Weaning Bottle Calf

[Anonymous]

We have a calf we have been bottle feeding (bucket with nipple) for the last 4-1/2 months and I want to start weaning her from nursing. We have her down to one feeding (two gal.) a day and reducing the amount of milk replacer we give her at a feeding. We also give her starter grain and hay. Water is available but she seems to get most of her liquids through the nipple. She looks good and healthy and she will let you know if you are late serving her breakfast.

What is the best way to wean her nursing?

We have six calves with their moma's that are close to weaning also and we thought we might get them all up together and let her learn from them.

 

[dun]

As long as she's eating at least a coulle of pounds of calf starter or equivilent grain a day you can wean her anytime, usually at about 8-10 weeks. Just shut her off from the milk, if you have others you;re going to wean just run them all together and let them get over it. It seems to me that bottle calves are alwasy noisier at weaning time then the ones that have been nursed. We do fenceline weaning so the calves still have the company without the nursing. Bottle calves don't have the company and that may be the problem.

dun

We have a calf we have been bottle feeding (bucket with nipple) for the last 4-1/2 months and I want to start weaning her from nursing. We have her down to one feeding (two gal.) a day and reducing the amount of milk replacer we give her at a feeding. We also give her starter grain and hay. Water is available but she seems to get most of her liquids through the nipple. She looks good and healthy and she will let you know if you are late serving her breakfast.

What is the best way to wean her nursing?

We have six calves with their moma's that are close to weaning also and we thought we might get them all up together and let her learn from them.