Weaning Beef Calves

[ilovecowssam3]

Hi guys!

We have a small farm and currently have a few calves ready to be weaned.

I'm trying to figure out of there are negative effects of calves continuing to drink on their mothers when we know the mothers are pregnant. I know it can't be good to continue letting the 6+ month old calves drink off moms that are probably 6+ weeks pregnant...

We also have one who is over a year old drinking off other mothers with 2-3 month old babies pushing the babies away.

Any tips/advice/knowledge helps! I know the bawling comes with weaning, but I'm so tired of these calves drinking off of their moms OR other moms and knocking the 2-3 month old or less babies away.

 

[Ebenezer]

Cull the older one that is stealing and look at fence line weaning as a search on the internet for the younger animals. But 6 weeks bred is not very far along in gestation as compared to calf age unless you have a big gap between current calve's birth and rebreeding. We wean at 6 to 7 months old but other posters probably do differently.

 

[A.J.]

Fence line weaning usually works the best for everyone involved as long as you've got a good fence between them. They usually get settled down in 3-4 days. We wean at 6-7 months as well.

 

[76 Bar]

Cull the older one that is stealing

The quicker the better.

 

[Coosh71]

Agreed you have to get the older one (s) off the cow. Just hurting yourself when the little ones miss meals.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

For a reference. We generally breed our cows so that they calve the same time each year.
For me, we calve Jan & Feb and we breed April & May. We let the calves nurse for 6-8 months of age. So, the cow is at least 4-6 months pregnant. Your goal should be to have a calve every year, about the same time of year.
When you wean calves (and, yes, fenceline weaning is the best IMO) you can't put their calves back with their mom for quite a while. Mine never get back with their mom until they are bred and everything is going out to pasture.
If you have last years'calves with their dam when she calves, it will be very difficult to keep them from pushing the newborn away and getting all the milk. You will most likely end up losing the newborns if this continues.
Having calving cows can get complicated on a small operation.
You can check into getting:
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07af6-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&itemguid=3269df94-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5
You put it into the nose of the calves/yearlings so that they cannot suck.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

To piggy back on what Jeanne was saying, we now wean using these:

https://quietwean.com/

They go in easy, and you hardly hear a peep out of the cow or calf. We leave them in for a week, then pull the calves out of the field and put them in a different pasture (and remove the flap). We did this will all of our fall calves, and just weaned a few December born calves. It was the quietest weaning we have ever done since we started using them. Out of 15 weaned so far, only one calf has lost hers, and we just brought her in to put one back in her and it stayed the second time. There is NO stress, and the only way we could tell that they were working is that the cows would follow the calves around, looking at them like "would you just nurse me please?!?!?!". :lol:
We will never wean without these again. Sleep is a valuable commodity around here....

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Kris - how long do you keep your calves away from their dams?

 

[gcreekrch]

Kris - how long do you keep your calves away from their dams?

Not Kris but our heifers are not mixed with the main herd until shortly before they have their second calf.

Calves are weaned and hauled home, 6 miles from where their mothers are going to be pregnancy tested and go to winter grass. Gets quiet in a couple days.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Just wondering what others have success with. I never let my calves near my cows until they are pregnant and the whole herd goes out to pasture.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Kris - how long do you keep your calves away from their dams?

After they are weaned? Until they are 12 months old, at which we switch them back to just grass with the cows and watch for heats to breed them. We wean at 6 to 7 months of age, so they are separated for 5 to 6 months before returning to their moms.

 

[Silver]

We calve in March and April, wean in late October. The calves we keep will not see the main herd again until the following fall.
Used to feed first and second calvers separate from the main herd, since we've developed winter water and as long as we have plenty of feed we'll winter them together. Or if I get around to developing another winter water source I will go back to separating them. I'm getting soft in my old age and feel better when they don't have to graze snow.

 

[Douglas]

Fence line weaning is really very simple and easy with a little planning. If you don''t have a good fence to do it, build one. Build a small grass trap in a corner somewhere add a hot wire, if available, to both sides of a good woven wire fence, Feed the cows a little sweet feed from time to time to get them going inside when you call them. Then one day after all the cows and calves are inside, call the cows out with a portable trough (they will coming running), and have someone man the gate to keep the calves inside. Give them good water, a little feed, and since they are already grazing a little they will graze or eat some hay. After a couple days move the cows further away and keep them separate a few months.

 

[Dsth]

I also have a hobby farm with a few more cows than it sounds like you have. Regardless of how many you have, good management can make your job much easier and less complex. My advise is to calf as a group and wean as a group. fence line weaning seems to work well for me. I calf December and January. start rebreeding around March 9th and wean calves in August or September. cows need at least 60 day dry period and maybe more depending on body condition and available feed. once weaned, our replacement heifers are not returned to the main herd until 3-4 weeks before they start calving. If the bawling interrupts your sleeping pattern, I sometimes put ear plugs in at night, but that usually only last about 3 days. Sounds like previous replies have good advise for you and good luck moving forward.

 

[Double R Ranch]

We used to fence line wean. One year tried flaps and was pretty successful. The flaps we were using were fairly stiff and we got a fair amount of really sore noses on the inside. We also noticed udder injuries from the little prongs on the flap when certain moms allowed nursing attempts. Replaced the flaps with QuietWean flaps and haven't looked back. Much softer and easier to install and remove. No prongs to damage the udder. By far the best method we've ever tried.
A few years ago we saw a conversation about weaning by the farmer almanac signs. The claim was basically silent weaning and no weight loss. Decided to try it with the flaps and haven't gone back to any other way. At the beginning of the "best time to wean" we install the flaps and turn back out with mom for 4-7 days. Any longer and calves get a sore nose inside. Separate from the cows at that time and they silently go straight to feed. No balling at all. Moms go back out to grazing. Occasionally a mom comes up to check on her calf but after the check she immediately leaves and goes back to grazing. Absolutely zero weight loss (yes we weigh them) or calling since changing to using these two methods together. By far less long run effort even running the calves through twice.
We also put the retained heifers back with the herd faster with no issues of going back to nursing.
I would absolutely get the older calves out of there. Absolutely nothing good comes from that. Udder damage and theft from current calf which won't end well.
Good luck with your cattle!

 

[VaCowman]

We wean calves all at once, with older calves (AI sired) being ~9 mos old and youngest in the ~7 mos old range. Works for us and we cull hard on those mommas that can't get bred in a 60d calving season. We fall calve, so our cows are weaning calves around June 1 and start back up around September 1. She gets ~90d on good grass, mineral and an occasional fly spray when we get the chance. A good cow should be able to build back some condition pretty quick on good grass for 90d, if not, she isn't what we're looking for.
We fenceline wean when we can. when we can't, we load them up and haul them 10 miles away to a field with good fence. Fenceline weaning does require some dang good (optimally electric strand or two) fencing, but seems to work best when it works out to where we can. Bawling seems to last 2-3 days tops. Our "best time to wean" boils down to "when we have time" as opposed to the "signs", althought I think there is something to the "signs" thing...my grandmother did EVERYTHING by the signs and she raised the best garden around and was always in good health. (Took a hit of peach brandy each morning with her coffee and then put in a dip of Old Navy snuff) She always said she wanted to live to see 100. She died the week after her 100th birthday. GREAT WOMAN, and lived through things that we read about in history books. Was a great reference when I had to write a history paper in school. Oh what I'd give to get to pick her brain again!