Weaning calves

[almoy]

At what age do most of you wean your calves?

[jensend]

well i'm in my fifties

[countryguy]

Ha ha ha!!That was a good one Jensend!!

I don't know about everyone else Almoy but I wean mine at 7-8 months.

[rusty1]

Calves can be weaned at a very early age. If fact the cheapest wintering you can do on your cow is probably in September maybe even part of August. Put on as much fat on the old cow without the calf and then let her loose a little every day till 6 wks before calving and then start puting it back on.
The important thing about weaning is how you do it, and what do you do to the calves at that time.

[cowman]

The nicest way to wean calves is put them on the truck and haul them to the auction mart! Unfortunately we can't do that with all of them.
I never wean my left over calves until they have been on feed with their mothers for about a month. Usually in mid December. By that time the cow has practically weaned them herself. They never get sick when you do it this way. Let the cows be able to come right up to the corral. They bawl a bit but it doesn't last very long.
Maybe weaning in early fall would be the way to go but I'm not real interested in babying a bunch of sick calves when I have other things to do. By December things have slowed down and I have more time to feed calves.
We all have to do what works out best for us.

[ValueChainFX]

Thanks for the smile Jensen!

[kato]

We wean ours in late September to early October. They are born between January and April. We put the calves in a truck and bring them home. Leave the cows out in the pasture. The bawling quits a lot sooner, if no on gets an answer when they holler!

We pasture some cows with a guy who won't let us bring them home separately, and those cattle cause us a pile of grief. The cows won't stay in their pens, run for the gate everytime you open it, and bawl a lot longer. We wish we could talk our pasture guy into letting us separate them. He thinks the cows will get out on him, but actually what they do is to hang around where they last saw their calves, which is the loading chute. They also come running whenever they see the truck coming!

[Muttley]

I calve in Feb. and March. I usually wean in mid to late Oct. depending upon the weather and markets.
The easiest way I wean is to leave the cows in the pasture and bring the calves home or take to market. They don't hear each other and the bawling doesn't last near as long as if they are close. My neighbor weans and keeps everything in the same yard, just a slab fence between, his are bawling for days.

[grassfarmer]

I calve in April, wean around 1st October to let the cows fatten up before winter. Weaned calves into a good field of grass this year with their mothers through an electric fence from them. Worked great, sure the cows bawled but the calves didn't - the only change they got was missing their milk. Settled down really quick, minimal stress and zero calves to treat as a result. It looks to me like there are going to be ever greater price differentials between "dumped in the auction" versus "preconditioned" calves in the future.

[cowman]

One alternative to weaning and "preconditioning" is to get a creep out in the pasture around the middle of August when the grass starts to dry up. It will pay. Don't bother using the expensive commercial creep feed just oats and a bit of rolled barley.
Those calves will grow like crazy and they will go into the mart with a bloom like you wouldn't believe! They are big and healthy and they look it...and you will be paid for it.
When selling calves off the cows it is very important that they know what hay is! Feed them yourself right at the mart, don't rely on the auction mart to do it! Your shrink will more than pay for the hay and the work.

[rusty1]

I saw a rancher in the foothills putting a re-worked plastic nose guard on his calves. We used to use that on pail-bunters in the corral on a milk cow, Those were galvanized. However this South America reserected and now Canadina make unit hang down lowenough to prevent sucking but allows grazing. Nobody even knows that weaning took place.