Calf Nursing

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cloud9cattle

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Most saw my post below about establishing a herd and thinking about what breed of bull to use. However we did purchase a brangus second calf heifer as an investment to rebreed and sell in the fall. However we noticed yesterday that she was letting one of our younger heifers nurse? Is this normal? When we bought her she had a 500 pound steer pulled off of her.
Most of our heifers are about 400-500 pounds and about 4-5 months old except for this larger brangus heifer. Do we need to skip breeding her and sell her immediatley? Do we need to sell the heifer thats nursing as well?
 
Interested to know what the gurus say on this one. Your heifers sound pretty young to me to be fully weaned.
 
Haha Im interested as well. Yes they were young when we bought them however they come from good stock are on a great diet and are growing like weeds. I suspect two of our larger young heifers gained 100-120+ last month alone
 
If I'm reading this right you mixed a wet cow with weaned calves? If so, she won't be a problem in the future. She just wants to raise something and since hers is not around and someone else's is and hungry, why not. Once she has her own calf at her side she'll quit being a community milker.
If you can, pen her up until she dries off a little more. That is more to keep your heifers weaned than it is for the cow.
 
Can i just take her to the neighbors to be with the bull? Would that solve the problem shell be there for 90 days. He has no calves on the ground as he is breeding first calf heifers.
 
If she just weaned a big calf then I would expect her to already be bred back. If not,(or if yes, either way) hauling her to the neighbors would work fine.
Since you bought her as an investment, make sure you breed her when the big ranches are breeding their cattle even if you have to wait to do it. Fitting into the desired calving window makes her worth quite a bit more when you sell her.
 
If you are going to keep the younger heifer for breeding, I would be conserned about her and not the older on being sucked.
To me she is on the road to sucking anything that will let her that could give milk, maybe even herself later on.
I would seperate her for a while and see if that brakes that bad habit.
If it doesn't, ship her!
 
wouldn't worry about either, it is normal for anything with brahma crossed in to feed any calf. weaned calves will suck anything that stands, just separate til she dries up. taking to breed would work fine
 
We picked up a few new heifers yesterday brangusx hereford super baldies that way about 500#'s and were able to ship the older heifer over to the neighbors bull for the next 90 days. So hopefully the new friends and the milk being across the road will break the habit.
 
cloud9cattle":3mr9t5p8 said:
Most saw my post below about establishing a herd and thinking about what breed of bull to use. However we did purchase a brangus second calf heifer as an investment to rebreed and sell in the fall. However we noticed yesterday that she was letting one of our younger heifers nurse? Is this normal? When we bought her she had a 500 pound steer pulled off of her.
Most of our heifers are about 400-500 pounds and about 4-5 months old except for this larger brangus heifer. Do we need to skip breeding her and sell her immediatley? Do we need to sell the heifer thats nursing as well?

So she is gone for now and that might solve your issue for today.

Well, I am no guru, but I will tell you what we do with "unwanted suckers".

If not properly weaned - and like children whith poor manners - it can happen to the best of us - we will stick them in a pen far from other cows and let her holler for a couple of month or more if she wants to. All by her lonesome.

Doing that right now becasuse I want to break a real nice one of robbing. She lives if she learns - she dies if she does not.

No 12 step programs here - learn or die.

I do not use the BS blab / can't suck / hope and a prayer plactic crap on their nose. Some folks say it works.

I say there is a sucker born every minute. Pun intended!

When I let her out I do not let her back in with the herd until the cow(s) she was sucking have calved and are established as pairs.

If you do not have the room to do this then you are already over stocked or under infrastructured and need to re-evaluate your position and how you manage your herd.

I catch her sucking on another cow`s tits again she is either fattened for the freezer or down the road.

This is a continuous problem on this board and I believe it is simply because folks do not like to make the hard decision.

There are lots of good animals out there. She is worth a dollar - sell her and replace her - or eat her if she re-offends.

There will be a ton of folks who will disagree and that is fine. Not pointing at you - but one thing for dam(n) sure - we do not have this problem - and if we did - we do not wonder about it, moan about it and complain about it. We fix it!

It can get out of hand, it can ruin other cows and it can harm calves - so now you know what we do.

What you do is up to you.

Good luck to you

Cheers

Bez__
 
Bez,

I apperciate the insight.And we will take your advice and have her penned as soon as the new heifers we purchased yesterday have time to adjust after being worked vaccinated and tagged yesterday. Typically we like to keep them penned for at least a week before turning them out. It gives us a chance to view any stress illness or bad behaviors and also calm them down a bit.
 
Using an almanac to wean when the signs are right has merits. You will have less problems such as these - in my opinion.

If your employee was stealing from you, would you keep her on the payroll? That is what that heifer is doing to your business.
 
I guess i can understand that logic but only having 7 head all around 500 pounds outside of the 1000 pound second calver shes stealing from and the intentions to breed and sell her as bred anyways. It makes no sense to ship her.
 
What kind of answer were you expecting from me? I am so sorry for offering my opinion. Hope the 3 year old turns out okay. No damage etc. 500 pounders can get aggressive on the teats if they want milk. If she's getting any milk, she's a drain on the three year old. Stress is invoked either way. I would listen to Bez. Stress in a cow is a bad thing. Could make her put stress on others.

They're yours. Only you know what you can afford to do. Only you can calculate the risks you are willing to take.

Please do use an almanac.
 

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