talltimber
Well-known member
You all are probably privy to this information concerning weaning calf weights. I've just bought some scales, and weaned a set of calves. So, I remembered a conversation here before about how much calves would lose in a week/two weeks and thought I would record the weights so we'd know, at least for this set, this time.
I fenceline wean, but there was a difference in the set of calves. Six came off two yr olds that I was feeding, so they get all they could manage when they were big enough to reach the trough. The calves off the old cows came from the north (not the direction I made grass available for the calves after four days, so they had never been down there), and they had enough feed to know how to get into the weaning pen and that's all.
After four days I opened a gate so they could access some grass and quit haying them, to make them go look. The next day I opened up grass for the cows to go out further on, and they stayed gone longer each day. The worst weight loss was from the calves that hung around bawling another day or two before eventually starting to join the rest, basically yesterday. I went up today and they were all out on pasture picking.
The difference in weight from weaning day, the 6th, until today, the 13th, was plus one pound. Not one pound average, positive one pound for the group of 18 calves, meaning no loss at all. They are all out on grass now, so I don't see a chance of any losses now. They are done bawling now, for the most part, there are a couple that will bawl every once in a while, but they are out eating when they do. The spread was interesting though, -23 to +19, but understandable, the ones that bawled the most, lost the most. The calves that were familiar with the pasture I turned them back out on looked for their mommas a while then started picking, they all gained except for one that bawled a little.
I wormed them today, and will weigh again in a couple weeks or a month.
Surprising? Not so much? I was.
I fenceline wean, but there was a difference in the set of calves. Six came off two yr olds that I was feeding, so they get all they could manage when they were big enough to reach the trough. The calves off the old cows came from the north (not the direction I made grass available for the calves after four days, so they had never been down there), and they had enough feed to know how to get into the weaning pen and that's all.
After four days I opened a gate so they could access some grass and quit haying them, to make them go look. The next day I opened up grass for the cows to go out further on, and they stayed gone longer each day. The worst weight loss was from the calves that hung around bawling another day or two before eventually starting to join the rest, basically yesterday. I went up today and they were all out on pasture picking.
The difference in weight from weaning day, the 6th, until today, the 13th, was plus one pound. Not one pound average, positive one pound for the group of 18 calves, meaning no loss at all. They are all out on grass now, so I don't see a chance of any losses now. They are done bawling now, for the most part, there are a couple that will bawl every once in a while, but they are out eating when they do. The spread was interesting though, -23 to +19, but understandable, the ones that bawled the most, lost the most. The calves that were familiar with the pasture I turned them back out on looked for their mommas a while then started picking, they all gained except for one that bawled a little.
I wormed them today, and will weigh again in a couple weeks or a month.
Surprising? Not so much? I was.
