After I thought about yesterday’s post…
I figured I should set the record straight.
Weaning *is* stressful for cows *and* calves…
Cows don’t really seem to mind until their full udders remind them they’ve lost something…
and the bellowing of other cows just fuel their feeling of loss…
If you could hear the calves bawling in the corral behind my house…
You’d KNOW they are upset as well.
Some ranches end up with big wrecks during weaning…
Cows breaking through fences and/or corrals to get to their babies…
Some ranches just take the opportunity to ship the calves to feedlots or sale barns and receive their yearly paycheck and call it good…
Since we keep our calves until they are yearlings… that idea won’t work here!
We try to be low stress…
and occasionally even do some Bud Williams style livestock handling…
kinda…
sorta…
OK…
I *try* myself to attempt some Bud William’s ideas…
Steve Cote’s book builds on Bud’s style and I sneak some of his ideas in if I can…
We don’t do everything I’d like…
but change comes slowly out here in the West!
Our calves will stay in the corrals until this stressful time is over…
Letting them loose right now would mean they would try to go find momma…
and since that is an hour’s drive up the mountain…
uh…
not a good idea!
In a couple of weeks we will put them on some of our hay fields.
Their mommas will stay on the mountain for a bit…
then go to our Mesa pasture…
they’ll end up together again in a couple of months…
It’d be like sending your kid off to college and they return home when they are 30 years old.
Ya love ’em.
Ya miss ’em.
But they don’t need you anymore and they’re all grown up.
OK…
It’s not a good idea to compare calves and kids…
but I’m just trying to paint you a picture!
Today we vaccinated all of the calves with various drugs to help them with this stress…
They are susceptible to pneumonia and other respiratory diseases right now…
plus there’s other nasties out there…
Good Grief!
You’ve probably heard enough on this subject!
This concludes Ranching 101’s Weaning Lecture…
No homework, kiddos!
Go home and settle in…
It is supposed to SNOW tomorrow!
