weaning beef calf

[quietH2O]

We're new to raising our own beef. We acquired an pregnant angus cow with a angus/hereford steer calf. About a month ago we separated them to wean. How long do we need to keep them apart. I need the pasture the calf is in for my sheep (he tried to mount one of my ewes yesterday), but I read that I should wait 3 months before reuniting mom and calf in order to break the maternal bond. How will the weaned calf (nearly a year old) respond when the new calf is born? Can they be in the same pasture? Any advice is welcome and appreciated ! ???

[Drawbar]

I would go ahead and put them together. If you need the pasture for your sheep, then what you NEED seems to out weigh what you HEARD.

I am not scolding you in any way here, but sometimes it seems we let statements get in the way of what our real needs are.

Farming is unique in that tradition seems to just roll along generation after generation, and yet what started it all was a unique situation.

[Deberosa]

Glad you answered! I am of the same opinion but it's not like I know much.

I am leaving my cow's calf with her - she naturally weaned her at 10 months and I think she is due to calve in a month, I think... The calf eventually gets more and more independent and it seems to have worked for me.

[GREEN_ALIEN]

Gotta agree with Drawbar here.. Needs rule the day.

That ole' cow started dryin off within a few days of that calf being pulled and after a month won't have anything to offer anyhow.

Some of mine get as little as two weeks as I fall calf and have to have them back out on pasture right about now.. I know that I need em on milk x days before weaning to hit my weaning weights, sometimes it is close.

GA

[quietH2O]

Thanks so much for the advice, encouragement and experience.

I reunited mom and calf - and all is well. They did a little head butting off and on for a day or so, but there is now peace in all corners of the farm!

I really appreciate all three of you taking the time to advise me and encourage me with your experiences. It is so kind of you to help out a rookie!

Much appreciated ;D

[Drawbar]

I did not have much time to explain, but it seems that with farming, tradition just plays itself out time and time again. When you ask a neighbor why he farms the way he does, he will shrug his shoulders and say "that's the way my grandfather did it." and so on.

I am not bashing farmers here, because for the most part this hand-me-down learning is unique to occupations like farmers, loggers and fisherman, but sometimes traditions can also get in the way.

Take no-till farming, deep-till farming and minimum-till farming. We would still be driving rows of 14 inch deep moldboards in the ground, flopping over soil and pulverizing it 3 times with a disc harrow after that if someone had not tried to break from the norm and did some no-till farming.

Now where I live, no-till farming does not work, but it got people to thinking, and now we use minimum-till methods. That created minimum-till equipment like planters and implements, and we are farming the same way with a lot less profit going into diesel fuel.

My advice to you my friend, is to stay clear of the farming fads that come and go and are written in the media and magazines. Try and think about how our forefather's would have farmed 200 years ago. More then likely they would have needed the pasture for their sheep too and so the two bovine would have been put together.

I kind of suggested what I did because of another reason. I grew up on a dairy farm and had never heard of "breaking the maternal instinct." I saw some mother's that totally abandoned their newborn calves. I saw others that would protect them to no end. I even saw a few cows do that...bleating and mooing to no end until the calf was put beside her...and the calf might not even be hers. I've never seen a lot of maternal instinct in bovine.