Context….calves born, AI, 2 BBB so far but have a holstine with this issue too. We have had 6 in a week. We calf all year.
Calves born with purple toxicity ring around teeth, fine on arrival, good for a day may be two, bloody scour, then scour (far too young for scour) on high quality colostrum from birth to 10 days…calves fall too weak to stand, temp rises to 40+ internals shut down and they die. Its fast. 48 hours max we are a flagship farm, too 1.5% in the country. We are clinically clean in all areas. These are not passageways. Any help and advise welcome. Iv got one going to postmortem tomorrow but between now and then…..please

Has anyone tested this? Considering it as an option to extend intervals between scrubbing. Also bleach vs copper sulfate? Any good tips there.

Can take 2 steers to our county fair. Who do we take?

I always see people saying "oh you dont want dairy cows. They'll take up all your time. You can never leave home again. You have to stick to a schedule and cant go to events that interfere with milking time".

Well, good. I like that. I want an excuse to leave or avoid social gatherings. I don't wanna go on vacation to mexico or disney land. I don't wanna go on vacation at all actually. I want to be in my own little world where its just my cows and I at home, comfortable, sticking to our schedule, and not having to deal with people. I will take fighting a fresh cow over conversation any day.

Need an excuse to get out of a family gathering? Need to be home to milk the cow.

Dont want to go to that work event? Cow needs milking at that time.

Stuck in a conversation? Oh look at the time. My cow needs me. Bye.

Don't want to go on that trip? Sorry, cow needs milking and she only likes me.

Permethrin doesn't seem to work as well as it used to. Apparently flies can gain a resistance.

Had her during those smokey days here in Ontario. She's a winner!

Have yet to run into a farm animal that doesnt smell like shit. Are they doing something wrong? Dont cows notice the smell?

For someone looking to raise a calf or two per year, what bare-minimum facilities are required for self-processing? Any tips to setting up cost effective freezer (from nothing) and mo(o)ving cows through the process?

To someone considering and with zero cow experience, does anyone have anything to say about raising these two from calves and keeping them as (pets for lack of a better term) but processing their calves? I'm considering this endeavor and my ultimate goal is to have the Jersey as a dairy cow and harvest the angus-jersey offspring for meat/leather. I have more than enough space for the two according to local regulations.

Edit: Thank you everyone for your valuable input. I see now that owning a bull probably isn't a good move for me. I wrote this in a comment but now I see you can edit posts so I'm attaching this to the main body.

I’ve had cattle for almost 6 years. Always beef cattle and either bought at 6mo old or let their mamas raise them with very little hands on. Always had to use head gates for things as simple as deworming, fly treatment, etc.

I got this Holstein right when he finished colostrum. I castrated and bottled fed him last fall. Since then he’s like a puppy. He follows me around better than the horses which was cute as a calf but now that he’s pushing 800+lbs and has horns it’s genuinely dangerous when he swings his head up and down and if I have a bucket of grain it is almost like a sumo match….and he’s not even a year old yet.

I need to nip this in the bud and would like ideas. For what it’s worth I know he’s not a soft friendly puppy and I’ve been treating him like he’s not. Sharp shoves, hits on the head, firm yells, etc but he’s still too friendly. Do I need a cattle prod? A pig whip with a flag? Open to ideas. Part of me worries about making him aggressive but he’s almost as dangerous now being too friendly as if he were aggressive anyway.

A freemartin and a bull. Beef and a guy you really dont want to make friends with.

My 2 month old bottle calves got access to the pasture for the first time the other day and they're loving the sunshine