I have calves about 6 mos. old now & I want to wean them. If I put them in a separate pasture, let the mothers dry up, and then return them to the herd. How long do they have to be separated from the herd to allow enough time for the cows to dry up?
Weaning calves
- Thread starter dbloyd
- Start date
Help Support CattleToday:
millstreaminn
Well-known member
I just split the pasture with one hot wire, calves on one side, mommas on the other. Worked good for me.
Scott
Scott
dbloyd":26pm6518 said:
Although allowing the cows to dry up is a big part of weaning, another part is seperating them long enough that the calves don't try to nurse when reintroduced to the herd. I personally, would not put the steer calves back with the herd - period. There is no point that I can see. I would either sell them or, depending on your area and when you calve, feed them - seperate from the herd - until they attained the weight you wanted, then sell them. As far as the heifer calves - we reintroduced them to the herd when they came back from summer pasture as bred coming 2's, and still had a few problems with them going back to/trying to suck their mothers.
KS Cattle":df4n4wcc said:
If the calves and cows are trained to hot wire it works like a charm. Fenceline weaning is less stressful on the calves, cows and the poor soul that has to listen to them beller.
We keep the retained heifers seperate from the cows for 6-8 weeks, whichever is handy. We only had one that started to nurse again, and that was just before she turned 2 and was getting ready calf and other cows had calved already.
dun
KS Cattle":22226xmv said:
Were the cows and calves used to hot wire? And was the hotwire adequately "hot"? Our calves are behind hotwire from the day they're born. The first couple of weeks then can walk under the wire and have it rub their back and it doesn;t affect them. After those couple of weeks it lights them up just like it does the cows. Our standard hotwire runs 9k plus volts. We use a temp hotwire and a battery charger for the weaning fence and it runs barely 6-7k volts.
dun
fourstates
Well-known member
We leave the calves with the cows by using plastic weaning rings that cost about $5-$6. The calves can stay with their mothers, don't tear down fences. They can't nurse, but they don't get too stressed and neither do the cows. The calves don't seem to lose any weight and the cows are just uncomfortable for about a week.
When I wean calves, I keep them in a confined pen for at least a 3 week period, before turning them out to pasture with one fence between the momma cows and them. The bawling only lasts for about 3-4 days. If they are replacements, I keep them away until they are at least 14-15 mths old, before letting them back in with the rest of the herd. IF they are steers, I would do as MSSCAMP suggests; pull them off, and feed them out if you are going to sell them.
