cows cried all night long.....

[winddancer]

Well you all know i'm real new to this..late yesterday they culled the herd.Took off some of the bigger babies. My question is..when will the cows stop bawling out in the fields...breaks my heart....I could hear them through the night and still this morning....
update on the baby....shes standing more, drinking form a bucket and sucking down her bottle now..I can truly see why a big operations could never put the time into one calf like this..It's alot of work!! But i loved every minute of it...

 

[Bez]

They will slow down inside a few days - one week and it is over - be glad you did not wean a couple hundred.

Bez

 

[Ryan]

Our calves usually quit in less than a week, too. But by that time their voices are so hoarse you can't really hear them unless you're pretty close to their pen.

Speaking of which, I'm getting pretty excited about goin back home and out the ranch next week. We are gonna be weaning off our early calves (Jan-Feb born). I always love that time, getting the calves up close, seeing which one might make the show string. Plus, I love halter-breaking the young calves.

Ryan

 

[fitz]

Almanac says to wean 1st-6th, 28th, 29th, 30th this month (June).

 

[Ryan]

Almanac says to wean 1st-6th, 28th, 29th, 30th this month (June).

What does it say about July?

Ryan

 

[fitz]

Ryan,

About the same, 1st-6th & 27th- 31st.

 

[Ryan]

thanks for the info...

We had planned to do it this next week, we'll probably have em all in by the 6th.

Ryan

 

[TheBullLady]

We separate the cows to another lease place when we wean. It's funny.. the cows will generally quit in 24-48 hours, the calves take three days to shut up. And the older cows that have gone through it before are quiet before the first calf heifers. :cboy:

 

[Bama]

If you wean with only a fence between them they don't carry on as much. I also wean some on saleday, but this is stressful for them. I buy some from the salebarn that have just been weaned, they walk the fences searching for momma unless they are put in a holding pen for the transition. I usually keep them up for a couple of weeks anyway.

 

[winddancer]

looks like they took all the older calves off.to the sale. These are the cows crying for thier calves..It was quieter last night....one seems to walk the perimeter still seraching for her calf....kind of sad but all part of this operation..

 

[Dusty Britches]

We fenceline wean, too. The cows carry on for a day or two and then may hang out at the pens for a few more days. The calves start up on day 3 and go for a few days. The best part is the pens are far enough away from the house that we can't hear them at night and just barely during the day. And the other best part is the cows don't walk all over the place looking for their calf. They can see and smell their calf and don't get nearly as stressed.

 

[TheBullLady]

That's a good theory, but mine typically also manage to find or make a hole in the fence to be even closer to momma. :roll:

 

[Ryan]

That's a good theory, but mine typically also manage to find or make a hole in the fence to be even closer to momma. :roll:

Same here. Those calves are pretty good at gettin back to mom.

Lookin at it from the other direction: Last year we had 3 cows come from the far end of the property to find their calves, the firs 3 days after weaning. They got into the pen up against where the calves where. We found no down fence anywhere, and there were at least 4 gates from where they were to where they should've been. They'd be in the right spot when we left in the evening, and would be laying across the fence from the calves when we got back the next morning. We finally just left them in a pen that was closer to the calves, so they could hear them, then a week later moved them back to the right spot.

Ryan

 

[Dusty Britches]

We used to have a barbed wire fence on the pens, but when we saw a calf reach through and nurse, we put up stock panels. (16'x 52" with 4" squares, raised 8" off the ground) The pen is about 300 feet by 40 feet. After 2 weeks, we move them out to a 15 acre coastal pasture that has a 4 strand barb wire fence. At this time, the cows would still like to have their calves, but they are more concerned about being with the herd and eating. This is the fourth group we've done this with and have not had any problems. In fact, we've retained several heifers that were turned out with the rest of the herd this year.

 

[dun]

That's a good theory, but mine typically also manage to find or make a hole in the fence to be even closer to momma. :roll:

A strand of good hot wire takes care of that problem.

dun