Easy Way To 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 today’s AgriBeef Minute. Terry Anderson has had an easy time of weaning calves in the last few years and it’s all due to a .70 piece of plastic.
ANDERSON: The standard procedure for weaning calves has just been basically cold turkey. You gather the cows and separate the calves from the cows which as you can imagine is extremely stressful on both the cow and the calf. A procedure that has been started - a plastic nose clip that just clips in the nose, there’s no pain involved; the front part of the clip then extends out over the nose so it can’t nurse.
The clips do not cause the calf any pain or discomfort and are removed after several days. And the clips are reusable year after year so your investment is really negligible.
ANDERSON: What we’ve found is there’s just absolutely no stress at all on those calves. There’s no change in feed, there’s no trucking or getting the calves excited in any way. It’s just worked absolutely perfectly for us and literally, I can’t even imagine over the course of time that we’ve utilized this procedure how much it’s saved us in feed. For a .70 cents and a little labor to put them in and to remove them it’s one of the greatest returns on the money than just about anything you can do.
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.
