Early weaning?

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K2011

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I'm just curious...How early can you wean a beef calf(being safe with no side effects-if his or her mother died) without giving him/her milk? 60 days is what I understand?
 
the earliest id wean a calf off his/her momma is 5 to 6 months old.unless the calfs momma died.then that would be forced weaning.an if they are 3 months old or older they would most likely learn how to steal milk.
 
He should be fine you should try get him on grain since he doesnt have milk. We buy 200lb claves that are weaned and we put them on all the hay they can eat anda little grain to give them extra nutrition and protien. I wouldnt let him jsut run on grass with the cows as he probably wont do as well since he will jsut have grass.
 
iowafarmer":11vfbd9t said:
He should be fine you should try get him on grain since he doesnt have milk. We buy 200lb claves that are weaned and we put them on all the hay they can eat anda little grain to give them extra nutrition and protien. I wouldnt let him jsut run on grass with the cows as he probably wont do as well since he will jsut have grass.

I don't have an orphan calf....I was just curious as to how early you could wean them with no side effects
 
oh well you can sneek by but if you dont have to it doesnt pay to wean early if you are taking them to the sale barn and that is just that much more hay and grain you ahve to use if you retain them.
 
K2011":2ge1860u said:
I'm just curious...How early can you wean a beef calf(being safe with no side effects-if his or her mother died) without giving him/her milk? 60 days is what I understand?

A typical bottle calf is usually weaned at around 8 weeks of age, so I'm thinking that would be the youngest age a dam-raised calf could be weaned.
 
Earliest possible weaning 60 days. This is the way it is done in dairy ops. In beef op it is crucial that the mothercow do her work until 200 days.
 
ANAZAZI":1fdqc3lm said:
In beef op it is crucial that the mothercow do her work until 200 days.

I'm not going to argue that it is highly beneficial, but it is not crucial and many calves adjust and do just fine. Would I recommend weaning earlier than 6-7 months on a whim? Absolutely not! The fact remains that it is, generally speaking, difficult to get a calf that is used to nursing his/her mother transitioned over to a bottle, and fighting a calf who has lost his/her mother to make it take the bottle only stresses it further. Sometimes a person has to know when to quit, and find alternative methods.
 
msscamp":2hpktkpc said:
K2011":2hpktkpc said:
I'm just curious...How early can you wean a beef calf(being safe with no side effects-if his or her mother died) without giving him/her milk? 60 days is what I understand?

A typical bottle calf is usually weaned at around 8 weeks of age, so I'm thinking that would be the youngest age a dam-raised calf could be weaned.

The main difference being a bottle calf is purposely started on grain at a very young age and only weaned if the grain intake is sufficient.

If you are going to wean any calf suckling his dam early (by early I mean younger than about 6 months) you also need to be prepared to feed accordingly and that might very well be counterproductive to making a profit under NORMAL circumstances. All is fair in a love and drought, though.
 
KNERSIE":7p73doev said:
msscamp":7p73doev said:
K2011":7p73doev said:
I'm just curious...How early can you wean a beef calf(being safe with no side effects-if his or her mother died) without giving him/her milk? 60 days is what I understand?

A typical bottle calf is usually weaned at around 8 weeks of age, so I'm thinking that would be the youngest age a dam-raised calf could be weaned.

The main difference being a bottle calf is purposely started on grain at a very young age and only weaned if the grain intake is sufficient.

If you are going to wean any calf suckling his dam early (by early I mean younger than about 6 months) you also need to be prepared to feed accordingly and that might very well be counterproductive to making a profit under NORMAL circumstances. All is fair in a love and drought, though.

I cannot believe that anyone in their right mind would wean a dam raised calf at 60 days under normal conditions.
 
K2011":2324jrmz said:
I'm just curious...How early can you wean a beef calf(being safe with no side effects-if his or her mother died) without giving him/her milk? 60 days is what I understand?
Has everyone lost sight of the premis if his or her mother died?
 
dun":1qaac7ys said:
K2011":1qaac7ys said:
I'm just curious...How early can you wean a beef calf(being safe with no side effects-if his or her mother died) without giving him/her milk? 60 days is what I understand?
Has everyone lost sight of the premis if his or her mother died?

I don't have an orphan calf....I was just curious as to how early you could wean them with no side effects
 
I don't want to wean calves early at all.....it was just in case a calf's mother died and I wanted to know if he was over a certian age I wouldn't have to bottle him.....just feed him grain.
 
Had to look in my book, but just last year I had cow die that had a calf that was 48 days old. I was inclined to pull the calf out of the pasture and bottle feed, but instead watched the calf closely for a few days. She became real good at robbing milk, so I let her stay. Come weaning, the calf weighed in at 425 lbs at 6 months of age. Had a little bit of a pot belly, but barely noticeable. Obviously didn't do as well as if the cow had been milking, but it did have 35 other cows to steal from.

That being said, all animals are different, and the next one might not figure out the art of robbing.
 
msscamp":2gv3gdql said:
I cannot believe that anyone in their right mind would wean a dam raised calf at 60 days under normal conditions.

msscamp, you know I luv ya, but lots of people here the last two years have weaned early and were in their right minds.

The drought has been going on here for 6 years.

Producing milk from feed or grass is less efficient than producing meat from feed or grass. So if you are handfeeding (as many are here) or have not much pasture, it is a better use of resources to wean the calves and feed the cows and calves separately, than to feed them together. There is a science behind it and I cant remember off the top of my head, but to (for example) maintain the cow weight and have the calves growing at 0.5 - 1.0 kg a day, you need less feed if feeding them separately than if you were feeding them together with the calves still suckling.

To answer the original question, many here wean successfully at 6 weeks. Some have weaned at 4 weeks. The younger the animal is, the harder it is to do it successfully, and the better your managerial skills need to be.
 
On this subject...
Friends and we both had heifer calves within a week of each other. Both heifers were big calves. We both were going to take them to the county fair (our first babies so we're proud). However, they weaned theirs at 3 mo's so they could more easily work her and we decided to leave ours out to pasture with her momma. Of course the question came up..."where was our little heifer". I explained nicely that I just didn't want to wean her early for the sake of a few county shows... but won't deny it was a little awkward. Is it just the money factor (feeding vs. momma's milk) or is the calf REALLY better off healthwise? Theirs is Charolais and mine is Murray Grey so next summer theirs will still tower over mine so I won't be able to really compare how they've done but was just curious. Thanks
 

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