Two-Stage Weaning Calves 

It is true that some cows will wean their calves prior to calving - so technically you could let them (some of them) wean themselves, but it is risky. It is risky because some cows get pulled down into poor body condition and it will have a negative impact on rebreeding after they calve. I wean my cows (by using the nose paddles) based on the condition of the cows - not based on age of the calves nor based on some magic date on the calendar. If the cows start to get pulled down from lactation, then it is time to wean, in my opinion. If they are fat from a good summer of grass, I extend the weaning date and have pushed it up to 45 days prior to the next calving. Dairy cows are dry for 45-60 days and beef cows can do the same if you watch their body condition. I know of some research looking at natural weaning and they have reported cases of the current calf still nursing when the new calf hits the ground - and that definitely causes problems with colostrum and health of the newborn.

QJoseph Stookey

I was wondering about that.

This video isn't about stockmanship, or the stress if working cattle. It's about the stress of weaning itself.

daveywho2000 she's probably wondering when will the stud bull come over again.

Cows will miss the I calves for two weeks or a little longer if their young are penned close by and they can hear each other

julie bishop Great question. I'm not aware of any weaning devices for lambs. They maybe out there; though I haven't seen any. I know many producers wean lambs earlier than weaning would occur naturally, but there is also a large population on lambs that are separated close to the time of natural weaning - so not much stress from the separation (like we typically see in calves).

We leave tags in 5-7 days (as is recommended) and leave pairs separated another 4 weeks. We then run pairs back together after the 4 week separation and have never had pairs restart the lactation cycle. That way we can winter cows and calves together.

We have weaned calves as young as 30 days and as old as 10 months. The process reduces weaning stress regardless of age.

You can order them from their website - quietwean.com/shop/ :)

First off - these are cows bred for meat. Second off - every mammal on earth weans their young. You were weaned. Third off- having a half grown calf still nursing on a mother, hurts the mother...

Seemran Patel_Therefore you would be viralantly anti abortion and abhor the killing of babies for convenience? Like why would that be fair? people are so disgusting.

Seemran Patel ur a jack ass

So, are YOU still nursing your mother? Or did she wean you? She did??? Wow! Like, how is THAT fair?????

Though in some cases certain dairy farms will wean a calf a little younger than what I would prefer. This is actually necessary for three lives. First the mother I currently have a two year old heifer still nursing her mother and I can’t get her mother to keep weight on for anything. Secondly the actual calf. It may not seem major but she’s getting to fat. I’m afraid she’ll ave trouble calving this year since it will be her first time, And finally the mothers unborn calf. In the later months of gestation an older calf nursing her pregnant mother after she should’ve been weaning can actually cause the mother to abort her unborn calf. Now even if the mother carried to term her calf and bore it healthy. Between the newborn and the two year old or even 9 month old who do you think will drink all the milk? The newborn would starve. Humans messed too much with these animals with breeding so quite a few do not naturally wean their young. I have two cows who will wean their calves themselves and obviously one who doesn’t. Now the one who doesn’t has quite a bit of dairy in her so I’m not sure if that has anything to do with it or not but I’m thinking about putting those weaning ring in her two year old calf and herself since I caught her trying to nurse her own calf! I won’t even get started on how detrimental that is on her calf’s health who is only just starting to produce the slightest amount of milk before her first calving. But if some reasoning behind your thinking is because animals will do what’s naturally best for them so if the calf wants to nurse and the mom wants it to nurse then we should let them for their own benefit then sadly that way of thinking is a little skewed for animals humans have conditioned so much for a specific job. Like for pure dairy animals now granted your right most dairies where grocery stores get their milk from if not all never keep a calf with their mother. There are those smaller scale farms that do calf sharing where they take the milk the calf doesn’t need. See in the past we bred these breeds that produce a very unnatural amount of milk. If we left them to be nursed only by their calf who could in no way drink all of it the udder would never be emptied meaning old milk would be left to curd. Think cottage cheese inside the udder. It’s an infection called mastitis that can really affect the wellbeing of these animals. So why not all of your views are skewed in knowing that there are farms out there who never let a calf nurse their mom but instead bottle feed them their mothers milk. Just remember there are those of us out there who do try to keep not only our animals healthy but try to keep them as happy as possible while doing so. Is it a perfect method? No, but we’re not living in a perfect world. There will always be this big scale dairies and farms where animals are raised for meat or milk. That’s not going to change no matter how much we’d like it to. And if it does it sadly won’t be in any of our lifetimes. Now you’ll probably come back with an argument along the lines of “so you’re thought are as long as you give them a good life and care they deserve it’s okay to steal their milk or kill them for meat?” And sadly I don’t have a very good answer only that it’s currently and probably always going to be the way of the world and I’m going to make sure that there are at least some animals escaping the true atrocities of factory farming here on this small farm. It’s not a perfect system but it’s the best I can do. I should also warn anyone who will be chiming in I’m not that active on here and most likely will not see any comments at least not till months from now and by that point I don’t know if I’ll deem it necessary to reply.