Oct 16, 2026 · 22 min · 9 segments
Weaning can be a highly stressful event for calves, but their are ways to help reduce this stress. Colorado State University Extension Specialists Travis Taylor and Scott Stinnett discuss techniques…
Travis TaylorHostScott StinnettHost
It's that time of year where everybody's looking at what that cow's done and that cow has produced this year and we're, we're gonna concentrate on the calves for this episode and we, we need to start thinking about where that calf's coming from.
An article put out by the American Angus Association the other day talking to Ted Perry, who's the technical service advisor with Purina, and he brought up a good point.
He said, "If my mom was the boss cow, I've just always been the boss calf in the herd, and now Mom's gone and there's some things that are happening, and all of us are resetting a pecking order in our herd, and particularly in those weaned calves." So not only are we missing Mom, we're now having to deal with all of those other things.
I know you have kids that are doing that right now, and there's a whole lot of new stresses, things that should be simple like interpreting grades sometimes do not come across as simple as they can.
So when we start talking about those calves, that's a very stressful time on them.
And no matter what type of weaning process you use, whether you use a fence line or you use a haul away or you use a cow removal, all of a sudden those calves are left to themselves.
Yeah, I think the kid example is prime probably, I wouldn't say junior high, but it's maybe more like going to kindergarten for the first time.
Those calves kind of look at each other, "Are you my new friend or not? You know, what resources do you have that I want?" And so yeah, a pecking order getting established within those calves is definitely going to occur.
There's probably was a little bit of it as they were, if they were in small groups together out there, the way we know that cows will set up nurseries and we'll see small groups of calves that always tend to be together 'cause groups of cows like to be together.
But sometimes when we're weaning, we're bringing all the calves in from all the pastures to one place to wean, and yes, we're, we're mixing and we are definitely trying to reset a pecking order amongst those calves.
It's that time of year where everybody's looking at what that cow's done and that cow has produced this year and we're, we're gonna concentrate on the calves for this episode and we, we need to start thinking about where that calf's coming from.
An article put out by the American Angus Association the other day talking to Ted Perry, who's the technical service advisor with Purina, and he brought up a good point.
He said, "If my mom was the boss cow, I've just always been the boss calf in the herd, and now Mom's gone and there's some things that are happening, and all of us are resetting a pecking order in our herd, and particularly in those weaned calves." So not only are we missing Mom, we're now having to deal with all of those other things.
I know you have kids that are doing that right now, and there's a whole lot of new stresses, things that should be simple like interpreting grades sometimes do not come across as simple as they can.
So when we start talking about those calves, that's a very stressful time on them.
And no matter what type of weaning process you use, whether you use a fence line or you use a haul away or you use a cow removal, all of a sudden those calves are left to themselves.
Yeah, I think the kid example is prime probably, I wouldn't say junior high, but it's maybe more like going to kindergarten for the first time.
Those calves kind of look at each other, "Are you my new friend or not? You know, what resources do you have that I want?" And so yeah, a pecking order getting established within those calves is definitely going to occur.
There's probably was a little bit of it as they were, if they were in small groups together out there, the way we know that cows will set up nurseries and we'll see small groups of calves that always tend to be together 'cause groups of cows like to be together.
But sometimes when we're weaning, we're bringing all the calves in from all the pastures to one place to wean, and yes, we're, we're mixing and we are definitely trying to reset a pecking order amongst those calves.
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