Urban Youth Livestock Program

What is the Urban Youth Livestock Program?

A bucket calf is an orphan or newborn calf purchased when they are 1 to 10 days old. The calves may be male or female, beef or dairy. The calves are started on a bottle (or bucket) and nipple. Our bucket calves were purchased at 30 days old from a local dairy farmer. All of our calves are male. 4-H members across the country are raising bucket calves.



This year, the Fred Meyer Fund generously donated money to the Bannock County 4-H Program specifically to create an urban youth livestock program. Our neighbors in Bingham County have successfully raised bucket calves at the local fairgrounds for three years. This grant gave us the opportunity to try it in Bannock County with youth who live in the urban area of Pocatello and Chubbuck.


Twenty-one 4-H members are raising calves at the north Bannock County fairgrounds in Pocatello. The calves are housed, two per stall, in the race horse stalls. The 4-H members come twice a day to care for their calves. These youth are responsible for taking the temperature of his or her calf, feeding them, cleaning the stall, and exercising the calf.


These calves will all be shown at the north Bannock County fair, August 18th and then returned to the dairy farmer who gave them to us.


We will post updates regularly on this blog. Check often to see our progress!

Getting Started

Getting Started
Cleaning out the stalls

The calves are here!

The calves are here!
Loving the babies

Friday, July 6, 2012



Sam and Hercules

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Meet our calfs




Ovaltine and Camoflauge


Karense and Camo


Sierra and Ovaltine


Sierra and Ovaltine


Ovaltine

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Thursday, July 5, 2012



Things are going great with our calfs.  We banded them last week and have started weening them off of the bottle.  Here are some pictures of us castrating.
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Heidi and Taco


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