Drying off sucklers

adne

What approaches have people for weaning..

Im planning on restricted hay diet for a week and then stockholm tar, no dry cow tubes.

bogman_bass

Dried ours off a month ago. tar + spot on + tubes

ad-lib hay

yellow50HX

we move the cows to bare ground and feed them straw, no tubing unless you want a broken arm, they would be wild enough after weaning as it is

bbam

We used to restrict grass. Feed straw. Take calves away after two days.
Another week and it was done.

No tubes or anything. Never had any problems.

RaggyDays

Load Weanlen Calves into IFor Williams and off to the mart.
Job done

nashmach

RaggyDays wrote: »

Load Weanlen Calves into IFor Williams and off to the mart.
Job done

Great, hope you weren't in the SCWS....

No wonder Irish weanlings get such a bad name with exporters with that craic going on :(

49801

we always left the calves on the cows till end of Sept but we were not selling weanlings. Only exception to that was cows marked for culling.

barish ground and straw in a ring feeder
no tubes unless they are going into a shed

only trouble we ever had was with a rogue cow taking a drink for herself and donor getting mastitus:mad:

never used tar but never knew about it either:o
spot-on as mentioned above would be no harm at all this time of year.

Western Pomise

Think approach depends a lot on how milky your cows are,we always tube after restricted feed as cows would have Shorthorn background so would have lot of milk,often had to milk a cow for 15 mins after weaning a strong weanling.....of course that's time consuming but the calves don't half weight well in mart.

Richk2012

On tight grazing for a week after weaning then tubes and this year used flytags..

blue5000

I don't wean till later in the year, do them in batches of 10, ring feeder of straw on a bare paddock, no tubes. This time of year is more awkward with flies, tar and spot on anyway, have never used tubes on a suckler cow.

Bodacious

blue5000 wrote: »

I don't wean till later in the year, do them in batches of 10, ring feeder of straw on a bare paddock, no tubes. This time of year is more awkward with flies, tar and spot on anyway, have never used tubes on a suckler cow.

used to tube all cows but it got so expensive and have to have a letter from your vet = pure ridiculous

a lot of lads in back end use half tube per teat

im sorry I didn't tube these two dry cows I have now.. one purposely held back as calving in june when bought in other is my best cow and lost calf...

from now on anything without a calf on it that has calved before during summer months will have a dry cow tube in her

Mad4simmental

Dryed off cows a week ago. They got a tube plus sealer. They are on a bare field and getting hay. They look like they are getting slack.

Allot of grass that could do with being clipped around. So how long would ye leave your cows before you'd be confidant to let them clean out a few fields?

Kovu

Into the shed for three days on silage. Then back out the fields to the rest! Only weaned four so far this year, three cows were culls so had to be kept in for 5/6 days until elders were loose-ish as they're on high ration.
One of the three was shipped off to the factory straight after weaning though that wouldn't be the norm for us. Can't remember when I last used a tube on a cow to be honest. Possibly in summer to prevent the shítty summer mastitis on a dry cow.

50HX

into the slatted house - cows at one side, calves at the other

calves on nuts & silage/hay

cows on restricted hay in clean pens

all over in 4-5 days

no tubes, no tar no bother so far - v lucky with mastitis

welton john

50HX wrote: »

into the slatted house - cows at one side, calves at the other

calves on nuts & silage/hay

cows on restricted hay in clean pens

all over in 4-5 days

no tubes, no tar no bother so far - v lucky with mastitis

Exact same except using tubes.cows are first cross fr so they're milky enough.

High bike

Does anyone restrict water intake while drying off?

Miname

You all go to a lot of hassle drying off. I wean in small batches of 5-10 at a time throughout the year. My usual method involves taking the calf away. The cow and calf might get a night in the shed if I think they will ramble a bit but other than that nothing is done. I throw an eye on them every day and watch for mastitis but it doesn't seem to be a problem.

High bike

Miname wrote: »

You all go to a lot of hassle drying off. I wean in small batches of 5-10 at a time throughout the year. My usual method involves taking the calf away. The cow and calf might get a night in the shed if I think they will ramble a bit but other than that nothing is done. I throw an eye on them every day and watch for mastitis but it doesn't seem to be a problem.

are the cows left out on grass?

Miname

High bike wrote: »

are the cows left out on grass?

Most of the time yes, the ones weaned from end of October on will be put in for the winter.

Kovu

Miname wrote: »

You all go to a lot of hassle drying off. I wean in small batches of 5-10 at a time throughout the year. My usual method involves taking the calf away. The cow and calf might get a night in the shed if I think they will ramble a bit but other than that nothing is done. I throw an eye on them every day and watch for mastitis but it doesn't seem to be a problem.

We left one calf out this year and put the mother in. She kept me awake the entire first night, was found in the turf shed the next morning. The following night she escaped again and was found in the hayshed. The next day she was found in the veg patch. Still can't work out how she got in there past a four strand wire fence and a mains fence. Luckily she never found the way to the slatted shed

bogman_bass

just saw this today. Very handy for the part time lad. bring them in one saturday, rings in, back out to feild. Next saturday bring them in and seperate.

Miname

Kovu wrote: »

We left one calf out this year and put the mother in. She kept me awake the entire first night, was found in the turf shed the next morning. The following night she escaped again and was found in the hayshed. The next day she was found in the veg patch. Still can't work out how she got in there past a four strand wire fence and a mains fence. Luckily she never found the way to the slatted shed

Had a Ba heifer travelled three miles once. Found here in a yard with a couple of hundred friesain Bulls. The owner said she had driven them all cracked and caused mayhem between the Bulls chasing her and the different groups mixing.

Kovu

Miname wrote: »

Had a Ba heifer travelled three miles once. Found here in a yard with a couple of hundred friesain Bulls. The owner said she had driven them all cracked and caused mayhem between the Bulls chasing her and the different groups mixing.

Jaysus, if this one travelled three hundred yards I'd be very surprised. Petted from day one as she was earmarked as replacement. She'll walk up to you in the field for scratching. Dam is quiet as a mouse as well so that helped, calf just potters along at her own pace, isn't phased by anything.

KatyMac

Miname wrote: »

Had a Ba heifer travelled three miles once. Found here in a yard with a couple of hundred friesain Bulls. The owner said she had driven them all cracked and caused mayhem between the Bulls chasing her and the different groups mixing.

Neighbour left a group of weanlings in field and put the cows into shed. Following morning the calves were lying in the pen with their mothers! Couldn't figure out how they did it.
He brought them out to a field further away and next morning they were back. Eventually had to borrow space in another man's shed for a week or so. Never did work out how they got into the pen.