Tips for spring on the Farm/Rearing those precious calves!

On the farm I live on, calving has started, this means spring is close and that's really exciting because I get to rear baby cows aka calves. If you are wondering what I do to rear a calf, I simply feed it 2x a day and halter train it as much as possible. When the calf starts to grow up we wean it, meaning that we change it from milk to water and a paddock of grass with a side of hay/straw. When the A and P shows finally come around that's when your calf has to do it best halter/lead training (good luck!) When your calf gets a bit older you can move it to different food sources such as Palm Kernel, Fodder beat and D.D.G (dried distillers' grains.)

When its your cow's time to calf, I would recommend checking it daily or maybe even a couple times a day, just to make sure it doesn't need any help with calving. When the calf is finally here you want it to be in a freshly bedded pen, full of soft, dry sawdust and make sure it has fresh hay and of course adlib water. Then to take care of it you will want to follow the ultimate guide to rearing and training a calf, which you can find on the home page of my blog!

Continue to take care of your cow/calf every year so it lives a long, happy life! Keep checking on your cow every now and then to make sure she/he is staying healthy and doesn't need any vet check-ups. If your cow/calf seems sick or hurt make sure to get a vet or experienced farmer in for a quick check-up, and if it does need help make sure you get it and slowly watch it recover to make sure it doesn’t hurt its-self again!

By Brooke