One of the problems we have had is the calves nursing all the cows. We work with the cows to be super friendly and we breed for temperament. This has it's ups and downs. I love that anyone can work with our cows, and you can really just sit down next to them anywhere and milk them. The problem is that they let anyone or anything nurse... even adult cows, sheep... whatever. We have tried every weaning device over the years and last year we found this one. http://easywean.com.au/about-us/the-easywean-story/ IT WORKED!! We had a dozy of time weaning Phoebe she was 14 months old and still sucking everyone. She had a knack for disposing of all the other devices we bought. I still haven't found few of them. One of the problems is that it has to be made in such a way that the calf can still graze but also keep them from nursing. This one can be made to poke out ( like how Ida is wearing it) or turned around to poke the calf. Phoebe wore hers to poke her, we had to train her not to want to suck everything in the pasture. After a few weeks we take the device off and so far we have not had any problems with them sucking.
Sweet Ida figured out that that there were other cows in the pasture that had milk and was snacking away, to the point of making herself sick. I moved her to a pasture by herself and she managed to convince one of the cows to stand next to the fence so she could have a snack that way...so out came the weaning ring. She is not too happy with it and certainly is unhappy with me. Today she finally took treats from me and let me pet her. She can hold a grudge! Hopefully she will be able to go back out to the big pasture with the other cows in a few days I want to make sure she is grazing well and drinking before I turn her out.
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