Weaning calves

[Lawson Farms]

Anybody ever feel the slightest bit bad for the cows and calves when you wean them off? We weaned a few yesterday, and I was building a few new mineral feeders beside one of the mama pastures. Cows running around bellowing looking for their calves. Good thing in only lasts for a day or so.

This is our first time weaning and weighing @ weaning. Definitely surprising to see the few 400lb calves versus the 600 lbs calves born just a few days apart. Sure tells us who to keep track of for not staying above the yellow cull line. We'll bring the calves back and weigh again when it's time for their boosters.

BL

 

[ALACOWMAN]

the only ones i feel sorry for at weaning, is my neighbors............. and just the good ones then. :cowboy:

 

[redcowsrule33]

I don't feel too sorry for them. By the time weaning comes around I figure they both will have it better than they did. I wish I had another place to sleep at the first few nights, though. We fenceline wean and there still is enough bellaring to keep me up.

As for weighing at weaning, isn't it amazing what a person learns when they start using a scale? Appearances can really be deceiving. You can't manage what you don't measure.

 

[Scroote]

Hey Lawson,

A little advice, be careful selecting for the extremes or outliers in your herd based solely on weaning weight. You will end up with 1500 pound long leggy epd dairy like animals. Never ignore cow size in relation to efficiency and phenotype. There has been a lot of different colored jerseys posted here and that is bot a beef animal anymore. Most heavy milking cows look like dual purpose animals now.

Your buddy, scrootious magnificus

 

[redcowsrule33]

When using any set of information (weight, EPD's, etc) you need to keep in mind your goals. If your calves are strictly terminal (you keep no heifers) then you would want to partially base your culling decisions on who weaned more pounds of calf. Unless of course your calves are getting too big for your market, then you would look at it differently. The cows that are too big or high maintenance for your management needs would likely weed themselves out at this time or at preg check (either would not be able to produce enough milk or would be too thin to breed back). However if you are keeping replacements it gets trickier. This year I kept a few that ratioed less than 100 on adjusted weaning weight and a few that ratioed higher based on their dam and bloodline and let some go that were just going to be too big or too small.

I will add that it is very important to use adjusted instead of actual weaning weights to make these decisions so all calves are on an equal playing field.

This is what makes cattle breeding fun! Balancing all the numeric info with phenotype and making decisions based on everything. You can have a herd that looks really pretty on a spreadsheet but you might need to keep them on the back 40.

 

[Scroote]

Redcow,

Good explanation but there is no such thing as a calf that is too big for the market. Most cow/calf guys have no connection to their final product and you are paid on pounds hence the never ending pursuit of the 7-8 weight weaning calf. Very few cowboys have the knowledge, ranch size, and dare I say guts to say a 4-5 weight calf is the most profitable balanced over many years. We are in uncharted times now I would say. No feller will actually admit to only using epds as selection criteria, but it happens more than it should. Too many cowboys won't trust their eyes and think semen sellers are smarter than them. It's a darn tootin shame!

Having a cold one early today, scrooteareeno.

 

[Lawson Farms]

We are transitioning from dairy to beef. We 12+ years we've had about 15 black angus, calving year round. pulled the calves off at about 5 months and placed with our diary heifers (Why 5 months, I have not idea). Since I've been managing the transition, we've up to about 120 brood cows, and about 35 holstein mamas that we couldn't get sold as bred heifers. Our caving season is still really long, so we're weaning once per month all calves greater than 6 months.

What stuck out yesterday was the 1300lb mama's weaning 580 to 620, and a few 900lb mama's weaning 380 to 420 lb calves. As we tighten our calving season over the next few years, I've got to get those calves to a more uniform group.

But yes, the scale is awesome. One, just to manage better now that we are measuring. and two, to get a better eye on guessing weights, 3 to make sure that wormers, etc are based on true weights rather than estimated weights.

BL

 

[Nesikep]

I wish I had a scale, and a convenient way to get the calves on it. For now I use a weigh tape, and I do see some really interesting things. Last year I had a calf (weigh-taped weekly) who'd only grow around full moon, it was stunning to see when I put it on a spreadsheet.. she'd gain 5 lb a day for 2 weeks, and quit for 2 weeks, it happened throughout the season, and it wasn't due to feed as none of the other calves were doing that. The calf from my oldest cow (16 years old) was the fastest gaining heifer, and is as heavy at 10 months as the rest at 12. The older daughter of the same cow had a heifer calf as well, and she looked a little less heavy than the group, but her heart girth is considerably greater, she always leaves the manger an hour before the rest of them, so she seems to get by on a lot less feed, and will have a perfect udder (for a beefer) and hooves, which means a lot to me.

At some point I might make a scale that goes under the headgate we have... might not be legal for trade, but it should be close enough to get a good idea as to what the weights are in relation to each other... I should be able to get it within a couple percent.


As for the original thread topic, I don't feel bad for the cows... It seems that come early october the cows start bellering at me all the time as if they want me to get rid of the pesky suckers. The calves I do have some pity for, particularly the ones that have to travel god knows how many miles to and from the sale barn (Around here that's about a 600 mile trek to alberta where most feedlots are)

 

[limftw]

Had a calf keep crawling out of the pen he was in with his mother and defiling the haystack. Even tho he is damn young i still can't seem to find any sympathy for him.

 

[regolith]

Calf pre-pubertal Nesi?
Strangely enough, female hormones can do exactly that to you. They mess with your appetite for part of the month if they get out of synch.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Had a calf get his head turned around in our scale chute and almost break my wrist.
No sympathy for them at weaning.

We start feeding the pairs some hay around a month before weaning and by the time we wean we discovered the calves go right on the hay. Around 75% of the cows are almost fully dried up too. And the best part they only bawl for about 2-3 days instead of over a week like they used to before we started doing it this way.

 

[angus9259]

The place where wean weight can fool ya is knowing which calves have figured out they can suck on multiple mommas. Have one cow who's calf has figured it out two years in a row. I reckon the cow's not milking too good, but she weighs off some BIG calves :).