We named it and played with it....until it was big enough to slaughter. When they did, we wouldn't eat it. I suppose that would be called emotional abuse today.We also had calves that we would name raise. when slaughter time came, my dad ended up taking the animals to the auction, selling them, and buying others to slaughter.
We tried to breed all our first calvers to bulls that threw low birth weight calves...in the low 80-lb range heifers can usually handle them without problem. Our AI program sometimes gave us head aches...we had a couple of calves that weighed over 110-lbs. You better have big mamas when you start putting that size calf on the ground.
Sure wish I was home getting things set up for Feb. calving right now.