Weaning age

[RICHARDL]

I did a search on weaning age. too much to sort thru. I also heard about the 205 day weaning age. But can You wean earlier, is it a good/bad ideal to wean early. Or is the 205 weaning age the normal.? Most of the momma cows are in pretty good shape except for one. especially after the winter we had. Are differnent breeds of cattle that have differnent weaning ages? i have 4 angus momma cows & 2 brangus momma cows. Just trying to figure out my plan of action. thanks to all & :cowboy: I really enjoy getting on this board and reading all the info. :cowboy:

 

[I luv herfrds]

We wean at 6 months of age, but I have heard of people weaning at 9 months. It depends upon where you are and what condition your cows are in.

 

[Frankie]

I did a search on weaning age. too much to sort thru. I also heard about the 205 day weaning age. But can You wean earlier, is it a good/bad ideal to wean early. Or is the 205 weaning age the normal.? Most of the momma cows are in pretty good shape except for one. especially after the winter we had. Are differnent breeds of cattle that have differnent weaning ages? i have 4 angus momma cows & 2 brangus momma cows. Just trying to figure out my plan of action. thanks to all & :cowboy: I really enjoy getting on this board and reading all the info. :cowboy:

We wean at 7-8 months. But that's to get the bulls ready to go on test. When we ran commercial cows, we weaned at 6-9 months, depending on grass and market. We did wean at 4 & 5 months one year because of a drought. We were feeding hay in July and figured it was cheaper to feed the calves directly than to run it through the cows. The calves had lighter 205 day weights, but were about average by the time we took their yearling weights.

The 205 day weights are usually adjusted weaning weights. We wean within a 205 day "window", figure average daily gain, then add or subract the ADG for each day they're older or younger than 205 days.

What are you going to do with the calves? If you're going to take them to the sale barn, have the grass and the cows can maintain their condition, I'd leave the calves on them until they're 8-9 months old. You'll probably be selling by the pound at the sale barn and the cheapest way to put on pounds is on momma and grass. If you're putting them into a retained ownership program, they will probably have guidelines you need to follow.

 

[RICHARDL]

The calves will either be sale barn or slaugther for family & one or 2 for me. prolly 1/2 sale barn 1/2 freezer. sounds like a good ideal though. they eat a little feed now and again when i put some out

 

[Cowdirt]

I do what folks call "weaning on the trailer to the livestock sale". In order to have as many go at once as possible, I usually sell calves in the range of 6-9 mos. My opinion of what market prices are going to do in the future sometimes influence me to sell sooner or later. Any that I sell at 6 mos would be over-achievers that have grown off real well.

 

[snickers]

we wean on the trailer to the sale barn also, our friends wean theirs at about 6 months and feed them for 5 to 6 weeks before they sell and really we make more on ours than they do.

 

[HEREFORD ROADHOG]

Just weaned 4 calves that were 5 mos. old. (dang can they bawl for a while)they were eating good & we have a couple other cows that will be calving soon so we wanted them out of the way. :cboy:

 

[angus9259]

I'll wean the fall calvers early - 4 months - and put them on creep. But we're in a northern climate so raising a calf in the winter can be rough. Spring calves I'll wean in July to take advantage of cull cow prices and move the calves to creep to retain as much summer/fall pasture as possible for the brood cows.