how to stop a dry nurser

[wildsawmill]

so one of my bottle calves thats 7 months old & been weaned off for 5 1/2 months now all of a sudden is trying to nurse the unbred heffer. i tryed putting then in seprate paddoks but the 1050LB heffer wanked across my cattle guard twice now to get to the calf. im affraid shell break a leg , she's tore up one fence to get to the calf. & its been weaned off the bottle for over 5 months
what to do ?

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Cash her in.

 

[backhoeboogie]

what to do ?

What bull breeder said. Both of 'em. Prices are good.

 

[piedmontese]

u dont have to sale either one.buy a plastic nose ring with the spikes on it.they are only about 3 or 4 bucks and work great.simple to put n the calves nose too.

 

[backhoeboogie]

u dont have to sale either one.buy a plastic nose ring with the spikes on it.they are only about 3 or 4 bucks and work great.simple to put n the calves nose too.

No way in hades would I do that with a calf trying to nurse a heifer. If that heifer has a calf one day, she's going to remember those spikes from when the last calf was trying to nurse.

 

[msscamp]

u dont have to sale either one.buy a plastic nose ring with the spikes on it.they are only about 3 or 4 bucks and work great.simple to put n the calves nose too.

No way in hades would I do that with a calf trying to nurse a heifer. If that heifer has a calf one day, she's going to remember those spikes from when the last calf was trying to nurse.

You know, I've been reading all of the posts on here about the nose things with spikes and wondered about the effect of future calves trying to nurse after that experience. Thanks for bringing it up, might prove to be an interesting discussion.

 

[Suzie Q]

I would put an electric fence across the cattle grid, and I presume that word you wrote was supposed to be walked!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dun]

If the calf has been weaned this long and gone backto sucking you might as well ship her. It's going to persist even wwhen you THINK you have it resolved

 

[backhoeboogie]

u dont have to sale either one.buy a plastic nose ring with the spikes on it.they are only about 3 or 4 bucks and work great.simple to put n the calves nose too.

No way in hades would I do that with a calf trying to nurse a heifer. If that heifer has a calf one day, she's going to remember those spikes from when the last calf was trying to nurse.

You know, I've been reading all of the posts on here about the nose things with spikes and wondered about the effect of future calves trying to nurse after that experience. Thanks for bringing it up, might prove to be an interesting discussion.

No Problem. Its good you are back posting in the forum.

There's something like 42 calves in the herd at the moment that are 4 months and less. They get hard to count the way they move around. I can promise you a few will try to nurse any cow that will let them. They do that. If another cow let them nurse, they'd be robbing another one of my calves. That is the problem I have with the older heifer in the first place and that's why I would ship her. I've been there. Its probably wrong of me but I blame this one more than the bottle calf. That calf has probably tried to nurse any and everything. Only one gave in. If you were willing to hold that heifer solo in a pasture, she'd work for you. I personally don't have the time to individually accomodate each and every one. That's why I'd ship her and the bottle calf too. I am already going to cull some nice heifers. She'd make the list of culls on the next ride.

 

[piedmontese]

u dont have to sale either one.buy a plastic nose ring with the spikes on it.they are only about 3 or 4 bucks and work great.simple to put n the calves nose too.

No way in hades would I do that with a calf trying to nurse a heifer. If that heifer has a calf one day, she's going to remember those spikes from when the last calf was trying to nurse.

we never faced that problem with the cow when she had her next calf.if that was the way it worked u would only need to put the spiked ring n the calfs nose for 1 day and the cow would kick it off every time.sometimes i really blame the cow for letting any1 suck her.got rid of a few shorthorns like that.

 

[msscamp]

No Problem. Its good you are back posting in the forum.

There's something like 42 calves in the herd at the moment that are 4 months and less. They get hard to count the way they move around. I can promise you a few will try to nurse any cow that will let them. They do that. If another cow let them nurse, they'd be robbing another one of my calves. That is the problem I have with the older heifer in the first place and that's why I would ship her. I've been there. Its probably wrong of me but I blame this one more than the bottle calf. That calf has probably tried to nurse any and everything. Only one gave in. If you were willing to hold that heifer solo in a pasture, she'd work for you. I personally don't have the time to individually accomodate each and every one. That's why I'd ship her and the bottle calf too. I am already going to cull some nice heifers. She'd make the list of culls on the next ride.[/quote]

I agree completely! We had one heifer that was separated from her mother until she was ready to calve as a 2 year old, and she was caught sucking her mother. Both of them were shipped on the next trailer. This heifer would be shipped here, too.

 

[TobyBenoit]

Sell the calf! Prices are too good right now to deal with problem calves.

 

[wildsawmill]

well i shipped the heffer still got the bottle calf (red angus bred heffer ) put a metal ring with spikes in her nose she is now about 22 mo old 900 lbs? & should be bred, i hope. was with a bull for 3 weeks , riding was observed.
this problem bottle calf now my biggest animal has started trying to nurse a heffer thats about 200 lbs smaller than her & the charlay is letting her nose ring & all so i put up an ele fence to segrate them but this probly wont work long term .
ideas

 

[wildsawmill]

No Problem. Its good you are back posting in the forum.

i havent had much to say but read a lot here thanks

 

[IluvABbeef]

well i shipped the heffer still got the bottle calf (red angus bred heffer ) put a metal ring with spikes in her nose she is now about 22 mo old 900 lbs? & should be bred, i hope. was with a bull for 3 weeks , riding was observed.
this problem bottle calf now my biggest animal has started trying to nurse a heffer thats about 200 lbs smaller than her & the charlay is letting her nose ring & all so i put up an ele fence to segrate them but this probly wont work long term .
ideas

Simple: Get Rid of Her!!

 

[snake67]

well i shipped the heffer still got the bottle calf (red angus bred heffer ) put a metal ring with spikes in her nose she is now about 22 mo old 900 lbs? & should be bred, i hope. was with a bull for 3 weeks , riding was observed.
this problem bottle calf now my biggest animal has started trying to nurse a heffer thats about 200 lbs smaller than her & the charlay is letting her nose ring & all so i put up an ele fence to segrate them but this probly wont work long term .
ideas

Well, you asked for advice - then sold the animal that was NOT the problem - despite getting good advice and solutions from some good people who know the business

And you now have that same problem animal doing it again - no surprise to any of us.

So here is what you do:

1. Keep her

2. Cancel the membership here

3. Go on doing your own thing.

Bottom line - bred or not - this animal is a piece of trash and should not be anything but frozen beef, yet you still have her and are now asking for more advice?

Wait until her progeny do it as well. You will really love a full herd of dry cows getting their tits sucked and ruined. Or worse, bred animals being robbed of the colostrum being built up to give to that calf that is going to be born in 3 weeks time.

Culling hard may hurt initially but you will not regret it ten years from now.

If a cow is not a push button, no problem animal it is you doing the work when in reality it should be her.

So why bother asking for that advice? You do not take it anyways.

You raise them to kill them - and try to make money while doing it - put that forefront in your brain whenever you make a business decision on cows - right now you are in a lose situation and likely to continue.

Have a nice day.

My best to all

Bez

 

[suzorse]

I get rid of the sucker not the sucky, if they are nursing on other heifers they are down the road
I do not worry about the 1 being nursed , as a potential problem as I have nurse cows
Suzanne

 

[greatgerts]

I get rid of the sucker not the sucky, if they are nursing on other heifers they are down the road
I do not worry about the 1 being nursed , as a potential problem as I have nurse cows
Suzanne

But if they are sucking on a heifer that is getting close to calving, they are taking colostrum AWAY FROM HER UNBORN CALF. That was the start to this thread. Nowhere did he say anything about nurse cows. Still there, I would not want something to nurse it before she calved, unless I was milking the colostrum out to use on my own calves.

 

[wildsawmill]

well i shipped the heffer still got the bottle calf (red angus bred heffer ) put a metal ring with spikes in her nose she is now about 22 mo old 900 lbs? & should be bred, i hope. was with a bull for 3 weeks , riding was observed.
this problem bottle calf now my biggest animal has started trying to nurse a heffer thats about 200 lbs smaller than her & the charlay is letting her nose ring & all so i put up an ele fence to segrate them but this probly wont work long term .
ideas

Well, you asked for advice - then sold the animal that was NOT the problem - despite getting good advice and solutions from some good people who know the business

And you now have that same problem animal doing it again - no surprise to any of us.


wow i read all the advice & followed most of it
& i didnt have a problem with this nurser again till recently seems she & the other heffer got used to the ring with spikes on it
sorry i infureated you this is exality why i havent been posting as i see this attidude on here before to others
life is to short to fuss or feel like my questions set some one here off

So here is what you do:

1. Keep her

2. Cancel the membership here

3. Go on doing your own thing.

Bottom line - bred or not - this animal is a piece of trash and should not be anything but frozen beef, yet you still have her and are now asking for more advice?

Wait until her progeny do it as well. You will really love a full herd of dry cows getting their tits sucked and ruined. Or worse, bred animals being robbed of the colostrum being built up to give to that calf that is going to be born in 3 weeks time.

Culling hard may hurt initially but you will not regret it ten years from now.

If a cow is not a push button, no problem animal it is you doing the work when in reality it should be her.

So why bother asking for that advice? You do not take it anyways.

You raise them to kill them - and try to make money while doing it - put that forefront in your brain whenever you make a business decision on cows - right now you are in a lose situation and likely to continue.

Have a nice day.

My best to all

Bez

 

[suzorse]

I was talking about heifer calves,as my heifers are kept seperate after weaning, and they are all running close in age and size, these are not bred heifers close to calving, those are with the cows
mine was around 5 months old when being nursed by another heifer, the 1 that was doing the nursing got a weaning ring and then sold, as she kept removing the ring , I have 1 that as soon as she heard a calf sucking on its mom she would run over to try to nurse also,so she has spent most of the last year
in the steer pasture away from cows in milk, and has been kept seperate from the first time she did it ,so there were no problems caused, just saying I would of got rid of the calf that was nursing on the other heifer, I will graft another calf on the one that was being sucked when she calves in Oct,
and have not had another problem with her and calves,
Suzanne