Why raising bottle calves is tougher than you think!

[Music] hi folks welcome to another edition of Forgotten knowledge for any of you who've Ever Raised a baby calf on the bottle you know how much work it is and how difficult it is to keep those calves healthy all the way to weening now if you can remember how difficult that was try multiplying that by about 20 to 30 because my dad back when my sister and I were kids my dad thought that uh Not only would it build character but it would add a little income to the farm if uh she and I would raise anywhere from 20 to 30 Cales each fall and winter on the bottle and uh it was difficult to keep them alive but Dad had a gift like no one I've met since that could keep these animals alive when they got sick and he didn't use a lot of fancy medicines or drugs or anything anything matter of fact the most exotic drug I can ever remember us using was a shot of penicillin once in a while and maybe some sulfur boluses to help with scourers but other than that it was all stuff that you found around the house I can remember grinding up aspirin and feeding it to calves that might be running a fever uh he had use Kaopectate or Pepto Bismol if they had a little loose bowel um he might even give them a shot of brandy if they were kind of chilled and wet uh so anything to to keep them alive and he was very successful at it so it made it a lot easier on my sister and I raised these cats but it was still a lot of work because I can remember until I was about 10 I suppose we didn't have running water so we had to draw water out of the well by hand with a rope and bucket and then heat that water on the top of a propane powered cook stove and then carry that heated water to the barn and that's where we'd mix it with the milk replacer and feed the calf so it was it was quite a chore but Dad was so good at keeping them alive I can remember even some new uh veterinarians that might move into the area uh knew of his reputation for keeping baby Cals alive and they would even ask him for his advice once in a while and a lot of people didn't know it but my dad never went to school never learned to read or right uh but that sure didn't mean he wasn't smart cuz I even today I think he's probably the smart smartest Cattleman I ever worked around and I've gone to a couple of pretty good colleges too but he was a master at it and everybody in the neighborhood knew that and they would often call him for advice or help well back around 1960 somewhere in their 59 there was a gentleman uh that moved in bought a Creek Place uh up the creek about 3 or 4 miles from us up PO Pome walk Creek uh he was from Chicago he had made a lot of money evidently in that area and he wanted to be a farmer now so he moved in and I can remember sitting around the uh the General Store on a Saturday afternoon which is what everybody in the community did swapping tails and everything this gentleman came in and and he was very educated too and likeed to let all of us dumb Hillbillies know how smart he was and how many degrees he had and all that nonsense and he was talking with my dad and he said Mr crownover I understand that you're pretty good at raising baby cats and Dad kind of shrugged his shoulders kind of nonch well my my kids raise them you I try to help out a little bit and he said well Mr Crown over let me tell you something in farming as with anything else you're going to have to get big or get out he said how many Cals baby Cals a year do you raise dad said I anywhere from 20 to 30 he said I'm going to raise between two and 3,000 a year and put people like you out of business and Dad kind of ignored him and holled at me and we headed home in the old truck and even though dad was a deacon in the Baptist Church I learned some very new and colorful words on the way home uh that afternoon he did not like being talked down to simply because he didn't have an education and so everything went along you know about normal for about a month and then U one Sunday afternoon we' got home from church had Sunday dinner uh sitting around resting and we heard a knock on the door and it was this gentleman from the Chicago area that was now our new neighbor he said Mr Crown over I I know you're really good at raising baby cabs he said I I'd like for you to come to my farm he says I've got a bunch and they're just dying like flies I wonder if you could give me some advice or tell me what I'm doing wrong and even though he had kind of insulted dad you know a few weeks earlier dad being the good Christian man he was said yeah I'll come up and take a look so he hollered at me we had this old two-ton Chevy truck that matter of fact same one I talked about making hay here a few weeks ago had stock racks on it 16t flatbed and we set off Up the Creek Road to this gentleman's Farm now I'm about I don't know 9 or 10 years old the time and I got to admit I wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but even I knew what the problem was the we stepped out of the truck because I stepped in the problem and those of you who've raised baby calvs know what I'm talking about but Dad really surprised me he started going over to all these calves and looking in their mouth and I said knowing what was wrong I said dad what are you doing he said shh so I shushed he looked in the mouths of four or five of these calvs and he said sir said where have you been getting these calves at and the uh the rich Old Gentleman from Chicago said well you know the normal places you buy baby Cals I've been going to sail barns every every day or two picking up baby calvs I I go to three or four different dairies and buy their calves as soon as they're born uh and dad said well that's about right where how much you've been giving for them and this keep in mind this is somewhere around 1960 uh he said well you know the going price $ 1215 ahe dad shook his head and he said sir I I I don't know how you tell this but I've seen it happen before with newcomers said these sail Barns and these dairies are probably taking a little bit advantage of you because they're selling you deformed Cales and the gentleman had a puzzled look on his face and he looked at the calses and he said deformed calves what is deformed about them dad said look in their mouths they ain't one of them got any upper teeth and the gentleman went over and looked and he says my gosh you're right what do I do and dad said well I hate to see a newcomers taken advantage of so I tell you what I'll do he said all these that you got here that are still alive I'll give you $5 ahead for them and the guy scratched his head and he said well for deformed Cals I guess that's good that I can get rid of them for at least $5 get some of my money back so we loaded up that 2ton Chevy truck with I don't know how many Cals but probably our normal uh supply of calves for the fall or winter headed back down the Creek Road to our farm and on the way back dad looked over at me and he said son did you learn anything today and I said how to take advantage of a neighbor and he said oh no no he said every one of those calves would have been dead in two days the way he was taking care of them he said what you should have learned is the very first principal in survival and farming and that son is to buy stuff as cheap as you possibly can now I don't remember how much money we made on those calves that year but Dad kept almost all of them alive and we made a pretty good little bit of money see you next time on forgotten [Music] [Applause] knowledge

Channel: CROWN CATTLE COMPANY

Views: 823

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Id: 7E7fvUzF5Y8

Length: 8min 28sec (508 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 11 2023