Natural weaning?

[S.R.R.]

Has anyone done this with their calves or know someone who has? If so how did it work?

 

[cypressfarms]

Has anyone done this with their calves or know someone who has? If so how did it work?

By natural do you mean letting the cow kick the calf off on it's own? I've seen a yearling push a younger sibling off moma because it was never seperated.

 

[Beef11]

The second cow will get the shaft on that deal because of way lower milk production and the fact that the yearling won't share. I hope that was on somebody elses place?

 

[Farmhand]

What are the chances of there being any colostrum if the older calf is still nursing.

 

[Beef11]

None, antibodies are sent gradually over the month prior to the udder. So the big calf ate it all. In dairy cattle people experiment with no dry period and colostrum is a major issue there.

 

[Farmhand]

Bravo! That's what I was getting at.

 

[cypressfarms]

The second cow will get the shaft on that deal because of way lower milk production and the fact that the yearling won't share. I hope that was on somebody elses place?

Yes it was on someone elses place; in fact when my dad noticed it, he gave me a lesson on weaning calves(I was a teenager). No antibodies for the calf that needs em, moma gets run down, and yearling gets fat at the detriment of the other two.

 

[Beef11]

You checking up on me farmhand?

 

[cypressfarms]

You checking up on me farmhand?

I think so!

 

[Beef11]

Oh dear i hope i do alright. Don't give me anything to tricky i'm not as old and seasoned as alot of yall.[/quote]

 

[Farmhand]

I'm feeling ornery tonight. Gotta keep ya on your toes!

 

[sidney411]

Seriously though - how did it work way back when cattle roamed free and were not controlled by humans? Have they just lost that instinct?

 

[S.R.R.]

Some reading I have done states that the cow will kick off her calf a bit before the new one is born. Is the 1 yearling cypressfarms saw the only time anyone has really seen someone try natural weaning?

 

[cypressfarms]

Some reading I have done states that the cow will kick off her calf a bit before the new one is born. Is the 1 yearling cypressfarms saw the only time anyone has really seen someone try natural weaning?

I wouldn't refer to what they were doing as natural weaning. I would call it natural mis-management. Kind of like the post someone put up about the farm that had no bulls.....and wondered why their calf crop was getting worse.

Seriously, the moma cow will start to produce colostrum up to a month before she gives birth. If a big calf is sucking on her, even just a little bit, the yearling will get all of the colostrum, and the new calf will not be as healthy.

 

[flaboy+]

PHOOEY ON NATURAL WEANING!

 

[S.R.R.]

Some reading I have done states that the cow will kick off her calf a bit before the new one is born. Is the 1 yearling cypressfarms saw the only time anyone has really seen someone try natural weaning?

I wouldn't refer to what they were doing as natural weaning. I would call it natural mis-management. Kind of like the post someone put up about the farm that had no bulls.....and wondered why their calf crop was getting worse.

Seriously, the moma cow will start to produce colostrum up to a month before she gives birth. If a big calf is sucking on her, even just a little bit, the yearling will get all of the colostrum, and the new calf will not be as healthy.

To bad us humans have messed them up to the point that they have lost their natural instincts eh? I am sure in the past cattle would not have survived if the yearling drank all the colostrum of the new born. Do you think it is because as sidney411 said all the human control/management that this was bred out of them?

 

[dun]

Some friends of my wifes don;t wean their calves. They end up with about a 25% survival of the calves born each year. They have heifers that are calving that are still nursing.

dun

 

[warpaint]

Survival of the fittest??? Who knows? I just know I wouldn't let my cattle wean naturally.

 

[cypressfarms]

Some friends of my wifes don;t wean their calves. They end up with about a 25% survival of the calves born each year. They have heifers that are calving that are still nursing.

dun

Ouch! Bad enough that a heifer has to work hard to maintain her condition going into her 2nd/3rd year because of her teeth and growing body, but having to put a calf on the ground while feeding a yearling (probably as big as her), is bad news!

 

[Susie David]

Management...isn't that what the business is all about. Natural weaning is comparative to natural birth, natural foraging, natural breeding, natural immunity to disease...y'a got to admit cows are not the sharpest knives in nature's drawer and we need to assist the evolution of the species. I wouldn't consider it...the cow is being taken down producing milk, the new calf, if she has the nutrition to come back into season, will be starved by the yearling if not hurt. DMc