"Volunteering" to Feed Rawl's Calves

Some time after I went to see Rawl's cows the first time, I started going back again and again and again.  Rawl didn't seem to mind my being around.  I stayed out of the way.  I did what he asked.  I think I asked pretty good questions for a nine or ten year old.  After several days of doing that, he asked me if I would come early one day to help him feed the young calves.  I was pretty excited about that and said, "Yes!"

On the day I went down to feed the calves, at 5:00, Rawl mixed up milk replacer for the calves over four weeks of age.  I actually liked the smell of it pretty well.  It smelled good.  Rawl poured a couple of quarts of milk replacer in a bucket and I would put it in front of the calves that were tied in the calf barn.  The calves would eagerly push their noses deep in the bucket and drink their meal.  It was pretty exciting.  After feeding the calves their milk replacer, I gave them each a good handful of hay.  Rawl showed me how to give each of them grain as well.

After we were done milking the cows, Rawl saved a few gallons of fresh, warm milk to feed to the younger calves.  Rawl had me feed the younger calves out of a bucket with a nipple on it.  It was pretty much the same as bottle feeding the calves, but the nipple was attached to a bucket instead of a bottle.  Rawl told me that his idea was to give the calves a good start on whole milk for the first month before switching them to milk replacer.  Eventually, he would wean them at about three months of age.  I asked him, "If milk is better for them than milk replacer, why do you feed the older calves milk replacer?"  Rawl said, "I sell milk to earn my living.  I lose more money using the milk to feed the calves than it costs me to buy milk replacer to feed the calves.

At three months of age, the calves would get all the hay they would eat, roughly a quart of grain mix a day, and all the water they could drink.  Typically by the time they were about three months of age, the calves would move out of the calf barn, where they were tied, to a small corral for the older calves.  Rawl spent focused time helping me and letting me "help" with the very young stock.  

There was a door between the milking barn and the calf barn that would allow me to get the grain out of the grainary and go in to feed the calves.  The grainary was a big room full of grain mix from Pillsbury, that was delivered about once a month.

I was enthralled with feeding the calves.  I was walking on cloud nine.  After a couple of days of his showing me how to feed the calves, he asked me if I wanted to do it on my own.  Of course I said, "Yes!"  The first day of feeding the calves on my own was a little scary.  Would I do it right?  What if I made a mistake?  Sometimes the calves were pretty aggressive going after their milk or milk replacer.  What if they accidentally hurt me?  When I was ten years of age, the young calves weighed more than I did.  A Holstein calf weighs about 80-85 pounds at birth.  Within a couple of days I was a confident calf feeder.  I was living a dream.  What could be better that feeding Rawl's calves and helping him out?  It was fun.  It was exciting.  It was great.