Fenceline weaning

[Central Fl Cracker]

I am a newbie but found this is interesting
Fenceline Weaning
Glenn Selk, OSU Extension Cattle Reproduction Specialist
California researchers weaned calves with only a fence (Fenceline) separating them from their dams. These were compared to calves weaned totally separate (Separate) from dams. Calf behaviors were monitored for five days following weaning. Fenceline calves and cows spent approximately 60% and 40% of their time, respectively within 10 feet of the fence during the first two days. During the first three days, Fenceline calves bawled and walked less, and ate and rested more, but these differences disappeared by the fourth day. All calves were managed together starting 7 days after weaning. After two weeks, Fenceline calves had gained 23 pounds more than Separate calves. This difference persisted since, after 10 weeks, Fenceline calves had gained 110 pounds (1.57 lb/day), compared to 84 pounds(1.20 lb/day) for Separate calves. There was no report of any differences in sickness, but calves that eat more during the first days after weaning should stay healthier. A follow-up study demonstrated similar advantages of fenceline contact when calves were weaned under drylot conditions and their dams had access to pasture. To wean and background, even for short periods, fenceline weaning should be considered. Source: Price and co-workers. Abstracts 2002 Western Section of American Society of Animal Science.

 

[joe]

In the past I had always just brought the calves home straight off the cow. A gal in Sd who's cattle I looked at was doing the fence line weaning, of sorts. A week or so before weaning she set up a corral with cattle panels with a bale feeder and a creep feeder, and water tank in it and gated it so just the calves could get in. A week later, shut the gate and get all the calves in. She said the calves seem fairly content, and the cows beller for a couple days, and by day 3 the cows really don't come around any more. I tried it last year, by locking them in my corral, but on day 3 they broke out of the "not OK corral" and I had to start over. But over all I think it was a great idea. The 3 or 4th day there werent many cows by the corral at all, and no bellering.

 

[Bama]

Calves go into a smaller pen that is next to mamma. After a couple of days and Mamma is wandering off I generally put the calves in the heifer pen to spend a couple of months. This seems to work well. And the hiefers enjoy the company. I tell the heifers they will soon make babies or beef. Don't make trouble. If you can't have a baby unassisted pack your bags as your gonna be making beef shortly.

 

[jgn]

This is how I wean mine and seems to work really well. The cows and calves can still smell and lick each other through the fence. Usually after the first or second day the calves settle down and the cows stop camping out by the fence and then just make a visitation trip once or twice a day. I haven't weaned any by just completely seperating them from the cows so can't comment on that.

 

[TXBobcat]

For those of you that fenceline wean, where the cows are in one pasture and calves in another, serparated by a regular fence (i.e. barbed wire, field fence, etc), how many break-outs do you have? In other words, how often do your calves escape and get back with their mothers?

Seems like you would have to have excellent fence to keep those calves seperated. I fenceline wean where the calves are in a drylot pen with hay, water, and a little sweet feed. The first few days, the calves are usually walking the pen, bawling, and looking for any hole to get out. The cows will hang pretty close for the first couple of days, but then they will start to go back out to pasture with the rest of the herd and only visit occassionally.

 

[eric]

I also use the corral panel method of weaning, and I've never had any breakouts, yet. I have had the calf try and nurse the mama through the bars, some successfullly, but after a couple days, the cows just go on about their business.

 

[dun]

We just divide one pasture with a temporary hot wire. Calves on one side with a permanent water source, the working pens, tub and the squeeze chute. The cows are next tehm on a temporary waterer. After a couple of days we move the cows to another pasture but still within sight and hearing of the calves but leave the area the cows were in empty. ANother couple of days we move the cows to a back pasture and let the calves have all of the pasture that was originally divided. We have the calves come up and pass through the tub and squeeze to get their grain then open a gate so they can get back into the working pens and the pasture. Knock on wood we've never had a "breakout".
We continue having the calves pass through the alley and squeeze to get to their grain all through the weaning period till the ones that are being shipped are shipped and the retained heifers go back with the cow herd. Usually 4-6 weeks.
We've noticed how much easier the heifers are to get into the chute when they're accustomed to passing through it when it comes time to breed them, ultrasound, vaccinate, whatever. The 4 year olds that we started doing it with are a lot easier to work then the 4 years old that we bought as yearlings. The younger girls are easy too. When you open the alleyway about half of the time they head in and I have to pass them all the way though so I can get to the cow I actually want to catch.

dun

 

[Rustler9]

We always wean this way. We have a corral in the back of the barn-it has a good fence, six foot high, heavy duty livestock panels with a two by six at the bottom, middle and top of the fence. We have had one calf that got out three times before he was put in isolation in the barn to wean. He would climb the fence like a cat and go back to his mama. We also wean by the signs-check your calendar and wena when the signs are in the knees. They bawl about two days and then it's pretty much over-this works for thew cows as well as the calves.

 

[JHH]

NEW GUY HERE!
WHEN I WEANED MY FALL CALVES (2), I SEPERATED THEM.
TOOK COWS BACK TO PASTURE AND CALVES LEFT AT HOME.
NOTICED SIGN WAS IN THE BREAST AND CALVES DIDNT BAWL HARDLY AT ALL,BUT MAMA COWS DID.AS FAR AS THE WEIGHT GOES,THEY DONE ALRIGHT BUT I HAVE NEVER DONE IT THE OTHER WAY YET TO COMPARE.MIGHT TRY THIS NEXT TIME.

 

[CowCop]

Fenceline weaning has been the norm for us.

We keep the calves in the field they were originally in with a loafing barn and the springfed stream. However, we open a small pasture within that field to them the day we wean them so they have some very tempting fresh grass to graze.
We put the moms in a pasture that is separated by a 2 acre strip of oats between them and the calves. They can see the calves, but have a more difficult time getting close to them.

The calves are too busy grazing the new grass to pay much attention to the moms. We also leave a few yearlings in with the weanlings to act as "babysitters." The babysitters have really paid off in so many ways:
they teach the calves how to eat out of the bunk, how to chase foxes, dogs and cats out of the pasture, and if the weanling herd gets loose we can get all of them back by calling the "babysitters".
The calves still beller off and on for 2-3 days--usually at dusk-but not like the other "instant weaning" techniques that others use. The mom cows beller hard for 3 days and then it slacks off.

Only one calf escaped back to mom, twice, 2 years ago because of human error-- the fence was shorting out and it wasn't hot enough.
We use high tension electric fence mixed with barbed wire.

With that said, we are going to try the "side by side" weaning technique this fall with the nylon calf weaners.
We got too many calls from neighbors, that lived 1/2-3/4 of a mile away, last fall asking us "whats all the noise about, is something wrong with your cows? " ( during a wedding.. )
That never happend before, but now we have more neighbors living on the edges of our fields so we AGAIN have to adjust a few things with our cows.

Does anyone else get calls from neighbors at weaning time ?

Anyone else try the calf weaners yet ?

http://www.valleyvet.com
for calf weaner info.