Next Round Of Weaning

Four bulls, one heifer and one steer are in the weaning process. The steer, ByGolly, is still a little young to wean but since he is a twin and not as aggressive as his sister ByGosh, and he has been getting the short end of the nipple so to speak. By weaning him early and leaving his sister to nurse from their mother Crystal, both will do much better than leaving them to fight for nourishment.

Last week the green weaning clips (weaners) were inserted into their noses. On a day that was not too wet, we escorted the herd into the barn across the river and sorted out the ones wearing the green clips. The six were boarded into the the stock trailer and moved across the river and over to the side of the show barn while the rest of the herd was moved across the field and across to the far, far field for a few days.

Now the group of six will get as much hay, grass seed pellets and chopped apples that they would like while I attempt to take out the clips. The locking head gates are good for this step but these calves don’t understand the whole process and are leery about the cold metal and the clanging noises that they make. The food is enticement for them to be curious about getting their heads inside enough to lock the stanchion and for some it only takes a few moments. For others it may be a full day before they get brave enough to try.

By the next feeding I had three clips removed and within the next day I was able to get two more. I needed Mike’s help to pin the little steer ByGolly in his own pen to remove his clip since his head is too small for the head gate stanchion to hold him.

Now all six are eating with gusto and in a couple of days the three biggest bulls will be moved out into the bull pen with the other four that are already out there.