A farming friend rescued him, and was looking to rehome him. After a lengthy conversation with her about beginning cost for milk formula, weaning time, and what to expect along the way, we agreed it would be worth the experiment for me to try him out here.
Our property is certainly not set up to keep cattle; not enough acreage, ground a little too soft when it rains hard for a couple days at a time, fencing not installed on the entire property, etc. Goats are pretty ideal, but even a calf could be problematic - but still worth a try. I bought him for $30, which basically covered the mostly full bag of formula, and a loaned bottle (1/2 gallon!); he currently gets 1 bottle each morning and evening.
This little fellow is very sweet natured, and a joy to watch as he learns to coordinate those long long legs so he cal race around the yard doing hot laps with our younger goat, Ramya, and occasionally kicks up his heels or shoots out one hind leg in a playful version of the infamous cow-kick (at adult size, that maneuver can be lethal).
For the first handful of days he's been on our property, I've kept him in the rabbitry; best shelter we have, nice thick bed of hay to keep warm. Unfortunately, this is also the goat shelter during the winter, and they absolutely despised him, and therefore me for bringing him here lol The goats were on outright strike; wouldn't go into the rabbitry to bed down, and would prefer staying out in the unprotected yard to being in close proximity to KC the calf (KC = Kitchen Calf, as he was previously living in a pen in my farming friend's kitchen).
Over the last couple days, thankfully, the goats are getting used to him - Ramya is trying to play with him, though his sudden bursts of active play often startle her, and Darla is becoming resigned to his presence here. The bottle feedings are going well, and he's getting more coordinated and settled in each day. Our only concern so far is the noise - he gets pretty vocal as we approach feeding time, which I'm worried may bother the neighbors. If he becomes too noisy, we'll have no choice but to rehome him, but in the meantime, we're enjoying the experience of having him here.
UPDATE: due to the amount of damage our yard was suffering from having this cutie charging around playfully on it, we opted to rehome him to a farmer friend of mine. He'll have a great home with her, and eventually be processed to fill up her freezer. His new name is Porter ;)