Early Weaning

[cowkeeper]

I have a cow sold and her calf is not quite three months. He does eat hay and a bit of grain with the mom. Will he be ok now without his mom, and is there anything extra I can do for him? I have a neighbor that makes his own calf ration, and I have some lovely fine second-cut hay.

 

[hillsdown]

Personally I think three months is way to young to ween a calf that has been on the dam only.However since it is too late; get that calf some really good hay(what you have sounds like it should be really good), and most importantly 18% calf starter ration.Let it have free choice of feed so it will eat whenever it is hungry also have fresh water available at all times.Home made calf starter is good as long as the energy and protein are high enough.
Just curious but why did you send mom down the road so early?

 

[cowkeeper]

Good cow, going to new home at a distance. unusual circumstance. I have never weaned before six or seven months. This guy is going to get pampered and watched closely. He does cud, and a guy that raises a lot of calves told me the calf would be ok, if he was already cudding.

 

[hillsdown]

I wouldn't use that as a rule of thumb of have calves a week old chewing their cud and I certainly wouldn't ween them.All you can do is give it the best food and make sure he is growing.As long as he isn't going to be used as breeding stock and he keeps gaining weight you should be O.K.
I hope you vaccinated him before you weened him.

 

[CPL]

I think there are alot of calves that are weaned at 3-4 months than what some people realize. Some are done that way because of drought and alot of show cattle are weaned at 5 months. He should be fine.

 

[Lammie]

I know people weaned calves at 8 weeks they had on the bottle.

 

[hillsdown]

I know people weaned calves at 8 weeks they had on the bottle.

I know some Dairy farmers that ween at 8 weeks also they do it to cut costs and you could not pay me to take one of their replacement heifers.That is probably why they have to cut costs their herd don't milk worth "be nice".

 

[dun]

I know people weaned calves at 8 weeks they had on the bottle.

I know some Dairy farmers that ween at 8 weeks also they do it to cut costs and you could not pay me to take one of their replacement heifers.That is probably why they have to cut costs their herd don't milk worth "be nice".

Strange, all of the dairys I've wokred with weean at 8 weeks and have excellent replacements that milk well. If they don;t then there is something definitly wrong with the overall management of the dairy.

 

[hillsdown]

I know people weaned calves at 8 weeks they had on the bottle.

I know some Dairy farmers that ween at 8 weeks also they do it to cut costs and you could not pay me to take one of their replacement heifers.That is probably why they have to cut costs their herd don't milk worth "be nice".

Strange, all of the dairys I've wokred with weean at 8 weeks and have excellent replacements that milk well. If they don;t then there is something definitly wrong with the overall management of the dairy.

I guess it is what you are going for as a producer.We wanted the best of both worlds High BCA's and alot of VG 2 year olds.The most we ever had though was 3 that went as aVG 2yr old in one year.I still remember when we had our first gal go excellent she was 6 years old and giving us 70 litres a day.I can't remember what her BCA's were anymore.I think she was an Inspiration daughter.

Now you have me thinking I am going to have to go through some old DHI reports.

 

[ArrowHBrand]

I think there are alot of calves that are weaned at 3-4 months than what some people realize. Some are done that way because of drought and alot of show cattle are weaned at 5 months. He should be fine.

CPL is right, we wean and we know a lot of other cattle showers that wean their calves really early. Get them off of the cow and onto good feed and free feed hay to get some weight on them. For show calves we use 120 days as a reference point. Before that it's a little iffy wether to wean or not, but if it's after that, no problem. In this case I think the calf will be fine, just keep an eye on it. It might not gain as well, but it should be o.k.

 

[cowkeeper]

Thankyou. He will be going in my freezer eventually.