Eden Shale Update- October

For the past 10 years we have been weaning our calves based on the “sign”. Now you may or may not believe that there is a benefit to using this ancient calendar to plan certain procedures, but we have used it successfully and I do seem to think that there is something to it.

Referred to as “The Zodiac Man” or “Man of Signs”, this idea can be traced back to the eleventh century. Medical astrologers of that time believed that there was a correlation to both the heavens and living beings. During the late-medieval period this “rational” idea was built upon the precisely calculable order of the heavens. The theory was that celestial order, in turn, had influence on terrestrial things like weather and the human body. This correlation to the astrological phase to the human body was scripted as The Zodiac Man, corelating each phase to a specific part of the body. It is generally believed to be bad practice to perform any procedure on a part of the body while the sign is in that area. (Yale University Online Exhibits)

So right or wrong, we use the zodiac sign to schedule management events, such as castration and weaning. We only perform these two events when the sign is in the “feet”. A quick reference to the Farmers Almanac can tell you where the sign is on The Zodiac Man. We weaned our calves on Sept 13th when the sign was in the “feet”. Weaning went smoothly and we had hardly any bawling from the calves or cows even on the first night. The transition was smooth and Greg had all the calves eating grain by the third night.

Our weaning weights were down a bit from last year, but we also weaned two weeks earlier than previously. This years average was 491 lbs.  The calves averaged 2.2 lbs per day of age, and had we kept them on the cow for two more weeks they would have been within 6 lbs of last years average of 528 lbs.  That difference is understandable with this summer being much drier than last season.

The cows were in decent shape given the dry pasture conditions.  They had an average weight of 1246 lbs, a body condition score of 5.6, and a hair coat score of 2.1. On average the herd weaned 40% of their body weight.
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These calves will now get backgrounded at the farm throughout the fall and winter. The females will be managed as replacement heifers, and the steers will get grazed on stockpiled fescue and carried through the winter and then grazed on grass at Eden Shale next summer. Check back for more updates on these calves as we carry them through our management system. 

Eden Shale calves eating

Twelve Signs of the Zodiac