Any thoughts on what day to wean?

I am not looking for should you weant at 4 months or 5, but rather does anyone try to wean with phases of the moon?

Is there any truth to weaning being easier on certain days rather than others?  For instance if you look in the Farmers Almanac for this month they say the best days to wean are the 14th and the 28th.

never tried using the signs to wean. We wean early so calves are smaller to break for us. Usually between 3-4 months. Do make sure they are eating creep feed well.

Red

We wean according to the weather forecast - we want dry weather.

I usually wean when it is convenient for me... and sometimes that is on the spur of the moment. We normally wean over a period of time , as we have 8 pastures and it is impossible to gather and sort them all in one day.I think there is something to the theory of weaning by the moon phases as I know some ranchers who believe this 100% and would never wean on any other day other than what phase the moon is at. I wish I could be that organized!! I have noticed that some times the cows hardly notice their calves gone and after a day without them, are out grazing again. I have seen other times when they go simply crazy, and smash fences, gates etc to find their calves.

I don't know anything about this moon stuff, but if you know anyone who works in the ER in a hospital, they dread full moons. Most hospitals here have almost double staff working on full moons as there will be more than twice as many people show up. In big cities, they say there are more than double attempted suicides, domestic abuse cases, knife injuries etc. They say that full moons bring all the crazys out to play..... any one got any theory's on this?

My dad always weaned pigs according to the sign of the moon. The dark of the moon.  The sows couldn't see the weak spots in the fence. Seriously I know many cattleman who do processing and weaning according to the moon. Some swear it has a lot to do with amount of bleeding on cut calves.

We wean and castrate based on moon phases. You can definitely tell a difference in the calves that missed the right phase. Also when castrating we've noticed that calves castrated in the correct phase seem to bleed quite a bit less and heal up quicker...

http://www.almanac.com/astrology/index.php

I got the link from beeflinks.com


I about fell out my chair, Best day to potty train children? seriously?

The good thing is you can multitask and quite smoking or make saukraut at the same time.

I always try to wean calves ahead of cold, dry weather.  However it is important that there is a moon in the sky as well.  Come to think about it, a sun is good too!

We try to wean or castrate by the sign of the moon. you want it to be
below the heart going to the feet and closer to the feet the better. There
is something about  the light or dark of the moon I do not know about.
If I get in a big hurry we end up paying for it in the long run and it was that
way when we castrated pigs when we raised them.

We also wean and castrate by the moon sign, we have found it makes a big difference.  The past couple of years we have weaned at 4 months, it gets the calves in the barn a little earlier to start working with them and I think it keeps the cows in better condition.

farwest said:

My dad always weaned pigs according to the sign of the moon. The dark of the moon.  The sows couldn't see the weak spots in the fence. Seriously I know many cattleman who do processing and weaning according to the moon. Some swear it has a lot to do with amount of bleeding on cut calves.

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Did your Dad go back and shut the tractor off after those sows were done farrowing during the dark of the moon?

Tony