weaning heifers

[Sugar Creek]

We are really short on water for cattle this winter. I have five heifers born in March I am keeping. Have delayed weaning while they were with cows out on stockpiled grass.
Yesterday I separated them in a large tobacco barn but will have to haul them water.
How long do they have to be keep separate from the cows to be sure they are weaned? I would like to turn them back with the cows so watering would be easier. Lots of grass and feed and no bull with the herd.

 

[dun]

Hot ziggies, a subject that's almost as contoversial is black vs: red, Angus vs; everything else.
Wekeep our heifers seperate fo6-8 weeks, depends on when it's convenient to recombine them with the cow herd.But we also don;t manage them any different then the cows during the winter. No extra rations or supplement, same feed, etc. Our heifers are also bred in the same time frame as the cows, not earlier like some do. Frequently our second calvers are the the first to start calving their second year. Haven;t had a heifer fail to breed or to breed back in many years.

dun

 

[Sugar Creek]

Thanks for the quick reply.
Have always kept the heifers sepatate all winter and fed them better hay and some grain (Just the way we did it and it did seem like they were putting on too much condition that was lost when put back out on grass)
This board is great for getting ideas about other ways to do things. Thanks

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Like Dun, I don't manage my heifers any differently than the cows, however I never turn my heifers back in with the cows until breeding time. I've never sat down and looked at the numbers, however it seemed to me that the earlier I turned the heifers back in, the more incidents I had of the heifers going back to a lactating cow and sucking.

Rod

 

[dun]

Year before last we had one heifer that went back to sucking. She had been with the cows all winter and just before breeding season she started sucking one of the other heifers, never tried a cow, not even her mother. She made excellent freezer beef.

dun

 

[DD RANCH]

You could buy some of those rubber Kant Sucks that go in their nose that way you could turn them out right away.

 

[Victoria]

We usually wean the heifers and they stay out of the main herd until after they have been bred. That being said we have done it other ways. Cows will dry up in about 3 days. So we have let the heifers out of the corral in a week. They go out and hang out with their mothers but don't drink from them. Many years ago when my mother was starting out she let them spend calving together and had a calf stomped to death by an excited older sister. Since then we don't allow heifers near the calving ground. Well, except one. A heifer was supposed to be shipped, jumped out of a 6' corral. She came from our lead cow and we figured she had enough brains to handle it on her own. The cow weaned the calf herself and they lived together through calving - no problems. The heifer wouldn't dare to steal her little brother's milk. Some cows are like that but they are few and far between so I wouldn't recommend that way of weaning.

 

[pdoramus]

Never mind

 

[milkmaid]

I'd give them at least 6 weeks apart, and preferably double that. Better to keep them apart longer than needed, than to put them together too soon and have the calves go back to nursing.