Couple of New Little Guys - Weaning Question

[Mcp220]

Just a quick question - We just bought a couple of calves that were on a nurse cow. They are eating plenty of grain, hay and out on some pasture. Good healthy little guys. For the time being, they are in our pole barn with some hay, water and are getting some grain. How long is it suggested to keep them in there by themselves to finish the weaning until we let them out with our other guys? These two are about 3 weeks younger than the other 4 we have, so a little smaller, but not a huge size difference really. They just arrived to our place yesterday. Thank you in advance for your advice!

 

[farmerjan]

Give them at least a week or more, to make sure they are weaned, no respiratory virus, and for them to become adjusted to the water/feed.... and you.....Do you vaccinate for anything? At least make sure they get blackleg......too easy to lose a calf with that...

 

[Mcp220]

Give them at least a week or more, to make sure they are weaned, no respiratory virus, and for them to become adjusted to the water/feed.... and you.....Do you vaccinate for anything? At least make sure they get blackleg......too easy to lose a calf with that...

Thank you - We were kind of planning on a week and a half to two weeks, so that makes me feel better! And the guy we got them from said he gave them Triangle 5 back in June. We have given the 8-way vaccine in the past to our others. Would you suggest vaccinating again now? Or wait until we send them out to pasture? Or would what they have be enough? Our last guys we waited to vaccinate until they were steered. We will be doing these guys as well in another few weeks. Don't want to stress them out any more than necessary. They are about 13 weeks old now.

 

[farmerjan]

If you have them where you can get to them easily, I'd go on and give them the shot(s) when it was convenient. I think Triangle -5 is a 2 dose deal so sooner rather than later.... 8 way blackleg... use something with tetanus in it and then give them a booster of just tetanus when you steer them. Ought to do that sooner than later but it has been awfully hot.
We use Triangle -10 on everything here....best thing is being killed virus, don't have to worry about pregnant status.... and blackleg on the calves after 8-10 weeks old.... went through and did all the cows last year for blackleg to just booster them.... partly because we do buy and sell some... so like to keep them more protected than not....also lepto all the cows at preg check if they don't get Triangle -10......
We will be pulling some calves this week and the ones that don't go to the sale will get run through the chute and get a couple of shots.... the cows are due oct-dec.... and we left some of the smaller calves on the ones that were not as far along pregnant.... when we weaned a bunch a few months ago....they all come off and either get shipped or weaned. Most are heifer calves that we will be keeping some.... the cows are mostly all dried up by the looks of them anyway... and they are all used to the bunks and the waterers, so should be very little bawling....