her.

#neptunesfarmanddairy #ozarkdairy #grassfeddairy #calfsharing #familycow