Q&A for How to Raise Bucket Calves

Yes. They often do. They also live well with some discipline, like being halter trained.

They're called bucket calves because large dairy operations typically feed them milk from a bucket from the start rather than using bottles. Bottles require too much labor. Many unwanted calves (especially males) originate from dairy operations.

Get something they like to eat and hold it close to the bucket. When it gets close, hold the treat under the water. Then when it put its head in the water, pull the treat away and it will think the water is a treat.

Please talk to a large animal vet, because diarrhea can have many causes, from over-feeding to a disease.

I raise calves for a living and there isn't a definitive answer. It depends on how much grain and hay they are eating. At four weeks old they should be nibbling on both, but may not be eating enough to need extra water yet. (The warmer the weather is, the more water they need.)

You should give it smaller amounts than with the pail but continuously attempt to get her to transition to the pail.

Milk formula should be lukewarm before feeding. For other food (hay, grain, water etc.), temperature does not matter.

A good rule of thumb is to feed a calf 10 percent of its body weight in milk replacer per day.

You bottle feed calves till you can get them to drink out of a bucket. And you bucket feed them until they are two months old.

There's a saying out there: Go with your gut; when in doubt, do without. If you think that 10 is too much, then it probably is. So start with 5 instead, or two, then work from there. Bottle calves are very demanding and a lot of work if you're not prepared for it, retired or not. They're a lot more work than if you purchased weaned calves instead to raise for beef. It's all up to you.

Bottle calves run from $80 to $200.

Confinement is only if you don't have pasture available, and can feed them a total mixed ration in their pen for as long as they need to be in that pen. Also, and this is most important, the reason to confinement when you first purchase them is that it helps them settle down to their new surroundings over the next few weeks before putting them out in a larger corral, or onto a pasture. If you're getting new livestock, let them have at it. You can let them out and about in a bigger fenced area after a little while once they've settled down.

Time, patience, persistence, and using yourself to hold the calf and squirt some milk from the bucket into the calf's mouth, as well as trying to get the calf to latch on to the bucket nipple, squirting milk into the calf's mouth as you do so. This may take more than one attempt for the calf to get it. If you can, or if it's possible, use the same nipple from the bottle to bucket-feed the calf may also work, since it may have the calf's own scent and taste on there, too.

Calves can be sold really at any age, depending on what the market demands. But yes, castrated bottle calves sell more readily than intact bull calves do. You'll have to look at the local markets to see what sells best.

I don't think it will. Try it out; if it isn't big enough by a month before show season, try feeding it hay and grass. If it does not eat those, then keep bottle feeding the calf.

Yes, because calves can be weaned from milk when they are eating 1.5 to 2 pounds of starter (Holsteins) daily for three days in a row. Thus, calves should not be weaned based on age but rather on the basis of their intake of starter.