Weaning Calves

[ROB]

what's the lightest weight group of calves you have intentionally weaned? how'd you get along? thinking about weaning some spring calves. right now they weigh anywhere from 150 -180 lbs. concerned about sickness setting in due to over-stressing the little guys, and i really don't think that i can grow them as fast on feed. typically, our calves will gain anywhere from 2.4 lbs per day to over 3.0 lbs. per day on the cow. i'd really like to give them another 30 days on the cow, but if they were to be weaned now - could get rid of a few cows and not have to worry about overstocking pastures.

ROB

 

[Jovid]

Lightest calves I ever weaned was 600 and above at 205 days.

WOW....that's pretty amazing....What breed were they? Are they some of the ones that were eating 78 lbs of feed a day?

 

[bandit80]

what's the lightest weight group of calves you have intentionally weaned? how'd you get along? thinking about weaning some spring calves. right now they weigh anywhere from 150 -180 lbs. concerned about sickness setting in due to over-stressing the little guys, and i really don't think that i can grow them as fast on feed. typically, our calves will gain anywhere from 2.4 lbs per day to over 3.0 lbs. per day on the cow. i'd really like to give them another 30 days on the cow, but if they were to be weaned now - could get rid of a few cows and not have to worry about overstocking pastures.

ROB

Several years ago before I had a short calving season, I weaned some May calves around the 1st of August with the rest of the herd. They weighed around 300 pounds at roughly 90 days of age. They did seem to grow slower than the older, heavier animals while backgrounding. Didn't have a problem with sickness. 150-180 lbs is pretty light, I would assume 45 days old??? I would guess it could be done with proper managment.

 

[Central Fl Cracker]

I weaned some calves at 250Lb's and I wish I had left them on the their mommas. The cows were being drawn down too fast I thought at the time. I will never wean early again just from past experience.

 

[highvoltagecattleco]

Last fall I had the same predicament. I weaned off 3 steers at 2.5 months to rid of the cows. Giving them the right feed is really vital. The next time I go to do this. I will give the calves a dose of probios so that they don't come off feed at the weaning. I sold them at 6 months old. They weighed in at 460lbs each. I crib fed them. I feed them alfalfa/orchard grass hay and C.O.B. For the first two weeks, they really did not eat like they should. I'm sure I lost 50 to 60lbs of gain during the first four weeks.

 

[dyates]

Never weaned any that small. I would at least put out a creep feeder and get them eating well before I removed them from the cows.

 

[Jogeephus]

Never weaned any that small. I would at least put out a creep feeder and get them eating well before I removed them from the cows.

Sounds like a good idea. Once you pull them off the ma, you might want to try fenceline weaning too with the feeder with the calves. This might take some of the stress off them. Personally, I'd try some way to keep them with their mom a little longer if possible.