Weaning questions

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Tater110

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I'm new to cattle and have a 12 week old steer and heifer. They are Hertford/Holstein cross. I've been feeding calf starter since they were 3 weeks old along with their daily bottles and they are thriving! Been adding hay as well and are not as intrested in that but they have been picking thru it some. Question is, I'd like to get them weaned and was wondering at what point should I turn them loose in the pasture and stop their bottle? Their both currently in a 20x20 indoor outdoor pen and have been their entire life pretty much.
 
#1... Post where you're located in your profile. We weaned our Holstien calves off milk replacer at 2 months... just need them eating starter real good, and make sure they have water available. Keep them on starter, hay and water for a bit, then switch over to a ground feed mixture for young growers.
 
First off, welcome to the CT forum.... always glad to have a new member that wants to learn the cattle business even if it is just for having your own beef to go in the freezer...

I would start letting them out now, so that they will come in wanting their feed, and they will be accustomed to coming from "out there" to your voice calling them. Cut their bottles now, to once a day for maybe 2 weeks, then cut it out if they are eating grain good. They ought to do fine at 12+ weeks. I will bottle feed for 8-12 weeks on average... but they have to be eating good and it sounds like yours are doing very good.
Most bottle calves will keep coming back to "home" when you call them, and it makes daily checking on them easy. By the time grass gets here, they will be great to go on grass.

One thing... make sure if they get no other vaccines, you give them a 7 or 8 way black leg vaccine. Give a shot now, then in another 4-8 weeks (check bottle). Clostridiums will kill the calf quicker than anything... they exist in the environment and proliferate in some wetter conditions... they will go down and be dead before you know they are sick... It is a killed virus vaccine, cheap... and will save their lives. You can buy a small bottle at most animal/feed supply stores... just make sure it is 7 or 8 way... If they are not castrated, do that and you can use a 7way plus tetanus which would give them any extra protection when castrating... at that age castrating is usually not a problem. But we give a tetanus combo ... Covexin 8 and Calvary 9 are 2 that are combination vaccines.
It is cheap insurance against a possible loss of a calf.... Don't skimp on that if you never give them anything else...
I am assuming these will be for beef for your freezer?
 
Yes, these will be beef for our freezer is the plan. We did give 7-way about 2 weeks ago, as well as a tetnus to the bull calf after he was banded. Plan is to give the other dose of 7-way next week to 10 days from now. One thing I was curious about is the fact that we banded him about 2 weeks ago, but he is still holding on to those things for now. They have shrunk up a lot and look very deflated so I'm assuming they should be falling off here before long. Will it hurt to kick him loose in the pasture before they fall off? I'm assuming it shouldn't but what do I know! Haha. Thanks for all the help
 
Sorry, just reread your post and see that the one is a steer and the other is a heifer... so the tetanus added is not necessary.... Just get a good "clostridium vaccine"... known as blackleg vaccine... Or you can get one called One shot Ultra 7 which had a pasturella in it (pneumonia) . And sorry, black leg vaccines are not technically a "killed virus" since they are a bacteria toxoid... my referring to the killed virus is that they will not cause any type of abortion in cattle as a "modified live virus"(mlv) vaccine can cause in some situations.
 
They tend to not fall off near as fast in the winter as they do in the hotter weather... As long as they are shrunk up, don't worry about them. Once you see they are gone, just look to see that there is no bleeding or anything... seldom ever happens... just a precaution. Yep, they can go out with them still attached....
Sounds like you did it pretty much perfectly...
 
Yes, these will be beef for our freezer is the plan. We did give 7-way about 2 weeks ago, as well as a tetnus to the bull calf after he was banded. Plan is to give the other dose of 7-way next week to 10 days from now. One thing I was curious about is the fact that we banded him about 2 weeks ago, but he is still holding on to those things for now. They have shrunk up a lot and look very deflated so I'm assuming they should be falling off here before long. Will it hurt to kick him loose in the pasture before they fall off? I'm assuming it shouldn't but what do I know! Haha. Thanks for all the help
great!!!!
 
I guess while we're on the subject of calves, mineral. Should I be providing mineral at their early age or does it really matter at this age? I would assume that it wouldn't hurt but was just curious your thoughts on this. Also with mineral, is it better to provide loose minerals or would blocks be sufficient. Thanks again
 
I guess while we're on the subject of calves, mineral. Should I be providing mineral at their early age or does it really matter at this age? I would assume that it wouldn't hurt but was just curious your thoughts on this. Also with mineral, is it better to provide loose minerals or would blocks be sufficient. Thanks again

I would recommend loose minerals and loose salt.
 
I guess while we're on the subject of calves, mineral. Should I be providing mineral at their early age or does it really matter at this age? I would assume that it wouldn't hurt but was just curious your thoughts on this. Also with mineral, is it better to provide loose minerals or would blocks be sufficient. Thanks again
Unless you know there is some kind of mineral deficit in your area, and you should ask your vet or the extension service to find out because they should know, keep it simple. A cheap red salt block until about a month before the grass comes on in the spring, and then switch to a magnesium block. Minerals are one of those things that people like to think are better when they are expensive, but if an animal doesn't need something then any expense at all won't fix what they never needed.
 
Unless you know there is some kind of mineral deficit in your area, and you should ask your vet or the extension service to find out because they should know, keep it simple. A cheap red salt block until about a month before the grass comes on in the spring, and then switch to a magnesium block. Minerals are one of those things that people like to think are better when they are expensive, but if an animal doesn't need something then any expense at all won't fix what they never needed.


Did you ever check the amount of ''mineral'' that those blocks supply? They will have a very sore tongue before they consume a significant amount.
 
Did you ever check the amount of ''mineral'' that those blocks supply? They will have a very sore tongue before they consume a significant amount.
Most minerals, if they are required at all, are required in "trace" amounts. Trying to get animals to eat large amounts that they don't need just means they pass the excess and it doesn't do any good.
 
Most minerals, if they are required at all, are required in "trace" amounts. Trying to get animals to eat large amounts that they don't need just means they pass the excess and it doesn't do any good.
Though it may be an expensive way to accomplish it, feeding mineral and passing it through the animal onto the land "can be" a way to enrich your soil. If that's your goal though, you'd probably be better off just spreading it bulk.
 
Though it may be an expensive way to accomplish it, feeding mineral and passing it through the animal onto the land "can be" a way to enrich your soil. If that's your goal though, you'd probably be better off just spreading it bulk.
I've heard there is a significant amount of "selenium" deficit in some soils depending on location. Do people spread selenium in bulk to fix that problem? Is it a permanent fix or something to be done more than once?
 
I don't have a dog in this fight because I do give mineral but I am not consistent so I am sort of the worst of both worlds on the argument. Lol. But, wouldn't you need to do liver biopsies to determine mineral deficiency?
 
I don't have a dog in this fight because I do give mineral but I am not consistent so I am sort of the worst of both worlds on the argument. Lol. But, wouldn't you need to do liver biopsies to determine mineral deficiency?
I don't have a dog, but I'm curious enough to ask questions. None of the places I've had cattle have had selenium deficiencies.

This from the Google AI, so take it for what it's worth: To determine a selenium deficiency in cattle, a veterinarian will typically collect blood samples and analyze the level of selenium in the blood, specifically by measuring the activity of the enzyme glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx), which is directly dependent on selenium levels; low GSHPx activity indicates a selenium deficiency; additionally, observing clinical signs like muscle weakness, stiffness, and difficulty standing, particularly in young calves, can also point towards a selenium deficiency, often referred to as "white muscle disease."
 
Good article. I wonder why applied selenium only lasts a limited time? And why, if selenium leaches from soil, does it occur naturally in adequate quantities in some areas and not others?
The forage plants take up selenium and store it in thier tissues, which then transfers to the cattle... and then we sell the cattle, so some of that selenium is transported "off-farm". If you sell the forages (not so much in the seed of the forage, i.e.: corn grain, vs. corn- the "tropical grass" forage plant itself), it gets transported off in a bigger way... and it's a "trace mineral"... present in very small amounts. It's not deficient in some areas, but is in others, because of the differences in the rock base of the soils in the area. If you're soil is deficient in it, and you add a "trace amount", it's only going to last "so long" before it's mostly been taken up by the forage plants... Not so sure that it "leaches" from the soil, however, I suspect that if it is applied as fertilizer to the soil, it probably also has the potential for "leaching" away in surface water runoff. The water going down through the soil however into aquifers will probably have most of it filtered out by the soil, where it will be available for future plant growth.
 

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