Age to wean bucket calf

[daisychick]

I have a holstein steer that we are raising for beef. He is doing great on calf starter and is eating hay too. I still give him his milk in a bucket morning and night. I know I will probably get a ton of different answers and opinions, but I am wondering what age is the proper weaning age for a calf??? What age is too early? He is 9 weeks old.

 

[jhm47]

If he's eating good quality starter and hay, you should have no problem with weaning him at 9 weeks. Just make sure the hay is of good quality, and don't try to wean him off the starter too early. I've seen people get calves off to a good start and take away the grain/starter too early and stunt the calf. Once they are stunted they don't marble well, and it takes a long time to get them to butcher weight. Good luck!

 

[daisychick]

He gets amazing home cut hay from the neighbors field, it is horse quality hay, A nice mix of grass and alfalfa. I do want him to be mainly grass fed as he gets bigger and older, so that leads to another question, What is a good age to wean him off of the calf starter??

 

[jhm47]

Well, to be quite honest with you, if her were mine, I'd keep him on grain till he is butchered. Holsteins have been bred for high density, nutrient rich feeds, and if you try to pasture them exclusively, they will take a long time to get up to the desired weight. It may work OK during the early spring, when the grass is rich and tender, but in mid/late summer and fall, they will be hard pressed to obtain enough protein from the hard, stemmy grasses. Of course, this is just my opinion, and some others may feel differently.

 

[daisychick]

Ok thanks so much for the responses. I will see how he gains and see if he needs to just stay on grain with his grass.

 

[Cricket]

I will see how he gains and see if he needs to just stay on grain with his grass.

That's what I do. I have a Jersey calf that's about the same age (DOB 11/15) and he's eating at least 3lbs of calf starter a day along with his hay. (I used milk replacer).

The steer that we butchered in Dec was a Holstein/Jersey cross, but looked a lot like his mama (H.). When he got older (like 6mnth +), I would notice he would look skinny, go to poking and prodding, and find that he'd just shot up like 2 inches in a matter of 2 weeks or so. Most of my critters seem to get a little chunky and then shoot up.

Wonder if it's like kids where they tend to grow differently--one of my stepsons (the skinnier one) would go through huge eating binges and grow and the stockier one would sleep for the better part of 2 weeks and grow

 

[daisychick]

I am using milk replacer too and I think this will be his last bag of it. It should last him until 14 weeks old or about 3 1/2 months and then I think he should be big enough to wean from the milk. I was scared to wean him before 6 months, because that is the age all the calves raised on momma are weaned at by my neighbors. But those mom raised calves don't get calf starter at all. Hopefully 3 1/2 months on milk replacer will be good enough.

 

[Cricket]

My new bull was a little short of 2 months when I weaned him, but he was really putting the grain and hay to him. I got a second bag when Jerry Lee was that age, which everyone ridiculed me for, but he was a slow learner when it came to eating. (which made him easier to eat!)