I remember reading a couple of paragraphs about giving new bottle calves comfrey. It seems to me that Ken wrote it. I cant remember the details and I cant find the article! Could you please jog my memory? My neighbor frequently brings home calves that are born in the sale barn and left there to die. His success rate is very poor. I thought if I could find a magic bullet it might be a little extra income. Thanks, Tami in WI

-- tami in wi (windridg@chorus.net), September 21, 2001

Answers

They need colustrum .I cant imagine anything being left to die in this market .They are worth way to much money .

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), September 21, 2001.

Tami, what do the calves die from? Procedure here for a new born is 1. colustrum, aquire from a dairy and freeze it, take it with you to the sale; it must be body tempature when you feed the calf. 2.treat the cord with iodine and spray shipping fever medicine in the calfs nose. 3. Once home keep the calf out of drafts and feed it 4 or 5 times a day to strecth the stomach slowley, after three or more days you can increase the amount and feed less often. Keep the bottle clean enought to drink out of it yourself. 4. Most important is to watch for wet yellow stool, cure this by feeding a couple of ounces of acidophillas milk, its pasturized and the benifical bacteria is put back in; look for it in any large grocerystore dairy case. The milk works on any creature that drinks milk including humans. You can discontinue when the stool changes color and/or hardens, usually after three days of feeding, three times a day. Moo.....

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), September 21, 2001.

My girlfriend gets bottle calfs from the sale barn. She gives them a shot soon as she gets home ( I don't know what it is) then she gives them electerolights from the vet's and puts a heaping tablespoon of plain live culture yogurt in every bottle they drink. Then the 3rd day she gives them a scour pill whether they need it or not. Her lose is about 1 in 50 calfs. She also keeps them draft free and she buys them about 20 at a time she never lets the new calfs get near her other cattle for about 6 weeks. She said that way if she dose bring one home with somthing she dose not spread it to the rest of the heard. I hope this helps cause I don't now Nothin bout them cept there fun and clean your rings when they suck your fingers LOL

-- Teresa (c3ranch@socket.net), September 22, 2001.

Hi, I've visiting with relatives in Chillocothe, OH so don't have access to my reference books. The item on feeding comfrey to calves was in one of the English comfrey books. Just an passing item saying a Mrs. So & So in a village saved sick calves by adding comfrey to their milk. I assumed it had to be finely chopped or something. When I get back home tomorrow I'll give you the full text and reference.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 24, 2001.

Generally you do not want to buy "wet calves". THese are day olds. You want the ones that the dairy would have put colostrum into.

Method 1 = 1-3 raw eggs fed in first feeding; electrolytes second feeding; yogurt infused warm milk third feeding.

Method 2 = Shot Pen G upon entering farm. Milk infused with yogurt for next couple of feedings, then just milk. Any runny stools that do not clear up, Terramycin tablets work like a charm.

We have a small dairy milking less than 25 cows. Bottle our own milk to sell on farm etc... We use brood cows to raise our calves. My one cow, Harriette is an Ayrshire/Hereford corss. She raises 2-3 calves at a time until 2-3 months, then the next calves. She just weaned calves number 12, 13 and 14. We just dired her off. Calves are kept in a pen in our barn next to the calving pen. Harriette grazes outside with milkers. She has raised the healthiest calves we have ever raised.

I wouldn't recommend mixing sale barn calves with dairy replacements especially if the cow is going to be with dairy herd, but if you want to raise vealers or sale calves as a seperate opperation, dairy/beef crossbreds can and do raise 2-3 calves at a time and you will have the healthiest animals... Wean calves at 2-3 months is replacements for dairy or beef or they put too much fat on and aren't good breeders.

Good luck.

-- Shannon (heamour@berkshire.net), September 24, 2001.

This is out of Comfrey: Fodder, Food & Remedy by Lawrence D. Hills.

Comfrey was supplied to a calf suffering from scours and as a result its droppings became fine. A continuous supply of comfrey to one cow also cured loose droppings. From these cases it can be concluded that comfrey contains an ingredient which has been a corrective medical effect for the stomach and bowels.

This scour cure effect was used for many years by the late Mrs. P.B. Green, who used to buy calves in Colchester market which were scouring and therefore cheap, sometimes very cheap, and bring them home to feed on goat's milk and comfrey. Leaves and stems put through a chaff cutter were fed in the bucket to start with, and, as with wreckling pigs, this produced a relatively large income from a small comfrey bed for anyone who knows stock. Old stock-man and pig- men are not concerned with protein, but, like Master Gerard, with allantoin, and this is at its highest in the stems up till flowering time, and after this the proportion falls, just as it does with oil of peppermint and the essential principles in many herbs.

In Britain today comfrey pays for calf rearing, fed in a hay net so the calves can pull it down as it is wanted without treading it to waste, and its advantages of a generous mineral supply when this is urgent for building bones are added to those of banishing scour risks.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 25, 2001.

I dont know what he does that doesnt work! I am certain that the colostrom is the biggest problem. I think that they are born at the barn and probably dont get to nurse, although they may if they are born early enough before the cow ships. I really dont know. I sometimes question the attention my neighbor gives to his animals. Maybe with more care they would be fine. I think with all this info I will tell him to bring me the next one that comes up, maybe there will be some fall calves. Thank you so much for all the responses! I will buy my yogert, I planted comfrey.... and be ready for the next baby to show up! Does anyone know if you can dry comfrey? Tami in WI

-- tami in wi (windridg@chorus.net), September 26, 2001.

If one can dry herbs, I don't see why you couldn't also dry comfrey.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 26, 2001.

On a limited basis, I can provide a comfrey leaf or 2, as a courtesy through the mail. I could sell and mail 5 leaves for a dollar plus a stamp. I could also sell 12 root sections, mailed in a zip-lock on a damp paper towell for ten dollars, shipping and handling included.I dried a leaf on top of the charcoal grill (after grilling). When it was dry it simply fell off. In this instance I ground it with a mortar and pestle, and mixed in almond oil to make a salve to treat a nasty insect bite. E-Mail any requests.

-- rick K (rick_122@hotmail.com), September 27, 2001.