A Farm Addition

We were all very excited to get our first calf of the season on Wednesday. Rob tracked down a little Normandy/Holstein bull calf to add to the barn.  He is a week old and has been nursing from his momma so should have a good start to life.  At our farm he will get a diet of fresh goats milk, calf grain, hay, grass and water.  We have been raising our calves on mostly goats milk for the past three years~ and what a difference it makes compared to powdered milk replacer.  They are so much healthier, we hardly have any scour problems, and they have such nice, shiny coats.  Calves can drink up to a gallon of milk a day as they grow.  This little guy gets fed in three feedings for the first few days: 2 pints in the morning, 1 pint in the afternoon, and another 2 pints in the evening.  Slowly we will increase that amount (and cut out the middle feeding) until he is drinking a gallon a day.  Around 6-8 weeks, when he is sustaining himself on the required amount of feed, he will get weaned from the milk, banded and sent outside to the big calf pen.  Lord willing, we will add at least two more calves to the farm this summer.  Next fall, when they are 1,000+ pound steers, they will head off to the locker plant and our freezers (and friends' freezers) will be full of farm fresh beef to sustain our family for another year.  It's what we raise 'em for people.

His final name became Barnabas.  "Spot" or "Stripes" were entertained for a little bit, as well as "Abimelech", but given his bad Biblical history we decided to nix that idea.  It's good to have a calf in my goat barn again.