Last Friday, we weaned our spring calves off their mothers. Here is a picture of the calves on the left and cows on the right. I saved both paddocks of grass for this specific purpose so that both groups would have plenty of quality forage during the weaning process. This fence works perfectly for keeping the calves apart from their dams. It is an old woven wire fence with a hot wire on each side. The woven wire fence keeps any calves from sneaking under the hot wire and the hot wire keeps the cows from crowding the woven wire fence and going over the top. Because the cows and calves are right across the fence from each other, it eases the anxiety of being separated from each other. They do bawl for a day or two, but otherwise weaning this way is a minimally stressful event. You can see that the calves are more interested in the new paddock of forage that what their mothers are doing across the fence.
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