Bottle babies…Lots of them!

We have what is considered a small dairy farm in these times. We usually milk between 45 and 50 cows in a tie stall barn. On dairy farms, we have cows calving throughout the year, keeping the milk supply constant to fill our quota. Calves are born on the hottest and coldest days of the year, and everything in between. 

When a calf is born, we milk the mother immediately and usually feed the baby her colostrum (first milk full of nutrients and antibodies) as she is licking off the calf. We need to ensure that the calf gets a good feeding of this most important milk and not leave it to chance. When the calf is all licked off, it gets a jacket (in the colder weather) and joins its new friends in the calf pens. 

We continue to feed these babies by bottle, fresh milk, until they start to show some interest in drinking from a bucket…usually 3 weeks or so. 

So, it is rare that we don’t have some bottle babies — or bottle calves — to feed. Sometimes two, four, or maybe even five. Caring for bottle calves on a dairy farm is equal parts science, strength, and sweetness.

We breed some of our lower-end cows to beef semen, as these calves are worth more to sell at a week or two in age, and we are constantly trying to improve our herd with better genetics, so we don’t want to keep calves from our poorer cows. Along with this, our best cows are often bred using sexed semen, so that we increase our chances of getting heifer calves from those cows, thus improving our genetics. 

So what happens when, through a variety of circumstances, we have a large number of our best cows calving in one month? Bottle babies, bottle babies, bottle babies! 

Yup, at this time, our small dairy farm has 10 bottle babies — 10 bottle calves! 10! Two of these calves are getting close to being able to go on a bucket, but I tried them for two feedings and they are not super interested yet! 

I have two hands, which now that a few of these sweet girls are a few days older, I can feed two at a time, but ten bottle babies is a lot of work on a farm that we are only used to having a fraction of that number. I have suddenly gone from doing calf chores and an hour of other chores during milking time, to just getting calf chores as my husband is finishing all the other chores that I have been helping with! 

Bottle feeding these bottle calves, keeping calf pens clean and dry, keeping track of the amount of milk consumed, watching behaviors for signs of illness, feeding grain, hay and water keeps me pretty busy!

But, is there anything sweeter than a beautiful little calf? Anything more precious than watching it learn that it really wants what is in that bottle? The awkwardness of those first stumbling steps which quickly changes to running around the pen kicking up their feet as fresh bedding is added.

And, the kids love the new babies and come to the barn more! Watching them learn to take care of the new life on the farm, while gaining their knowledge, strength and maturity as human beings may be the greatest reward of all. 

So 10 bottle babies is a lot (and we have 4 more close up cows!) but it’s also a lot of joy, a lot of smiles, a lot of beauty.

And I am grateful for “a lot”!