Weaning time

[WarEagle73]

We weaned all of our calves on labor day and I finally had time to take a few pictures to share. Also would like to hear what you think about the calves pictured. These were taken with my phone so you'll have to excuse the poor quality.


Right after being separated from mom, almost everybody is bellied up to the buffet.


They all jumped on the hay quickly too.


Now a week later, every day they stand like this and watch me fill up the feed buckets.


1302 Steer Born 1/3/13


1209 Heifer born 12/22/12


1301 Heifer born 1/2/13

Tear em up

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Nice looking uniform group.

Your phone takes nice pictures.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Quick question, do you remove that plastic twine from your round bales?

 

[WarEagle73]

We didn't on that one, but I am planning on cutting it off now that I am home to do it. Had a hard time convincing my dad to cut the twine off when I was away at school and he was feeding, so we now have twine all over the place.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

We didn't on that one, but I am planning on cutting it off now that I am home to do it. Had a hard time convincing my dad to cut the twine off when I was away at school and he was feeding, so we now have twine all over the place.

That plastic twine holds great but does leave a mess.

 

[Ohrmundt Simmentals]

Nice calves. Looks like you have a nice set up to.

 

[SPH]

Nice set of calve but jealous of the green grass you still have. We're out of pasture and fortunately the USDA agreed to extend CRP haying here as we had the latest date in history of a 100+ degree high this week and 2nd year in a row of extreme drought. We weaned this past weekend and both cows and calves came in much lighter than we would have liked

 

[Black and Good]

Nice calves! That hog fence, they are standing at is that next to mom? I doubt that would hold my calves at weaning time. LOL
Do you always keep your calves on mom that long? Just curious. Very nice set of calves!! B&G

 

[ALACOWMAN]

We didn't on that one, but I am planning on cutting it off now that I am home to do it. Had a hard time convincing my dad to cut the twine off when I was away at school and he was feeding, so we now have twine all over the place.

not that i recommend it, i never cut the twine off. i feed a few bales, flip the ring and burn it .. and keep moving it around the lot that way...the lot stays nice clean and level... dont get the build up..

 

[Jake]

We didn't on that one, but I am planning on cutting it off now that I am home to do it. Had a hard time convincing my dad to cut the twine off when I was away at school and he was feeding, so we now have twine all over the place.

not that i recommend it, i never cut the twine off. i feed a few bales, flip the ring and burn it .. and keep moving it around the lot that way...the lot stays nice clean and level... dont get the build up..

I always get pissed when somebody doesn't cut the strings. Get tired of retagging cows.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

What are the chances a cow could ingest the twine and get it caught up in her throat and choke?

 

[ALACOWMAN]

What are the chances a cow could ingest the twine and get it caught up in her throat and choke?

never had it happen Thank God... but chances with cattle are not like anything else.. if theres a million to one chance it will happen to a human its a 50/50 chance with cattle.. might even be 75/25

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

We had a seemingly healthy 4 or 5 year old Angus cow die suddenly last winter not too long after we began feeding some "bought" hay that was baled using the plastic twine. My mother in law is convinced she choked on the twine but we have no hard evidence of that.

 

[Limomike]

Thats a good lookin set of calves you got there.

 

[3waycross]

Nice calves.

 

[WarEagle73]

Nice set of calve but jealous of the green grass you still have. We're out of pasture and fortunately the USDA agreed to extend CRP haying here as we had the latest date in history of a 100+ degree high this week and 2nd year in a row of extreme drought. We weaned this past weekend and both cows and calves came in much lighter than we would have liked

Having green grass in the fall is nice. The Bermuda we have is starting to get pretty mature and the cows don't care for it. Our fescue is starting to perk back up and we are currently stockpiling our biggest pasture for winter grazing as well as planting ryegrass and oats this weekend on another that we have forced them to graze close.

Nice calves! That hog fence, they are standing at is that next to mom? I doubt that would hold my calves at weaning time. LOL
Do you always keep your calves on mom that long? Just curious. Very nice set of calves!! B&G

The hog wire is an outer fence. We lock our calves in the pen behind them in that picture for the first few days until they get over all the bawling. That fence is stout enough that momma can't get in and they can't get out. After a few days, we let them out into a bigger pen that is the connecting pen for all our pastures, which is where they are in that pic.

And we are going to start keeping calves on the cows about that long. We will pull them sooner if grass doesn't hold out or the cows start to lose condition. My view is that as long as I give that cow 3 months minimum to get ready for that next calf(provided they aren't <BCS 4) they tend to do fine, and I would rather grow that calf using grass and momma's milk than expensive feed for as long as possible and then pull them and background for a short time before selling.



What does everybody think about the three calves at the end, particularly the heifers as replacement prospects?