Bottle calf,stop feeding?

[JHH]

The twin bottle calf that I have has been eating ok (grain,hay,) and drinks water ,she is about 3 months old I think this will be the last of the milk replacer that she gets after this bag is gone. What does everyone else think? Been on it to long already? JHH

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Yep, if its eatin' good, time to wean it off the milk. I usually only feed 1 bag of replacer to a calf before its weaned off.

Rod

 

[Workinonit Farm]

she is about 3 months old I think this will be the last of the milk replacer that she gets after this bag is gone. What does everyone else think? Been on it to long already? JHH

I'd go ahead and wean her. As far as being on the milk too long, some will say yes, some will say no. I don't think it's too long, if she were on her mamma, she'd still be getting milk. I've weaned them off the replacer sooner and some later, it depends on the calf.

Katherine

 

[JHH]

Thats what I was thinking, Guess this is the last bag for miss ABBY. Thats what my daughter has named her.

Thanks JHH

 

[CKC1586]

Is she gaining good? We had two orphans this year and we kept the little guy on it for four months.

 

[TheBullLady]

I just weaned my twin bull calf this morning .. he's about 16 weeks old. I've kept some on the bottle longer... it pretty much depends on how well the calf is eating grain. And when I get tired of spending $50 on a bag of replacer! ;-)

 

[Farmhand]

We go by how good they're eating also. Just watch them. Have had the occasional ones that went down hill after weaning them. Put back on replacer and they caught back up. They'll let you know if it was a good time to wean or not.

 

[holly heifer]

:lol: i am with the others here, it depends on how the calf is doing. I weaned the starter calf at 4months, her half sister
at 6mo( she had a really rough start- no colustrum, born
too early, developed pneumonia,) and the last calf at 3 mo.
She is an angus- holstein. ( Amish calf) She is so gentle my
nephew took her to a pet Halloween contest. She marched right up onto the Rural King store. She wore a baby bonnet,
diaper, pink vet wrap on her pasterns and a pink ribbon on her
neck and tail. :lol2: They got a third place out of 50 entries
( dogs and cats). this next week she is to be a reindeer in the
school Christmas program! And yes, buying milk replacer
is expensive! :roll:

 

[shorty]

I have holstein calves on the bucket , I wean at 8-10 weeks if they are eating hay grain good. They where I get my calves weans at 7 weeks. I thik that is a liittle soon.

 

[milkmaid]

I usually wean at 7 weeks after 1 bag of milk replacer...but I did keep one calf this fall on until three or four months of age. Probably went through three bags or more; I didn't keep track. Don't want to know how much I'm spending on that heifer. :lol:

I believe the label on the Purina products recommends weaning at ~4 weeks of age - a bit too early IMO.

 

[bgm]

We usually wean somewhere around 2 months. The way we determine when to wean is when they are eating about 1 1/2 lbs of calf starter per day. Some get there a little before 2 months, some a little longer.

Good luck