weaning calves

[tncattle]

For those of you that wean 50 or more calves at a time what is your way of doing it (fence line, pen them, etc.)? Do you feed them or let them graze completely on grass only etc.?

 

[dun]

Fencline in an area they are familiar with. Depending on the amount of grass, sometimes just graze them sometimes put out hay. After day 3 we start getting them up to a feed bunk for a daily ration of grain. That gets them ready to head to the feedlot as bunk broke calves.

 

[Mid South Guy]

This is my method and works very well for me.

Prior to weaning:
- All vaccinations and boosters properly givin.
- About 7-10 days prior, start creep feeding a recieving/weaning ration medicated with AS-700 so they are used to feed and have a level of medication in their bloodstreams.

Weaning at about 7mo. ave age.
- Pick a stretch of about a week of good weather if possible.
- I drive the herd to a catch pen set up in the back corner of the place, separate the cows off and turn them out, load the calves and haul them to the front side, and put them in a weaning pen of about 1 acre.
- Weaning pen has round bales of good quality grass hay, plenty of feed bunk space, and good, clean fresh water.
- On day 2 I start hand feeding the same recieving/weaning ration. Sometimes, if necessary, I will put an animal in with them that will show them how to eat out of a bunk, and continue this for about 5 days.
- They are then turned out into a small pasture and hand fed for another 2-3 weeks, at which point I consider them fully weaned and the chance of sickness is greatly reduced. Most of the sickness will occur at about 7-14 days, as this is the incubation period for most of the causing micro organisims.

I have found for me this works best. The calves seem to get to eating quickly and forget about mama in about 2 or 3 days at most. Whereas the cows will hang at that back catch pen for a week or more looking for their calves. I have tried fenceline before and it just seemed to me it took too long for the calves to forget about mama and go to eating. The way I do it is probably a little more time consuming and expensive than other ways, but I feel the calves are less stressed and get going on their own quicker. If I can prevent 1 or 2 calves from getting sick, I feel it justifies the time and costs.

Just my way of weaning. Not saying it is the only way or right way, but it works for me.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Lots of good advice right there. Makes more sense to me than locking them in a barn for a week which is how my in laws have weaned for years.

 

[jerry27150]

i put cows & calves in a pasture with lots of grass for a few days & then move the cows to a new pasture. i leave the bred heifers & calves in same pasture they were in with lots of grass. calves are full & still have heifers for company. works well for me

 

[Roadapple]

I put a Quiet Wean nose flap in and put them right back with mama. No stress, stay on feed, keep gaining, no bawling. Leave them in for a week, take them out, and stick them in a lot next to mama, and job is done, with out any problems. Out of 55, maybe 1 or 2 will lose their tag or learn to turn their head sideways to nurse, but does'nt present a problem when separated. And I've never had to teach a 7 mo. old calf how to eat out of a bunk. Put some feed in the bunk, and calves being curious and seeing what you're doing, come almost immediately to nose around and take a lick and start eating. But I raise Braunvieh, so maybe their just smarter than the average calf.

 

[hillrancher]

Tried fence line takes longer to wean and calves are not interested in eating grain. We pull them put them in a working pen next to the house start feeding a weanning ration that has medicaion in it best hay and water. Will feed some grain everytime I go out usually the 2nd day most are comming to the bunk and eating. Try to wean when the sign is in the thigh or below.

 

[backhoeboogie]

No one has mentioned the almanac. No matter how I wean or which pasture they are at during that time, I use the alamnac and ensure the signs are right for weaning before I attempt it.

 

[tncattle]

No one has mentioned the almanac. No matter how I wean or which pasture they are at during that time, I use the alamnac and ensure the signs are right for weaning before I attempt it.

I should know but don't, what are the right signs?

 

[backhoeboogie]

No one has mentioned the almanac. No matter how I wean or which pasture they are at during that time, I use the alamnac and ensure the signs are right for weaning before I attempt it.

I should know but don't, what are the right signs?

I like going with the knees. It is what my grandad believed in and I have stuck with it. Don't know if that's right or not.

 

[xxbrand]

The 2012 old farmers almanac gives the best days to wean animals on page 232. There are 2 days listed for every month except oct. and there are 3 days listed for oct. The two days listed for jan. are the 13th and 17th.

 

[SRBeef]

I fenceline wean and have had good luck doing it. At around the 205 day avg calf age in late Oct I get the whole herd into the corral, the vet comes over and every bull cow and calf gets weighed and (except steers being harvested off of corn in April) shots/boosters and poured. Cows get preg checked/sleeved. Retained heifer calves get their new permanent rfid, bangs & eartags.

Coming out of the chute the calves go to the right back into the same pasture they had been in, cows and bulls to the left back into the corral and when all done out to an adjacent pasture with a real hot wire on the calf side.

Very little bawling. Calves go to eating more of the same hay out of the same feeders they have been eating from, water from the same waterer and everything is the same for them except mama is on the other side of the fence. Vet takes care of everything in one fall trip. Now that we have done this a few times he and I have this down and can get the whole thing done in an hour or two. We have it choreographed pretty well. A good handling facility and cattle that come when called for a bit of sweet feed help a lot.

8 weeks later steer calves and any non retained heifers are separated from the retained heifers. Cows go back in with the retained heifer calves, steers and non retained heifers go to grazing corn and my 2 bulls go to their own pasture on the other side of the ridge until June.

I have not seen any "sickness" from this type weaning. I must say I am surprised to hear above in this thread about all the antibiotics being given out at weaning as shots and in feed to calves that aren't sick as a "preventive" measure. I know there are different problems in different systems but antibiotic resistance from excessive prophylactic use can also be a hidden problem. jmho.

Jim

 

[Dave]

In Sept all of the cattle are on pasture about 7 miles from the house. I gather and sort off the calves. The calves are hauled home. I put them in a corral with three water troughs. I feed haylage and right away give them 5 pounds a day of Puriena Pre-Con 5. I swear by that Pre-Con. They go right to eating it. I have never had one not eat it. By day three there is little to no bawling going on. At about day 5 or 6 I open the gate and they go out into what is the cows winter sacrifice area. It is several acres which was planted to oats in the late spring. By that time they are really trained on the grain so they will come back to the bunk to eat. At about day 12 -14 I switch off the Pre-Con to a cheaper grain. I sell calves about 30 days post wean. Following this plan I have never had the weight loss that I hear others complain about at weaning. I have test weighed some calves at weaning and 30 days later. Very few showed a wieght loss and most gained. They average about 25 pound gain in those 30 days.

 

[tncattle]

In Sept all of the cattle are on pasture about 7 miles from the house. I gather and sort off the calves. The calves are hauled home. I put them in a corral with three water troughs. I feed haylage and right away give them 5 pounds a day of Puriena Pre-Con 5. I swear by that Pre-Con. They go right to eating it. I have never had one not eat it. By day three there is little to no bawling going on. At about day 5 or 6 I open the gate and they go out into what is the cows winter sacrifice area. It is several acres which was planted to oats in the late spring. By that time they are really trained on the grain so they will come back to the bunk to eat. At about day 12 -14 I switch off the Pre-Con to a cheaper grain. I sell calves about 30 days post wean. Following this plan I have never had the weight loss that I hear others complain about at weaning. I have test weighed some calves at weaning and 30 days later. Very few showed a wieght loss and most gained. They average about 25 pound gain in those 30 days.

Do you find the cost of the feed to be worth it when you put a pencil to it?

 

[Dave]

Do you find the cost of the feed to be worth it when you put a pencil to it?

Yes, I sell on a market where weaned preconditioned calves bring more money. About 15-20 cents a pound more. So on a 600 pound steer that is $90-120. But you probably need a market that pays more for preconditioned calves to make it pencel. That Pre-Con 5 cost me about $1.20 per head a day. Fed for 14 days that is $16.80. The next 16 days the grain cost me about 75 cents a day. That is another $12. So I am into grain $28.80 a head to sell into a market that I pick up $90 a head. At the price I got for last falls calves about a 20 pound gain would pay the grain bill.
The big advantage I see is that they don't go backwords coming off the cows. I also don't have problems with them getting sick. I can't remember the last time I had to doctor a calf at weaning (knock on wood). Part of that would be the vaccination program but part of that is having a good mineral program and proper nutrition.

 

[dun]

With fenline weaning I don;t think the signs have as much affect. We wean by what's convenient to us. I've looked back over the years at weaning dates and signs and haven;t found any difference in the calves or cows behaviour, gain during the first week of weaning or health or how fast they get into the weaning grain ration.

 

[4kids]

I put a Quiet Wean nose flap in and put them right back with mama. No stress, stay on feed, keep gaining, no bawling. Leave them in for a week, take them out, and stick them in a lot next to mama, and job is done, with out any problems. Out of 55, maybe 1 or 2 will lose their tag or learn to turn their head sideways to nurse, but does'nt present a problem when separated. And I've never had to teach a 7 mo. old calf how to eat out of a bunk. Put some feed in the bunk, and calves being curious and seeing what you're doing, come almost immediately to nose around and take a lick and start eating. But I raise Braunvieh, so maybe their just smarter than the average calf.

Do you offer the calves creep feed prior to putting in nose flaps so they can eat the feed since they can't nurse the cows? Or just let them graze for that week?

 

[randiliana]

Most of ours get weaned on the truck, right to the sale barn. Last year we tried the nose flaps on the heifers and I think that we will do it again. The keeper heifers will either be weaned on the truck or fenceline weaned depending on where they are pastured. Once the are home, they go into the corral, and we will start them on grain on the second day or so. They get good quality free choice hay in the feeders. After about 2 weeks, once the cows have been moved and they are on their grain good, we will turn them back out onto pasture.

 

[Double R Ranch]

We have done fence line weaning, separate facility weaning and nose flaps. I actually don't know about the signs, farmers almanac etc but at some point i'll definitely look into it.
When we have suitable feed in our well fenced weaning pasture we use that as our 1st choice. Eventually we will have another weaning pasture but we found we need extremely good fences. Multiple years of drought has taught us once again that we need more well fenced fields for weaning.
For a few calves the nose flaps/weaning rings work great. Let the cows do the work for you. No need for us to supplement feed. No balling. Just put them in/on and turn them out.
We don't grain (other than an occasional bribe ), antibiotic etc. We vaccinate at 2 Months old, booster at 3 months old and wean at 6-7 months and sell 45+ days later. All the calves know about feeders/troughs because our loose minerals are in them. So they already know that theres edibles in them.
Knock on wood we have yet to have sickness from weaning. We have gotten great increase in sales prices with this vaccination and weaning way.