Calf Rearing

Ok, first question for you - have you reared calves before? If not, I personally wouldn't go there at 22 weeks pregnant. Secondly, do you have someone who in the event your calves got an outbreak of something (salmonella, listeria, rotovirus...), could take over for you for possibly several weeks? Because if they start scouring, and they commonly do, especially with inexperienced rearers, you really can't risk going near them. They'd need up-close-and-personal care (tube feeding etc) and the risk of you catching it would be too high I would think. And part of the trouble is, even if the scours are noninfectious, you can't be sure, so would have to avoid them anyway.

How about getting a temporary job on a dairy farm helping with calf rearing? That way you get paid, but you don't have sole responsibility and if it gets too much there is a way out without leaving 30 babies to starve.

If you still want to do it - here are my answers:
I pay $65 for well-bred calves this season. You can get bobby-truck rubbish for cheap/free but they aren't worth rearing. Don't go for anything Jersey cross. Rear Friesian bulls or whitehead heifers/bulls. They won't be TB tested but the herd would have a TB status. Nor would they be vaccinated. Some herds vaccinate their cows and that carries through to the calf, but unless you speak directly to the farmer (rather than buying through the sales) you won't know.

How much land depends on when how old you want to rear them to and how much grass the land grows. Go to the library, borrow "Milk production from Pasture" by Colin Holmes et al. That will tell you quantities of feed they need etc. More important than land - you'll need about 1.2 square metres of shed space per calf. That can be hard to find. Plus you'll need all the gear - calfeterias, a tube feeder, buckets etc

Costs for dehorning etc depend on who does it. I do mine myself and my dad gave me his tools so its free for me. TB testing is free, but I have to purchase registered eartags. They are a few dollars each, but there is a minimum order - can't remember what though. Vaccinations depend on what you want to vaccinate against. I vaccinate my cows against lepto and give them 5in1. My calves don't get anything. Cost depends on whether the vet is prepared to let you self administer or whether they do it themselves. Most times the vet would come out for a beginner, and thats about $100 per visit plus whatever they do. And you need to allow for deaths! These can be very high for inexperienced people, or if you get a disease outbreak.

Milk powder is about $100 for 25kg. That is the minimum you'd need for each calf. More if you want to rear good calves. They'll need meal too - probably two bags each minimum. I'm not sure what that costs these days - but around $40/sack maybe?
The average sale price depends on so many things - how much grass will there be at sale time, what breed are they, how big are they, how many similar ones are there for sale, how good is your agent, where are you selling them etc etc...

My plan is to buy calves for $65, rear them on adoptive cows at little cost (I have a lifestyle block, and there is little labour involved once the cow has taken them) and sell them at about 12 weeks for $300-ish. But $300-ish is a huge guess. I've known years in which calves were purchased at 4 days old for $100 and sold at 4 months for $80. Not $80 profit, just $80. A huge loss when you consider its cost $200+ to rear them. Its not a given money making scheme, its a gamble. If you can't afford to wear a loss, I personally wouldn't do it.

So, thats my ten dollars worth

I wouldn't go there in pregnancy, and you probably wouldn't want to with a young baby.

My parents have just had an outbreak of salmonella on their farm and I won't go out there for a few weeks after there've been no signs of it.

Like T-Rex said, it is a huge gamble at the moment and one that might not pay off. My parents have a sheep and beef farm and get calves at the sales or off their many dairy farmer neighbours. They adopt them onto nurse cows (takes a hell of a lot of effort on my dads part as the cows get stroppy and are sometimes a bit wild), and send them to the works or onsell them at a year or 2 old if they're a bull, or don't show promise for being a nurse cow. They get about 600 each for them, but that's a lot of time and feed invested in each one.

Also, they get pretty strong once they're a few weeks old. You'd have to be prepared to get whacked/ bumped a fair bit, and don't forget the endless slobber.

Great answer T-rex! I am currently rearing our calves on our dairy farm and I wouldn't advise it at 22 weeks. Lots of set up costs if you haven't already got the land and access to free milk/colostrum plus all the gear you would need.

Sorry just my opinion.

If you are going to buy a lifestyle block then it is definately do-able as having the sheds and pasture are a real help. You could also look into seeing if any dairy farmers nearby might sell you excess colostrum.   Goodluck Amstaff, I reared calves when my boy was 15 months old, we used an old woolshed and he used to stand in an old barrel cut in half, it used to keep him in one place lol while I fed the calves.

Wow, slightly OT, but I've never heard of anyone raising lambs to make money. I grew up on a sheep and beef farm, and we always had pet lambs (I so want to give my kids that experiance growing up) but I always thought bottle feeding them was too expensive. I guess in a year with good prices, it could work, especially on a lifestyle-block size scale. Neat.