50 Story Idea? Email Paul.Nolan@Farms.com Better Farming | September 2024 behind. They are exactly where they were all summer, so the only stress for those calves is their mother being gone. They bawl for one or two days and then keep moving straight ahead and they look like yearlings in a week. The cows are a little more difficult. They take three or four days to settle down,” he says. A smooth weaning will also help calves that are sold post-weaning to transition onto feed easier. Setting up calves for feed Reduced feed intake caused by stress can disrupt gains in newly-weaned calves. “The calves spend three days trying to find mom,” says Stookey. “If they are spending all that time vocalizing and walking around, of course they are not eating as much as calves fully adjusted to the weaning process.” Mitchell describes a few ways that producers can better prepare their calves for feed. His first recommendation is to vaccinate before weaning. “If you give vaccines when stress is low, they are prepared for weaning and the other health challenges that lie ahead,” says Mitchell. “If you do that, you don’t have to run a stressed calf into a crate at weaning. It can be pulled from mom and go right onto feed and can be revaccinated later.” His second recommendation is to prepare them to eat out of a man-made facility. “You don’t have to spend a ton of money to creep feed, but if you have it set up, they are going to be used to finding feed in something man-made,” explains Mitchell. Many calves are weaned on grass and would not be used to seeking feed outside of the pastures or their dams. “They don’t exactly have to be bunk broke, where they’d be lining up at a bunk and eating side-by-side, but having a gate set up so calves can go into a pen and find feed is enough,” he continues. “It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it gives calves a chance to leave their mothers and go to their own place and eat out of man-made facility, which they now associate with food.” They should also have the opportunity to seek water from man-made facilities to prepare them for barns and feed yards. While minimizing stress and easing the transition to Livestock BRIDGEVIEW bridgeviewmanufacturing.com BALE KING BRX850 8-Bale Retriever SPECIFICATONS: OVERVIEW: Become a fan! Watch our videos! • 8 Bale 2000lb - 5’ X 6’ inline carrier • Self loading / unloading • Hydraulic chain drive pusher • Tandem walking axles • 14L X 16.1 flotation tires • Easy to operate • Self-aligning loading fork • Gentle on twine and net • Narrow 9ft transport width • Unloads in straight, tight stacks Creep gates give calves access to the barn for bedding. Peter Kotzeff photo
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