FL Weaning

[dun]

Weaned today
http://www.agserver.net/windyridge/Misc/wean.jpg

 

[Jogeephus]

Was it noisy last night? :lol2:

 

[dun]

Was it noisy last night? :lol2:

Oh yah, still is

 

[greatgerts]

We did too. I wasn't going to, but started splitting calves off during preg checking, and just decided to go ahead and wean. The noise was actually a lot less than ususal.

 

[SRBeef]

Great picture. Thanks.

What sort of fence is the white one between them? Looks like just a single electric wire?

Jim

 

[farmwriter]

Nice pic. Hope you all get enough shut-eye!

 

[dun]

Great picture. Thanks.

What sort of fence is the white one between them? Looks like just a single electric wire?

Jim

Correct. Step in posts and a single strand of poly wire. When the cows settle down in a couple of days or so, they'll be moved out of the pasture and the calves will have that side of the fence too.

It's pretty much just 2 cows raising cain. The others are used to the drill and are probably glad to be rid of them. The 2 noisiest ones are a heifer and a cow on her 5th calf. She's always been noisy at weaning time. The others occasioanlly get started but it's usually just those 2. The calves have hardly made any noise at all but they like having mom right next door.

 

[KNERSIE]

Great picture. Thanks.

What sort of fence is the white one between them? Looks like just a single electric wire?

Jim

Correct. Step in posts and a single strand of poly wire. When the cows settle down in a couple of days or so, they'll be moved out of the pasture and the calves will have that side of the fence too.

It's pretty much just 2 cows raising cain. The others are used to the drill and are probably glad to be rid of them. The 2 noisiest ones are a heifer and a cow on her 5th calf. She's always been noisy at weaning time. The others occasioanlly get started but it's usually just those 2. The calves have hardly made any noise at all but they like having mom right next door.

Do you creep feed prior to weaning?

 

[dun]

Great picture. Thanks.

What sort of fence is the white one between them? Looks like just a single electric wire?

Jim

Correct. Step in posts and a single strand of poly wire. When the cows settle down in a couple of days or so, they'll be moved out of the pasture and the calves will have that side of the fence too.

It's pretty much just 2 cows raising cain. The others are used to the drill and are probably glad to be rid of them. The 2 noisiest ones are a heifer and a cow on her 5th calf. She's always been noisy at weaning time. The others occasioanlly get started but it's usually just those 2. The calves have hardly made any noise at all but they like having mom right next door.

Do you creep feed prior to weaning?

No. Once the cows are moved away we;ll start graining (preconditioning) them for their trip to the feedlot. We also leave them on fescue pasture during the precon phase along with the grain

 

[KNERSIE]

Do you ever get calves that just don't take to the grain? I have a bottle calf now that is almost 3 months old and still doesn't eat enough grain to wean. He is eating lots of grass and loves alfalfa hay, but just don't seem to like grain.

 

[dun]

Do you ever get calves that just don't take to the grain? I have a bottle calf now that is almost 3 months old and still doesn't eat enough grain to wean. He is eating lots of grass and loves alfalfa hay, but just don't seem to like grain.

We've had a couple over the years but not more then one every 4-5 years. Those are the ones that go to the salebarn rather then the backgrounder

 

[SRBeef]

Great picture. Thanks.

What sort of fence is the white one between them? Looks like just a single electric wire?

Jim

Correct. Step in posts and a single strand of poly wire. When the cows settle down in a couple of days or so, they'll be moved out of the pasture and the calves will have that side of the fence too.

It's pretty much just 2 cows raising cain. The others are used to the drill and are probably glad to be rid of them. The 2 noisiest ones are a heifer and a cow on her 5th calf. She's always been noisy at weaning time. The others occasioanlly get started but it's usually just those 2. The calves have hardly made any noise at all but they like having mom right next door.

This fall will be just my second weaning so it's not like I'm an expert or anything like that but I agree with you - most cows seem happy to have the calves off of them. Calves seem content as long as they can see mom. I had almost no noise last year at weaning time.

I do have a 5 barb wire with electric on the calf side between them since I was expecting the worse.

If a single electric wire works that would be nice - offer more options.

Thanks for the picture and information. Jim

edit: here's picture of mine at weaning time from last fall. I did the same thing at preg check time - just let them out of the chute and into different fields, one on each side of the fence and waterer. Fenceline weaning seems to work. The cow in the picture closest to her calf is an especially good mom - not noisey just like she's checking on her steer calf.

 

[dun]

At fall work up we used to give the first round of shots to the calves, preg check and vaccinate the cows and worm and pour everything. Then at booster time we separated them. Talk to the vet about it and his opinion is/was. with fenceline weaning we might as well split them at first shots and preg check etc. Been doing it for the last 5 years oir so that way. Haven;t had any issues. Also makes it easier to call in the calves for grain since the cows aren;t around wanting to get "their" share.

 

[cfpinz]

Do you ever get calves that just don't take to the grain? I have a bottle calf now that is almost 3 months old and still doesn't eat enough grain to wean. He is eating lots of grass and loves alfalfa hay, but just don't seem to like grain.

We had a heifer calf that was picked out for a replacement last year, when we penned/weaned them she wouldn't touch grain. She held her condition as well as the others so I kept her. We grain the heifers around 2lbs/day for about a month to 6 weeks. After that they go out on stockpile all winter, no supplement other than a 5 gal bucket once a week. Still got her, she'll come running up to the bucket when I check them and smell the grain but she won't eat it. Oh well.

 

[dun]

Do you ever get calves that just don't take to the grain? I have a bottle calf now that is almost 3 months old and still doesn't eat enough grain to wean. He is eating lots of grass and loves alfalfa hay, but just don't seem to like grain.

We had a heifer calf that was picked out for a replacement last year, when we penned/weaned them she wouldn't touch grain. She held her condition as well as the others so I kept her. We grain the heifers around 2lbs/day for about a month to 6 weeks. After that they go out on stockpile all winter, no supplement other than a 5 gal bucket once a week. Still got her, she'll come running up to the bucket when I check them and smell the grain but she won't eat it. Oh well.

Does the grain have a lot of CG in it. I've found that more then a third CG and they're all pretty picky. They'll eat it bit not with gusto like I would expect

 

[cfpinz]

Does the grain have a lot of CG in it. I've found that more then a third CG and they're all pretty picky. They'll eat it bit not with gusto like I would expect

No, not really. We use heifer stocker pellets, they're the most economical for my purpose. Even bought a bag of steer fattener to try and get her interest up but she doesn't care for it. Every now and then I'll give them some range cubes and she'll pick at one or two but that's it. Way I see it, she's a money saver.

 

[dun]

Does the grain have a lot of CG in it. I've found that more then a third CG and they're all pretty picky. They'll eat it bit not with gusto like I would expect

No, not really. We use heifer stocker pellets, they're the most economical for my purpose. Even bought a bag of steer fattener to try and get her interest up but she doesn't care for it. Every now and then I'll give them some range cubes and she'll pick at one or two but that's it. Way I see it, she's a money saver.

We had one old cow that wouldn;t eat grain. She would stick her nose next to it for a couple of seconds then wander off. We still have a daughter of her that we call Hoover. She'll vacuum up every bit of any kind of feed and lick and polish the feeder when everyone else is done

 

[1982vett]

Great picture. Thanks.

What sort of fence is the white one between them? Looks like just a single electric wire?

Jim

Correct. Step in posts and a single strand of poly wire. When the cows settle down in a couple of days or so, they'll be moved out of the pasture and the calves will have that side of the fence too.

It's pretty much just 2 cows raising cain. The others are used to the drill and are probably glad to be rid of them. The 2 noisiest ones are a heifer and a cow on her 5th calf. She's always been noisy at weaning time. The others occasioanlly get started but it's usually just those 2. The calves have hardly made any noise at all but they like having mom right next door.

I've got one that is noisy all the time. Guess I've gotten used to it now cause I don't notice it like I used to or something. Sort of reminded me of my older sister every time you went to the pasture she'd come up a bellering about something. :lol:

I don't know why, but my sister didn't find anything amusing about this.

 

[dun]

Great picture. Thanks.

What sort of fence is the white one between them? Looks like just a single electric wire?

Jim

Correct. Step in posts and a single strand of poly wire. When the cows settle down in a couple of days or so, they'll be moved out of the pasture and the calves will have that side of the fence too.

It's pretty much just 2 cows raising cain. The others are used to the drill and are probably glad to be rid of them. The 2 noisiest ones are a heifer and a cow on her 5th calf. She's always been noisy at weaning time. The others occasioanlly get started but it's usually just those 2. The calves have hardly made any noise at all but they like having mom right next door.

I've got one that is noisy all the time. Guess I've gotten used to it now cause I don't notice it like I used to or something. Sort of reminded me of my older sister every time you went to the pasture she'd come up a bellering about something. :lol:

I don't know why, but my sister didn't find anything amusing about this.

Maybe she needs a sense of humor replacment

 

[dun]

Today they're all quiet as churchmice. I've checked a couple of times to make sure they didn;t knock down the fence. Calves and cows both are out grazing on their own sides of the fence just like they should be