How Raising A Bottle Calf Is Teaching Life Lessons

Meet Hotdog: How raising a bottle calf is teaching life lessons.

Last weekend we got an exciting call. The calf we have been waiting on had been born and we could come pick him up! So we quickly loaded up and headed to the farm. My uncle owns a dairy farm and hotdog is one of his half holstein, half beef cow bull calves. When we got there, Hotdog was only a few hours old, and still wet from being born. 

We fed him some colostrum, then put him in the bed of the truck for a ride home. Tel and I rode in the back with him to keep him from jumping out. Tel was ecstatic about it. 

When we got home, we got him all situated in what is usually our whelping kennel in the garage. Later this week we will move him outside to a calf hutch. We go to the dairy daily to get some milk to feed Hotdog. He gets two bottles a day. 

I am so excited to share my agricultural background with my boys! This has been an adventure I’ve been dreaming of for a long time. Tel told me that the part he is most excited for is when we get to butcher him. We’ll see if we can get him excited about the baby stage lol. 

In the meantime, I am reading up on raising bottle calves, to make sure I don’t mess it up. See what I’m reading here.

As always, there is learning in every adventure. Here are some of the learning I hope happens with having a bottle calf. 

How raising a bottle calf is teaching life lessons

-Learning to be responsible for a living thing.

-Getting to appreciate and learn about the life cycle.

-Learning about nature: how momma cows make milk that provides nutrients for baby cows, the properties of mammals, the difference between living and non-living things, etc. 

-Learning about love and compassion.

-Feeling the accomplishment of raising this calf from day one until harvest.

-Learning how to work hard. 

I am so excited for this adventure! To see more about it, and learn more about how raising a bottle calf is teaching life lessons, follow me on instagram @ bymegancannon.