WEANING CALVES

[Fred Belknap]

I penned up some calves away from their moms and kept them for two weeks. The cows had stopped bawling and the calves had settled into a normal routine. I turned hem back with their mommies and some of the steers started nursing immediately. The cows seemed to have milk. How long do they have to be seperated for the milk to dry up?

Fred

 

[dun]

6-8 weeks

 

[grannysoo]

Hi Fred. Dun is right on with his info. You can learn a lot from Dun!

 

[dun]

A friend of mine with goats told me that we wean all wrong. According to the expert (on the internet) you should do it gradually. For the first week you seperate them for 12 hours a day, the second week you seperate them every other day, the third week it's 2 days away then 1 day together, then the 4th week 5 days seperated and 1 day together, then you seperate them completely.

 

[Jim62]

Wow! You can bet that there ain't no calves going to be weaned the "right" way on my place. Sounds like a plan, though, if you have one cow that has one calf........and, you have plenty of free time.

Mine get weaned the old 30 minutes in the pen, and 30 minutes in the trailer method.

 

[Fred Belknap]

Thanks , looks like I just wasted my time penning them up for 2 or 3 weeks. I have had to take a few to the market because the mommy has a new calf and the old calf is taking most of the milk. I have heard of something that can be put on the calf to keep it from nursing, do they work? I was just out checking the cows and one was nursing a calf that is a year old. Guess I will have to sell them or do something else.

Fred

 

[CPL]

Wow! You can bet that there ain't no calves going to be weaned the "right" way on my place. Sounds like a plan, though, if you have one cow that has one calf........and, you have plenty of free time.

Mine get weaned the old 30 minutes in the pen, and 30 minutes in the trailer method.

... I have one cow that has one calf (that changes next year) plus I have a lot of free times on my hands... but I don't use that method! :lol: :lol:

I actually saw Pat Parelli wean his horses similarly to that.

If you separate for 6-8 weeks and the cow dries up. If you put them back together and the calf still tries to suck is there any way the calf could stimulate milk production? Thats the problem I had this past year so we just separated them all. That calf(a yearling now) no longer sucks though.

 

[Chris H]

A friend of mine with goats told me that we wean all wrong. According to the expert (on the internet) you should do it gradually. For the first week you seperate them for 12 hours a day, the second week you seperate them every other day, the third week it's 2 days away then 1 day together, then the 4th week 5 days seperated and 1 day together, then you seperate them completely.

On occasion we will wean a calf gradually. We weaned 4 in May that were 5-6 months old. We needed them weaned to sell 2 for 4-H feeder calves, they were 5 months old. The cows were still milking heavily, and the grass was good. I wanted to minimize the stress on weaning the calves since the weight they'd be in 1 week from that point is what we'd be paid for. We fenceline weaned, let the cows in twice/day to be 'milked', and put them back out. In several days we cut that back to once/day 'milking'. The calves got started on feed good, never stopped gaining & the cow's udders weren't damaged. However, I noticed last week that a calf bawled near the group the 4 cows were with, and one cow went nuts. Her calf was sold 4 weeks previously and she was still looking for him.

Last fall we weaned a 7 month old heifer gradually since we planned on showing her and I didn't want to lose that milk bloom she had. She weaned easily.

But if we had to do it very often this way, we'd sell the cows!

 

[msscamp]

A friend of mine with goats told me that we wean all wrong. According to the expert (on the internet) you should do it gradually. For the first week you seperate them for 12 hours a day, the second week you seperate them every other day, the third week it's 2 days away then 1 day together, then the 4th week 5 days seperated and 1 day together, then you seperate them completely.

Based on this I guess I'm weaning my kids wrong, but who has time for this crap? It looks to me like this method would cause more stress and confusion than just removing the kid and getting it over with, but maybe that is just me. :???:

 

[dun]

A friend of mine with goats told me that we wean all wrong. According to the expert (on the internet) you should do it gradually. For the first week you seperate them for 12 hours a day, the second week you seperate them every other day, the third week it's 2 days away then 1 day together, then the 4th week 5 days seperated and 1 day together, then you seperate them completely.

Based on this I guess I'm weaning my kids wrong, but who has time for this crap? It looks to me like this method would cause more stress and confusion than just removing the kid and getting it over with, but maybe that is just me. :???:

Supposedly causes less stress and prevents mastitis.

 

[msscamp]

A friend of mine with goats told me that we wean all wrong. According to the expert (on the internet) you should do it gradually. For the first week you seperate them for 12 hours a day, the second week you seperate them every other day, the third week it's 2 days away then 1 day together, then the 4th week 5 days seperated and 1 day together, then you seperate them completely.

Based on this I guess I'm weaning my kids wrong, but who has time for this crap? It looks to me like this method would cause more stress and confusion than just removing the kid and getting it over with, but maybe that is just me. :???:

Supposedly causes less stress and prevents mastitis.

That can be achieved(sp?) by simply pulling one kid at a time, and cutting down on the grain and alfalfa hay as each kid is removed. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a newbie to goats, but that has worked just fine me so far.

 

[dun]

That can be achieved(sp?) by simply pulling one kid at a time, and cutting down on the grain and alfalfa hay as each kid is removed. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a newbie to goats, but that has worked just fine me so far.

Around here the meat goats are on pasture and not getting any supplement. They're down to milking so little that just pulling the kids off works just fine. When we were dairying the does would still be milking more then a Boer does at her peak when it was time to dry them off. The real heavy milkers we would milk once a day for a couple of days thewn just quit, most of them we just quit and never had any porblmes

 

[K2011]

Fred[/quote]

Duh no wonder they went back to nursing. You should wean no less than 45 days. However, for the cow to completely dry up it would take 6-8 weeks like dun stated previously.[/quote]

We always take ours to another pasture about 30 min. a way.....and leave them in the pen for about 3 weeks +/-

 

[rockridgecattle]

Thanks , looks like I just wasted my time penning them up for 2 or 3 weeks. I have had to take a few to the market because the mommy has a new calf and the old calf is taking most of the milk. I have heard of something that can be put on the calf to keep it from nursing, do they work? I was just out checking the cows and one was nursing a calf that is a year old. Guess I will have to sell them or do something else.

Fred

Did I miss the math...how old were the calves when you weaned then?

 

[dieselbeef]

wean em on the trailer...or put woven fence between em forever just about. ferever is best though

 

[msscamp]

That can be achieved(sp?) by simply pulling one kid at a time, and cutting down on the grain and alfalfa hay as each kid is removed. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a newbie to goats, but that has worked just fine me so far.

Around here the meat goats are on pasture and not getting any supplement. They're down to milking so little that just pulling the kids off works just fine. When we were dairying the does would still be milking more then a Boer does at her peak when it was time to dry them off. The real heavy milkers we would milk once a day for a couple of days thewn just quit, most of them we just quit and never had any porblmes

Unfortunately, the only 'pasture' I have available are the alleyways and the area's north and south of the pens, and the girls generally clean them up in a day. I'm waiting with bated breath for the day I have actual pasture I can turn them loose on! All of my momma's who are raising twins or triplets get supplemented with somewhere between a 1/2 lb to a lb of grain once a day. I'll find out if it is a viable option when I take my first bunch of kids to market. <crossing fingers> I have a number of girls who have dairy influence, so pulling all kids at once would not be an option for me - they milk like hell! I've never had to deal with mastitis, and I really don't want to start now. ;-) :lol:

 

[dieselbeef]

just how long do you think its gonna take to ''naturally wean'' a calf cuz round here. theyll still be on em when theyre ready to calf again...it may be natural but that dont mean its best.

 

[hillsdown]

A friend of mine with goats told me that we wean all wrong. According to the expert (on the internet) you should do it gradually. For the first week you seperate them for 12 hours a day, the second week you seperate them every other day, the third week it's 2 days away then 1 day together, then the 4th week 5 days seperated and 1 day together, then you seperate them completely.

LMAO:I have a feeling that if this was mandatory there would be very few left in the biz...

Like what was said earlier, who has time for that. It is bad enough that most of us can't even count our labor as far as cattle are concerned.

I will add that I had a heifer this year that was weened at 7 months and had not been with her dam since but after she calved and her mom calved they were in the same area again and a couple of days later I saw her drinking from her dam :roll: ,needless to say all four of them will be gone for good in the fall..( yes I did separate them).

 

[angus9259]

I just fenceline wean. One day they're with their mommas, the next day they're not. Day 2 bawling is the worst then it dies down. Never had fence problems using hot high tensile.

 

[dieselbeef]

just how long do you think its gonna take to ''naturally wean'' a calf cuz round here. theyll still be on em when theyre ready to calf again...it may be natural but that dont mean its best.

db - didn't mean to imply "natural" was best but rather natural as in pulling them away from the mother later rather than earlier. I pull mine at 5 months. Others like to go 7 months. I know a breeder of Brangus that pulls his off at 4 months.

I just can't see going through some kinda prorated weaning process unless I had nothing else to do!

5-6 mos here. i been keepin em so i just seperate em. but you can almost never put em back together. as said above even a yr later they go back to momma. retained hiefers are the worst. i have taken to swappin repl w/my assoc if they go back to the tit. just to much trouble sometimes