I don't know if this has been discussed on the boards before but I can't find reference to it. I read in an American magazine (maybe Western Horseman, not sure) about a method whereby calves about two months old are withheld from their mothers for forty eight hours or so to cause the cows to come on heat and be re-bred within a short timeframe. You need to yard the calves, keeping them on good hay and water, the cows can come up to the calves but not feed them. Has anyone any experience of this? Just curious.
Forty-eight hour weaning
- Thread starter jilleroo
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Anonymous
I did just that this last calving. Ill preg check in 2 weeks and let you know how it worked.
I know in theory it changes the body chemistry of the cow and causes her to cycle. Smething about disrupting the flow of milk and all
I know in theory it changes the body chemistry of the cow and causes her to cycle. Smething about disrupting the flow of milk and all
cow pollinater
Well-known member
That's been out there for a while. I've never had properly managed cows need that much help to get everyone cycling so I'd have to say that the extra stress on those calves wouldn't be worth it. I'd be willingto bet that putting the money into nutrition as aposed to a 48 hour false weaning would yield better results.
hillbillycwo
Well-known member
Hook Please let me know how that worked for you. With the cows able to see the calves I would think in theory that it would be a minimal stressor. Did your calves eat well and drink okay when you tried this? Do you have any links to information that gave you this idea? It sounds in theory to be a good way to do some syncing without drugs. But then again I am still in the learning process. Thanks in advance.
bigag03
Well-known member
hillbillycwo":boxi0poz said:
I have not used it to start non-cycling cows, but I have used the technique in donor cows and recips to tighten heat windows with the use of drugs. It is an excellent tool if you have the proper facilities to hold the calves where they still have nose to nose contact with the cows. It really tightened our heat response so more recips were available for transfers and also helped induce heats on harder responding donor cows.
houstoncutter
Well-known member
It will work, but unless these are really old cows, you need to rethink this one. If these are young or middle aged cows you shouldnt have to go to this extreme. If your retaining heifers or breeding stock from these animals, do you really wish to have replacements that are fertily substandard?
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Anonymous
The calves reacted fine. It was noisy but about like a fenceline weaning would be. I ran across the idea while searching he web. I had about a 3 month calving window so i also wanted to tighten it up. I penned the 3 latest to calve cows instead of penning the calves. Just seemed easier for me because the calves dont alway go into my pen as easy as the cows do.
In 2 more weeks ill pull blood and find out if it worked or not.
In 2 more weeks ill pull blood and find out if it worked or not.
hillsdown
Well-known member
I know of some large cow herds that do that for AI'ing .
It does work ,especially if you have heavy milkers .
It does work ,especially if you have heavy milkers .
Thanks for the replies. I think the outfit I read about did it with their first calvers. I don't know about the logistics of it for us though.....normally we'd run about 4/5 bulls with the 200 heifers. If we did the 48 hour wean, we'd probably need to put extra bulls in as there are a few watering points in the paddock. Also, we probably couldnt combine the muster with branding and cutting the calves. We wouldnt want to put the extra stress on them. On the plus side, we have the facilities to hold the calves and the heifers are in a paddock which adjoins.
It is interesting to think about though and hear others experiences of it.
It is interesting to think about though and hear others experiences of it.
overthehump
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I just wanted to say that I have used temporary weaning before with breeding cows. I think it is best used with a synchronization program. Normally what I will do is at begining of the breeding season select all of the cows with a 40d or older calf. We would then admnister an injection of gnrh and implant a CIDR. 7 days later the CIDR is removed with an injection of PGF2a. Also on day 7 we pull calves from those female and place a heat detection patch on the cows. We then watch the cows for heat and AI 12 hrs after standing heat on a cow. At the end of an 84hr period from the day 7, we mass inseminate all females that were not in heat and give a 2nd injection of gnrh at insemination time. The calves effectively are weaned for 84hrs. As long as the calves are provided with free choice feed, hay and water this works great....we even have hauled the calves to another facility. The mechanism behind temporary weaning is that the nursing stimulus has a negative feedback on the pituitary which can decrease fertility. Removing that stimulus by weaning can boost AI preg rates by %10 (our results). I also use temporary weaning with the above protocol for synchronization of recipient females for embryo transfer. I am a fan. I dont know if it would benefit anyone that is just naturally breeding cattle because you have no idea about the stage in the estrous cycle any given female is in. Hope this helps.
Nesikep
Well-known member
I could see this useful in a herd that is fall-calving and you want to get them spring-calving without losing a season, but I think if you crunch numbers on calf gain from false-weaning onward, my gut would tell me that the cows would produce less milk from then on, and that would probably show up as lighter calves that fall. I know that some of my cows who can produce at 700 lb heifer will start to re-absorb the milk starting around the 3rd day of weaning (OK, so that is 210 days after calving, not 30-60)
you think that a partial weaning (calf sucking 1 or 2 times a day) would be a compromise that could yield results in a natrually-bred environment?
you think that a partial weaning (calf sucking 1 or 2 times a day) would be a compromise that could yield results in a natrually-bred environment?
Double R Ranch
Well-known member
We have used this for years. The theary behind it as I know it is that a cow/first year heifer is putting so much nutrients in milk production that weaning for 48 hours tells moms body that the calf is "gone via lack of nursing" and the body forwards the nutrients and energy into her fertility.
It made a huge difference in our reproduction when we use sync methods like CIDR's.
If we sync we temp. wean the last 48 hours prior to expected heat. Usually wean when we pull CIDR's if we did that sync at the time.
48 hours later with calves back at side when they are "due" to come into heat (or close to it) it allows mom to stop worrying over her calf, milk production is back on and she can be free to show signs of heat. Fertility has already been boosted.
The draw back as others have said is the balling mama's and babies.
Hope this helps and isn't just a repeat of what has already been said.
Best of luck!
Double R
It made a huge difference in our reproduction when we use sync methods like CIDR's.
If we sync we temp. wean the last 48 hours prior to expected heat. Usually wean when we pull CIDR's if we did that sync at the time.
48 hours later with calves back at side when they are "due" to come into heat (or close to it) it allows mom to stop worrying over her calf, milk production is back on and she can be free to show signs of heat. Fertility has already been boosted.
The draw back as others have said is the balling mama's and babies.
Hope this helps and isn't just a repeat of what has already been said.
Best of luck!
Double R
