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"Quiet" weaning

G

Grassfarmer

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 21, 2005
Messages
998
Location
Central Alberta, Canada
I thought I would illustrate our weaning method as there was a discussion on the quiet wean nose tags a while back.
Brought the cows in last Thursday, weighed the calves and applied their "quietwean" nose tags then turned them back out with mothers.
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I'm going to miss my charolais bull - still the original and best exotic breed in my opinion.
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A corrugated calf
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Fast forward 4 days..."there are getting tiresome - can we take them off now please?"
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Rounded the cows up again today - my faithful horse "bootz"
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And faithful dog "blue"
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Sorted off the calves, pulled the nose tags off and turned them out on grass - photo taken 1 hour after separation from mothers.
Mothers were preg-checked then turned out through the fence from the calves.
 
It doesn't look like they are too mad at you. :wink: I like your char X calves too, but of course I am biased.

I ordered my vaccines and 'quiet wean' tags today, they only had to come from my supplier in Fort Collins, CO...so I'm gonna try and put 'em to work on Saturday. Thanks for the photos. :cboy:
 
Justin said:
how often do you have a calf that loses one of those deals?
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About one in a hundred - usually on a water trough or something with an edge. You can lose quite a few handling in the corrals though if the calf turns against a rail. Broke about 3 today with cows standing on them because I didn't get them gathered up quick enough :mad:
 
I don't get it. After 4 days away from momma, a calf is pretty well bawled out anyway. Why go to all the bother to install those deals? Is it less stressful? Looks pretty labor intensive to me.
 
Sundancer said:
I don't get it. After 4 days away from momma, a calf is pretty well bawled out anyway. Why go to all the bother to install those deals? Is it less stressful? Looks pretty labor intensive to me.
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The calf is left on the cows with the nose tags installed then they are separated.
 
Faster horses said:
But you have to run them through to put them in, and run them
through again to take them out... :shock:

That wouldn't work here. We look for reasons NOT to put them
down the alley...
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Some guys are brutes for punishment. :wink:

We don't give the pre-conditioning shots until the day they are separated. I don't like handling them that much either. This year we split them vaccinated the calves and turned them out in a grass catch and kept the cows in.
 
It's zero stress weaning and well worth the little extra effort in my opinion. When you put the tags in the only thing you change for the calf is it gets no milk - still with momma, still on grass. When you pull the tags off the only thing that changes is that the calf is now separated from momma by a fence, still on grass, still no milk. It is a seamless transition and the calves don't even bother going to the fence to talk to the cows.

The time factor isn't huge - The first day working alone I sorted the calves off the cows, weighed the calves individually, put the nose tags on and did about 30/hour. Today to sort the calves off the cows and remove the tags I did about 60/hour again working alone. They are real simple to remove - just pack the alley full of calves and walk along grabbing the tags.
 
There's no such thing as ZERO stress weaning. It may cause less stress but there will always be stress when ya work cattle, wean, or do anything out of the ordinary. :wink:
 
I think fenceline weaning is about as low stress as it comes. It does take some preparation. We beefed up the fence between two pastures with five wires, maybe posts a bit closer than the usual 16 feet, and make sure the pasture the calves will remain in is very fresh, and the cow 'side' is fresh, too, with water located near or in the fenceline.

GENTLY and quietly trail the herd to the weaning site, which may be a few miles for those furthest south in the current pasture, and leave them on the 'cow'side for one day, ease the calves through the gate into their new home.

That's it. They, especially the calves, rarely bother even to 'talk' across the fence, so eager they are to explore the new home and get acquainted with those contraptions holding all that hay to sample along with the really nice native grasses growing there!

They also have access for exploration of their next home, the backgrounding lot, in our case, but that isn't really necessary if you choose not to background them before selling.


mrj
 
OK H, it's not zero stress - maybe 2% stress. Fenceline weaning is good too, we did purely that until we started with the tags - now we do it as well as the tags. I would rank it about 5% stress because the calves still bawl. Weaning by shutting calves in corrals I would rank about 50% in comparison, weaning "into the auction" I would give the full 100% stress factor.
 
Grassfarmer said:
I thought I would illustrate our weaning method as there was a discussion on the quiet wean nose tags a while back.
Brought the cows in last Thursday, weighed the calves and applied their "quietwean" nose tags then turned them back out with mothers.
DSC03599.jpg

DSC03596.jpg

DSC03598.jpg

I'm going to miss my charolais bull - still the original and best exotic breed in my opinion.
DSC03627.jpg

A corrugated calf
DSC03625.jpg

Fast forward 4 days..."there are getting tiresome - can we take them off now please?"
DSC03601.jpg

Rounded the cows up again today - my faithful horse "bootz"
DSC03632.jpg

And faithful dog "blue"
DSC03633.jpg

Sorted off the calves, pulled the nose tags off and turned them out on grass - photo taken 1 hour after separation from mothers.
Mothers were preg-checked then turned out through the fence from the calves.
Click to expand...

I like those Charolais bred calves. I am thinking about getting one of our old reg Charolais cows AIed this next go around to see if I can get a bull out of her.
 
Man I just came in for dinner and my glasses were still dark and I thought the title of this thread was "QUIET WOMEN' instead of quiet weaning.


:oops: :oops: :oops:

I thought you were on a real suicide mission there Grass Farmer.

:lol: :lol:

have a cold one

lazy ace
 

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