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Author Topic: Calves from knackerman  (Read 12494 times)

sokel

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • S W northumberland
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #15 on: February 16, 2013, 10:44:34 pm »
Thanks Sally
Ohh gawd I know what would happen if a jersey calf came here  :o we have a thing about jerseys  ::)
Just an after thought, how successful would feeding a calf on goats milk be ?
we are probably going to have 40+  liters of goats milk a day and once the kids are weaned a lot of it will be spare
« Last Edit: February 16, 2013, 10:53:54 pm by sokel »
Graham

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #16 on: February 16, 2013, 10:54:04 pm »
Jerseys go through a gawky teenager stage - that'd help  ;)  Just don't keep 'em on till they get to the ugly duckling -> swan transformation - about 8 months  :D
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

sokel

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • S W northumberland
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #17 on: February 16, 2013, 11:00:17 pm »
I can hear Carlisle mart calling us  ::)
what about the goats milk ?
Graham

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #18 on: February 17, 2013, 01:07:38 am »
Dunno about using goats' milk for calves, sorry. 
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

domsmith

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • sanquhar, dumfries and galloway
    • sunnyside farm
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #19 on: February 17, 2013, 11:35:03 am »
Volac blossom, has a gut conditioner in, we never had scour problems. it was pneumonia that was the biggest killer of calves.

a nurse cow would be great! we reared 2 montbeliards of our jersey last year, bothe should have gone for veal, but i had lost the will by then and sold them.

just scratch the surface and there are hubdreds of calves out there. buy them off farm, avoid the market for very young calves.

But i loved rearing them.

dom

ballingall

  • Joined Sep 2008
  • Avonbridge, Falkirk
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #20 on: February 17, 2013, 06:32:54 pm »
We always used to buy (or be given) young calves which we always reared on goats milk sokel. No issues at all. In fact, often when we were given them, ours would do better on the goats milk than the other ones did on powdered.  Best success story was a limision (sp?) cross calf bought for £5, fed on goats milk and grass, then sold after a few months for £220! We had a Hereford cross at the same time, nice calves both of them. That was very early nineties, not reared any since then.


Beth

sokel

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • S W northumberland
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #21 on: February 17, 2013, 07:52:16 pm »
Thanks for the info, will be looking for a couple of calfs in the very near future  ::)
Graham

sokel

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • S W northumberland
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #22 on: February 18, 2013, 03:21:38 pm »
Well we have been in touch with Weelbirks (they do the Jersey Icecream) and popping over one day this week to have a chat  ::)
Graham

Ladygrey

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Basingstoke
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #23 on: February 18, 2013, 06:47:14 pm »
We sell all our black and white bull calves at 35 days old to a calf collecter, he then rears them for a few months and they get sold to waitrose.

The better calves (angus, limi and british blue cross freisians) get bought from the collector by mcdonalds who pay more than waitrose do

Although our black and white bull calves are massive and not much difference between them and the british blues, I think due to the good milk they get and that they are freisians not holsteins.

If I had the land one day I would love to try buy some off farm and rear some up for veal :)


SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #24 on: February 19, 2013, 04:43:14 am »
Well we have been in touch with Weelbirks (they do the Jersey Icecream) and popping over one day this week to have a chat  ::)
Hillie is Wheelbirks Impuls Scent.  They're lovely folks to deal with :)   And their Jersey beef is delicious  :yum:
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

sokel

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • S W northumberland
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #25 on: February 19, 2013, 06:11:40 pm »
Been today and we are collecting 2 calf's on friday morning 1 is 7 weeks and the other 10 weeks old  :love:
Graham

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #26 on: February 19, 2013, 06:17:00 pm »
Result!   :thumbsup:

We shall, of course, require pictures...  :eyelashes:
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

sokel

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • S W northumberland
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #27 on: February 19, 2013, 07:12:53 pm »
Of course, pictures will be flooding the forum  :roflanim:
would have collected them earlier but I have a hospital appointment tomorrow at carlisle so cant get everything ready for them untill thursday
They really are nice people at Wheelbirks and where happy to give us a guided tour of the whole farm and explain everything in detail
Graham

Anke

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • St Boswells, Scottish Borders
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #28 on: February 20, 2013, 01:43:50 pm »
This thread should be LOCKED! I am sooooo jealous.... :huff:
 
Sokel, please write up how you get on with them with goatsmilk. Mainly how much they take and for how long? As my pigs may be ready to go in October this year I could have loads of milk over by then...., going to milk 7 this summer....
 
And I am not that far from the North of Engand either....

VSS

  • Joined Jan 2009
  • Pen Llyn
    • Viable Self Sufficiency.co.uk
Re: Calves from knackerman
« Reply #29 on: February 20, 2013, 03:18:38 pm »
We always used to buy (or be given) young calves which we always reared on goats milk sokel. No issues at all. In fact, often when we were given them, ours would do better on the goats milk than the other ones did on powdered.  Best success story was a limision (sp?) cross calf bought for £5, fed on goats milk and grass, then sold after a few months for £220! We had a Hereford cross at the same time, nice calves both of them.

I'm not sure that this would be financially viable today - the days when you could buy a limX calf for a fiver are long gone. You would be lucky to find anything much under £200 today. Also, it is a long time since we kept goats, but how much does it cost to produce a gallon of goat's milk?
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