Natural weaning

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mhill

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I had a calf born in early April. Yesterday he was seperated by himself from the rest of the herd. I brought him in because I thought he was sick. He was placed ina a pen with some bottle calves I have and started eating grain and hay with them. He didn't fuss at all nor did his Momma. Could she have weaned him naturally. At max, she would be about 4 months bred. What do you think?
 
from what your saying.the calf did wean hisself off his momma.an thats ok .some calves wean themselves.
 
The only time I've seen a calf wean itself at that age was because the cow didn;t have any milk
 
Same here dun.. I cannot say that any of my calves have weaned themselves. If they go past the 6-7 month timeframe, sometimes the momma cow will kick them away, but most calves dont give up easily.
 
A cow will seldom kick her calf off before about 4 weeks prior to calving again. There will be circumstances where it happens, like droughts, etc. But its certainly not the rule.

Often poor milkers have just about no milk left, but the calf will still keep on trying.
 
dun":1rgqup5e said:
The only time I've seen a calf wean itself at that age was because the cow didn;t have any milk
This is true most of the time. We had a brahma cross cow kick off her bull calf at 2 months old. Not sure of the reason,but it was not lack of milk. The cow didn't get to stay long enough to ask her why.
I know when we went thru the drought the cows did not have enough milk to feed their calves. So we weaned them earlier.
Never put a sick calf in a pen with other calves. Pen it up by itself,until you can find out whats wrong with it. You could end up with a whole group of sick or dead calves.
 
Everything is fine with the calf and I put him back with his momma last night as she started bawling for him. He ran to her and started drinking immediately. My wife said their was a calf that snuck through the fence into a clover and grass field and I think he overate that night.
 
mhill":1gqtcxqb said:
Could she have weaned him naturally.

Well, since I have yet to see a cow wean her calf on her own, I'm thinking not likely. Sounds more to me like the cow did not have enough milk, and that is why the calf didn't fuss about beiing seperated. I'm also curious as to why you put a suspectedly sick calf in with your bottle calves? Seems to me like that should be the last place you would put him/her.
 

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