Quiet Wean
Welcome to Open Range, I’m Susan Allen. Stay tuned because after the break I’ll check in with our field reporter, Greg Martin for the AgriBeef Minute.
I’m Greg Martin with the Open Range AgriBeef Minute. Weaning has always been a stressful time for calves but now ranchers are discovering an old solution is an important one.
ANDERSON: It’s important because it’s absolutely stress free and Greg this is something that’s not new. Most weaning procedures is just a shock syndrome. The trucks show up, 12 riders and 15 dogs that gather the cows and jam them on a truck and take them off to a feedlot and it’s the most stressful part of their life.
That’s cattle producer Terry Anderson who has discovered an easy way to wean calves.
ANDERSON: It’s a little plastic apparatus with two little knobs on it and it slips right in both nostrils. The front edge of it, Is suppose it’s 3 ½ inches wide across the front and it’s got little plastic points on it. They go to nurse and it irritates the cow so she moves away from the calf. You leave those in for 4 days and then the calf is weaned.
The calf stays with its mom so it’s not bawling and Anderson says it not only saves stress but money.
ANDERSON: So for a minimal investment the return is probably the greatest return for anything you could possibly do in the beef industry because normally where you would wean you’d have to put them on feed, this way they just stay right out there on the same feed they’ve been on all summer and save 50-60 days of feed in the feedlot you’re talking about a lot of money.
I’m Greg Martin and that’s today’s AgriBeef Minute.
Thanks Greg. Don’t forget Greg will be back each Wednesday with the AgriBeef Minute. Agri Beef Co - Real Families, Great People, Exceptional Beef. I’m Susan Allen.
