Weaning

[red]

Right now, my ears are ready to explode! I'm sure all the neighbors are so pleased w/ us! Why? We weaned calves last night. Nothing bets a bunch of bawling calves & their mom carrying on too.
How early do you typically wean? How do you wean? Do you keep them out of sight of the cows? Any shots or procedures you follow? What type of ration are they on?

1. we typically wean at 6-4 month of age. That way I can start breaking them & they're not too big for me.
2. We have them so they can see the cows but not nurse through a fence. I've read studies where there is less trauma if they are visable or can see each other.
3. We tattooed last week & drew blood. Will worm them after they've gone through the period of stress.
4. We fed a 15% textured feed. They've been eating about 9 pounds of grain before we weaned them so the transition is usually smooth. I also have a decox included in the feed.

Send earplugs!

Red

 

[Gypsy]

In my opinion, Tylenol PM is the BEST weaning aide ever, it increases the effectiveness of the earplugs tremendously.  Suggest it to your neighbors. 

 

[red]

something else I do when I'm starting off a new crop of calves; I spray all my equipment down w/ Sullivan's Anti Fungus spray. Don't know if it works but I usually don't have ringworm & feel it's a good insurance policy!

Red

 

[DL]

I usually wean on the Labor day weekend (plus or minus a few days) - I use a modification of the fence line system and it works great and it is really pretty quiet. I wean all my calves at this time unless I have a June (or heaven forbid July heifer), then I hold that calf a little longer. Basically the fence line system has the cows on one side of the fence and the calves on the other - being able to see each other is less stressful for both - the idea is that calves are left in one pasture and cows moved a fence away. This doesn't exactly work for me because with my rotational grazing system the calves are used to just wondering under the separating fences - so I put them in a 40 by 40 pen in the middle of the barn with gates on all sides so cows from all groups can see their babies - last year it was so quiet I thought someone had opened the gate and let all the calves out! I do have cows that open gates so they are now all tied or funky latched shut....

When I wean all calves are eating grain and hay and are used to their little creep area in the barn. I vaccinate a couple weeks before and then a couple weeks after.

 

[chambero]

We still do it the rough way - calves get pulled right off momma and never see her again.  Show calves come to our barns in town at about 4-5 months of age.  We lock them up in our barn and shut all the doors to keep the sound down.  They bawl for 3-4 days and then that's the end of it.  They get vaccinated right as they are loaded out in the pasture.

We occasionally bring a cow and calf to town and wean the calf in a pen next to momma.  I swear it seems like they are stressed longer than just taking them off their mother all at once.

On the cows, we make sure that we do not move them to another pasture immediately after removing the calves.  A few will occasionally go back where they came from looking for a calf.

When we wean our big groups in the summer, we turn all of the cows back into their holding pasture for a week.  We get them back up a week later, PG them, and then sort them back to the pastures we want them in the for the start of our rotation pattern.

 

[mlk32]

Does anyone recommend the devices designed to prevent the calves from nursing but allowing them to technically remain with their mothers? 

Our new barn is about a mile closer to us so I am interested in noise reductions!

 

[knabe]

you mean the things that go over their heads and stick up so they cant crawl under fences either?  i have two from my great grandfather.  one has 6" spikes on it, the other has claws.

or do you mean the little plastic thing that goes in the nostrils?

 

[DL]

I believe MSU did a study with those gizmos -(ie stay with Mom but can't nurse) - I'll see what they found...

 

[genes]

DL, at U of S they found that the weaner things in the nose almost completely got rid the vocalizing, and turned out to be very low stress.  But then I remember seeing somewhere where another group tried it and didn't have as good of results (maybe it was MSU....).  I didn't compare too closely, but I'm not sure if they used the same protocol for timelines and stuff.

 

[chambero]

Those things doubled as medeival torture devices (or at least the ones I'm thinking of).  A little bawling isn't that bad for them (kind of like our own kids).  I prefer keeping it simple.

 

[shortyjock89]

We started "fenceline" weaning about 5 years ago. We have a couple pens in our newest cow barn that work really well for weaning/breaking/preparing calves for the show life.  The runs outside have 7 strands of high tensile fence.  We have the occasional escape, but not too many. The cows throw a bigger fit than the calves do.  By weaning the calves are on grain and a good many of them are halter broke, so there is minimal stress on them.

 

[genes]

Those things doubled as medeival torture devices (or at least the ones I'm thinking of).  A little bawling isn't that bad for them (kind of like our own kids).  I prefer keeping it simple.

I think you must be thinking of the sharp metal contraptions I've seen in museums.  The modern version is just a little plastic tag in the nose, partly makes it awkward to drink, and does have plastic "spikes" which should annoy the cow enough for her to wean the calf, wtihout being tortured.

 

[red]

MLK32- Gypsy was talking to me about those things. Knowing my cows, they'd still let the calves nurse. They're pretty hoarse right now. One more day & they'll be quiet.

Red

 

[mlk32]

I was looking at what appear to be plastic devices placed in the nostrils.  I am already dealing with a family of vegetarians that lives next to the front pasture!  I can imagine what will happen if anything midevil looking were to show up!

 

[red]

like this MLK32?

 

[bluegrass]

I know it is hard to make it work with all of the other things going on in the world, but weaning and castrating by the sign is helpful.

 

[shorthorns r us]

i have been waiting for somebody to bring up the astrological signs. my great-grandfather wouldn't turn out the bulls if the signs. weren't right. i only remember that castsration was to take place as close to the feet as possible. i wish i could remember more. lets here all me those old theories.

 

[red]

Malinda said the same thing to me this morning. She weans by the moon.
Explain this to me.

Red

 

[cowz]

Back in the day when we had a lot of horned cattle, branding day was never planned without consulting the Farmer's Almanac.  We would plan for a day far away from the head.  (So the dehorns would not bleed so much.)  I seem to remember that Gemini was verboten.

 

[genes]

like this MLK32?

Those are the ones I was talking about.  Oh...and I see the link is from USask....the guy who did that research came and did a talk on it last year.