Weaning

[3waycross]

Weaned bulls today. A couple of observations. Had a bull calf that is maybe my best bull and when I tatto'ed him he cried like a big baby. No big deal except he was the only one who bawled and 2 years ago his 1/2 brother did the same thing. Some of the others didn't even flinch when they were tattoo'ed.

I had put those can't suck flaps on these calves a week ago and all but two kept them in. Guess which two are bawling their hearts out tonight....Yep

Funny thing is their mothers are 2 miles away and could care less.

Looks like they will range from mid 6's to mid 7's. They look pretty uniform but there is definately some thickness issues from the heaviest to the lighest. I will try to post some pictures before they lose too much baby fat!

 

[inyati13]

I had a similiar experience. Getting ready to wean some calves and wanted to vaccinate them and let the immune reaction settle before beginning the separation. Two of the calves bawled like they were being taken down by wolves. Usually they might jump a little . I wondered if I had hit a nerve.

 

[Chris H]

I had a similiar experience. Getting ready to wean some calves and wanted to vaccinate them and let the immune reaction settle before beginning the separation. Two of the calves bawled like they were being taken down by wolves. Usually they might jump a little . I wondered if I had hit a nerve.

I think some have more sensitive skin than others. We've had some that act like you're killing them, and others just stand there like they never knew anything happened. I do hate worming because I inject that behind the elbow area, and that seems really sensitive.

 

[SPH]

Speaking of the can't suck flaps, how many here use them and what are your thoughts? Never thought of using them since it's just more time and money to have to run the calves through the chute. We do fence side weaning and usually within a day the cows and calves are over the bawling phase and go about their own ways. We used to keep an empty lot about 100 yards between the lot the calves are in and the pasture we turn the cows out on after weaning but ever since we stopped that and went with fence side weaning it seems to take a lot of stress off both cow and calf and shorten the time they are bawling at each other. Obviously have to have a good line of fence to do it which we do, wood posts all the way down the line with woven wire and a couple barbed wires on the top then electric fence on both sides to keep them from trying to lean on or nurse through the fence.

Always like hearing thoughts on weaning methods. I know some farmers that swear by the farmer's almanac and phase of the moon when they wean. In the end I guess you go by what you feel works best for your operation, not everyone runs their operations they same or have the same types of cattle and conditions so what works for 1 may not work well for another.