How to Wean a Dairy Calf

Weaning a dairy calf can be easy or it can be difficult, especially if you don't provide company for the calf during the weaning process. Making it as easy as possible for the calf will lead to the best outcome as far as the health of the animal and the amount of overall work that the owner will have to do. Knowing how to make this a smooth transition will help both the animal and the owner.

Things You'll Need

  • Pen
  • Shelter
  • Other calf or goat
  • Calf-starter feed
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Instructions

  1. Weaning a Dairy Calf

    • 1

      Make sure your calf is old enough before weaning. A calf should never be weaned before 28 days of age, as its gut will not have developed enough to allow it to get the nutrition it needs from milk-replacer pellets and calf-starter. If you want a healthy calf -- do not wean it too soon. Milk or milk-replacer should be the mainstay of nutrition for the first four weeks of the calf's life.

    • 2

      Introduce the calf to calf-starter and forage in its second week so it can begin the process of learning how to eat from its mother. Calves need to learn by example, so having mom eating and imitating her by having the calf's own supply is necessary for a transition from milk to solids.

    • 3

      Separate the calf from its mother by placing it in a small pen with sturdy fencing that will not allow it to stick its head through and nurse. It is best to wean several calves at once, as misery loves company, and the calf will buddy up with its pen mates and learn to live without its mother. It is the least stressful on mother and calf if they can touch and be near each other, but the calf cannot nurse. This allows for a gradual weaning mentally, even if the milk weaning is abrupt.

    • 4

      Provide clean, fresh water, a salt lick, free-choice calf-starter and good quality forage for the calf at all times. The calf will learn to fill its belly with the feed available rather than its mother's milk. Although a cold turkey method can be employed, it makes it easier on the calf to provide some milk-replacement pellets or other substitute for the first week or so, tapering off until the calf is totally on solid feeds.

    • 5

      Giving the calf probiotics in a paste form or mixed into its feed is a good way to help its young digestive tract continue to develop a healthy rumen, which is necessary for the calf to get the proper nutrition from its food. You can purchase the probiotics from any feed store in a powder or paste form.