Weaning with Quiet Weans (nose clips)

[creativecattle]

We have used Quiet Weans for a really long time, but I this year we have received more questions about them than I can remember. We put together a blog post about why we've liked using them. http://jjbcattlecompany.com/low-stress-weaning-with-quiet-wean
For us one of the biggest benefits has been reducing stress on the calves and being able to wean a handful of calves at a time. Has anybody else had luck with them?

 

[cpubarn]

I have used them 4-5 years.  Put in in pasture, wait 4 days.  Wean.

Very easy on calves.  Worth the trouble on 40 head....  Have plenty of creep feed in feeders.....  Almost always have 1 or 2 that milk anyway. .  They are the only ones that bellar....

 

[StagecoachCattle]

We've used them for a few years and really like them. We had a heifer this year that figured out how to nurse this year, you could tell! She told us all about it, where as the others hardly made a peep.

 

[MDitmars]

Out of curiosity is there much bawling that happens after you pull the calves to sell them?

 

[creativecattle]

To be honest we haven't really had any noise out of the calves once they are pulled. There is a little from the cows, but not very much.

 

[GoWyo]

I have used them the past 2 years and will use them again.  On about day 3 the cows will bunch up and fight with each other and go bellow at their calves and are generally just miserable due to tight bags.  The calves look at the cows with a look of "what do you want me to do?" but they really don't do anything except graze like nothing is out of the ordinary.  Once into day 4 or 5 things quiet down.  I have pulled them out of the pasture on about day 6 or 7 and the calves go right to eating in the weaning pens with maybe a day or less of half-hearted bawling.

Prior to using the nose tabs, weaning was always a mess with cows bailing fences and either getting on the highway or the yard or neighboring pastures, calves escaping from the pens, the stress of worrying about getting the phone call at 2 a.m. notifying that cows are out, and three days of misery for whoever lives within earshot of the pasture or the weaning pen.  These things make life much easier at weaning time.

 

[kiblercattle]

I am have plenty of irrigated grass in one pasture what would happen if I put the quiet wean nose tabs in left them in 10 days or until the cows dry up and pull the tabs out and just leave them grazing with their mothers?

 

[creativecattle]

Another breeder and I were talking about that exact scenario the other day. I would think the calves would try and go back to nursing? We would looking at our cow's udders last night. Our quiet weans have been in for about 10 days, and the cow's udders aren't completely dry. Anyone else have some experience with this?

 

[MDitmars]

My question was more along the lines of putting the quiet weans in and leaving them until they dried up. Then leaving the calves with the cows through the winter when we run them on corn stalks or milo stalks. We had some late calves this year and i don't know if all of the cows will dry up, we have several robbers.

 

[HelenH]

Its fine to leave calves with nose clips in the same field until there is absolutely no interest in bonding.  The quiet weaners don't interfere with the intake of other feedstuff.  Make sure there is plenty of feed suitable for calves since their appetite spikes from no milk intake.  Calves stay clean and fresh, compared to most separation facilities that may include crowding, mud yards, indoor stabling and poor ventilation.  And, as mentioned, a lot easier on fences.  When clips have been in the calf for a long time, the calves are as quiet as yearlings at the sale barn.  Remove the nose clips in blizzard weather as they freeze into heavy ice cubes from respiration humidity. 

 

[cowboy_nyk]

Calves absolutely will learn to suck with the quiet weans in (or they fall out).  The longer you leave them the worse they get.  I've tried a few different methods and have found 4-5 days to be optimal.  Most haven't figured out how to suck with them yet and it's long enough that the separation anxiety seems to be gone when you pen them separately.  If you leave them in long term they will cut/wear a hole right through the center of their nose.  I had to use some on yearling that were sucking one year and it was messy.  Would not recommend.