Separating and Weaning

I have had these pictures for a couple of weeks and have been tardy in getting them posted!

It was time to wean the beef calves. Jimmy decided to try weaning the oldest of the calves first, letting them get settled, and then do the rest separately, with the hope that they might settle down more quickly.

So, a couple of weeks ago, Jimmy got all of the cows and calves up into the handling system and separated the momma's of 7 of the calves. He had the numbers of the cows that he wanted to separate:

He gave me this list so I could help in the handling system to get the right ones sent in the right directions!

Cows and calves that were being returned to the field they had come from...

They seem to be wondering, "What's next?"

Some expressing their opinions...

Carl attempted to get input from the cows:

Jimmy working the cows who were separated down to their "new" pasture.

At normal feeding (nursing) time, the cows gathered at the gate and mooed for an evening or two, but... they adjusted!

So, those were separated for about a week, and everything seemed to have settled well. Neither the calves nor the mommas seemed to be concerned anymore, so Jimmy decided to go ahead and separate the rest.

This separation in the handling system was a little easier - no looking at ear tags for numbers, just separate all the calves out... and one cow who had not had a calf this past season went back with the calves as a "calmer".

These cows would be joining their sisters who had gone to new pasture a week before.

Heading out...

 Within a very few minutes, they were out in the green pastures!

This was the next day - we were down in the pasture next to the cows (where the dairy cows are -- you may be able to see the dark brown baby calf up along the fence in the background) -- the cows were up at the fence, but they weren't anxious...

Several were further out in the pasture feeding.

There was very little mooing and maa'ing between momma cows and weanlings this time. The separation was just 4 days ago, and they seem to be all settled now. We were wondering if we would be hearing them, as we are parked about halfway between where the momma cows are and where the weanlings are, but we really didn't hear anything.

So, Carl got to experience another part of farm life!