[trish.farm]

Weaning time has come, have 2 calves on my jersey, her own and one add-on.  Both 7 months old.  Had to bring them all out of the meadows on friday as they were at risk of being marooned! Have put calves in stable with concrete yard out front and their mum and her 2 mates are currently in the adjoining paddock with a gate between them. 

My main concern is the risk of mastitis if Daisy gets totally engorged with milk.  She is on little grass in the paddock and dry hay.  After 24 hours she was massive with milk, i let the 2 babies on her for about 20 seconds and they relieved all four quarters but didnt have time to take much.  This morning she is engorged but not as badly as yesterday so have not let her in with the calves.  Will see what she is like this evening.

She and her friends will be moving in the next couple of days to their winter paddock which is the other side of our wood and well within calling distance. 

Question is, how long does it take for them to dry up?  Should i take a little milk off if necessary if she is huge to relieve the pressure?

[SallyintNorth]

*Just* relieve the pressure if necessary, is all.  As the demand drops off and the feed drops off, she'll reduce production.

I don't know how quickly as I generally rear two or three sets of calves on mine and dry them off at 9-10 months - they're ready for a rest by then and seem to dry off pretty quickly.

[Backinwellies]

Hi SiN   Can I just clarify ... how long do you leave each set of calves on mum?  sounds like a good commercial approach.

[SallyintNorth]

I don't like to wean them at less than 4 months old, so she has her own calf plus a very young set-on for at least 4 months, then another pair bought at 4 weeks' old for at least another 3 months. 

If the timings all work out and she's handling the workload comfortably, I can just do 4 + 3 + 3 = 10 months lactating rears 6 calves in total.  Or perhaps she didn't get back in calf within 3 months, so I've got longer than 12 months between calvings, so can manage a third set.

My most productive cow has been known to manage 3 calves together mid-lactation, but generally 2 at a time - or 4 between 2, as it all gets a bit big happy family now there's more than one at a time in milk - is enough.  If it works out they get 3 months dry, that's fine.  I don't like them to have less than 2 months dry.

It also gets flexed around lambing, as I keep 1/2 of one cow for milk for the lambs.  And sometimes the suckler herd has a waif needs a foster mum, so that has to be factored in when it happens.

And I can sometimes manage to have a new calf come in on a cow nearing the end of her lactation, then switch to another cow within a few weeks - as I said, much depends on timings!

I also have to organise things so that all are well-established in their family groups if I am going to be away for more than a night or two, so that it's as easy and uncomplicated as possible for someone else to look after them all while I'm away.  So last year, when I was spending a lot of time in the Midlands with mum, I only put two sets on each cow so they could just be turned out and left out when I was away.

[Backinwellies]

Impressed ..... was thinking of multiple suckling my Shetlands .... you have given me food for thought!  (though where all those young ones would go I'm not sure!) .... when and how do you sell your 'beef' stock?

[SallyintNorth]

Bah, just wrote a long post and lost the lot 

when and how do you sell your 'beef' stock?

Once the calves get to about 8-9 months old, they can run alongside our homebred weanlings, and we sell them along with our homebred store beasts.

I have bought and reared a fair few Hereford and Angus cross heifers (out of Friesians), and the best of these get retained as suckler cows.  The only problem with that is that I never seem to see the money for them!  lol