Weaning a Bull Calf early

mike skelton · Post by **mike skelton** » Fri May 01, 2009 9:43 pm

You have all raised some interesting points and idea's and i will keep a eye on this posting to see what happens.
Back in the 80's we always weaned the calves at 4 days old but then the mothers were friesian milking cows. However once they had finished bucket feeding i reared the heifers as followers and the bulls were fed silage and( the then cheap) concentrates . The bulls were left entire and were sent for slaughter at 12 months old. The reason i tell you this is that all the calves flourished well and it did not seem to affect them. However , having said that you can always tell which calves have been left to suckle, when they are at market.

Whatever happens i wish you well and hpoe you have a successful outcome. P.S. i like the idea of the creep clive.

mike

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Fri May 01, 2009 9:50 pm

Dairy calves will thrive if properly reared and can be weaned from milk or milk replacer at a remarkably young age. They do need the correct concentrate feed, constant supply of fresh water and good quality roughage, straw probably better than hay at first.

BUT if you want a breeding bull it is very likely to grow up much cheekier if hand fed and reared than if suckled and only handled when there is good reason to.

Duncan

mike skelton · Post by **mike skelton** » Fri May 01, 2009 9:55 pm

Duncan, what do you mean by "cheekier" is this good or bad?

mike

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Fri May 01, 2009 10:20 pm

By cheeky I mean potentially dangerous, because they regard human handlers as playmates and even though the motivation may not start out as aggression it rapidly becomes that as they try to play with people who go near them. Their idea of play does not match mine - I learned the hard way with Burnside Panjandrum, who was bucket fed rather than suckled, got increasingly difficult to cope with in the field, even if I carried a stick he would try to butt me from behind if I just walked through to check the cattle. In the end he put my son upside down in a 3 feet deep ditch, and if the ditch had not been so deep the bruising would have been worse. He went to the slaughterhous the next day.

I don't think this necessarily happens with every hand reared bull calf, but I do think it is much more likely to happen. One particular thing to avoid is playing with their head when small, as they then expect that to continue as they get bigger and heavier.

Duncan

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Sat May 02, 2009 8:40 am

I agree. Hand feeding bull calves isn't wise. Leaving the feed in a trough or hay on the ground, so that you can distance yourself from the 'people means feed' idea, is a safer way to go.

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Sat May 02, 2009 12:05 pm

As it's a bull I'm going to insist it's reared with it's mom and weaned normally at 8 months or so.

Is halter-training a young bull the same as any other cattle? I presume you just tie it up as you would but avoid making a fuss of it or giving tit-bits?