Weaning noise

[MistyMorning]

Shipped four older cows yesterday morning. Terrible day for it too. Freezing rain and snow with 40ph gusts. Now the calves are 5-7 months old and they have hardly made a noise about it until I went out this morning. After I left they stopped again. They are with some young cows and yearlings.

Anyone else ever have it this easy? One of my neighbors says he has never seen such a docile, calm herd so he wasn't surprised. I keep expecting the racket to start. Could it start after 24 hours?

 

[Brute 23]

Myne usually make the most racket when the mommas come around.

 

[dun]

With ours it's the cows that are the noisiest, hardly a peep from the calves

 

[angie1]

Our babies cried awful this year. After 2 days straight they sounded more like an elk call than a calf bawling.

 

[mnmtranching]

Seems like with my calves at weaning time, the first day the reality hasn't set in. 2'nd day they start missing mama and 3rd day all hell breaks loose, better have a good pen. 4th day is as bad as the third and by the 5th day they seem to be forgetting about it.
6th day it's like they never had a Mama.

 

[OhioRiver]

what can you do to stop this other than fenceline wean

Our babies cried awful this year. After 2 days straight they sounded more like an elk call than a calf bawling.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

what can you do to stop this other than fenceline wean

One could spend time with their animals and begin to select for cows that self-wean a healthy calf at a good age. That would be helping nature help oneself to raise cattle.

Another way is to use can't suck type nose rings. These allow the animals to stay together but are irritating to the cow so that she stops the calf from sucking.

 

[dun]

what can you do to stop this other than fenceline wean

Our babies cried awful this year. After 2 days straight they sounded more like an elk call than a calf bawling.

Fenceline weaning is the easiest way. The cows will be noisier, I think because of the pressure in their udder, but even that is minimal.