>>Why don't they let the calves get their own colostrom? Won't the mother cows make enough for the baby cow and for the farmer also?<< I've worked with a variety of farm animals and the weaning issues never bothered me at the time. Now with 2 children, I can't imagine I was so matter of fact about it. It basically comes down to ease of labour and profits. The calves do get (usually) their mother's colostrum and are removed within 24 hours to the "nursery". Here they are fed 2-3 times per day, generally with milk from recently calved cows, as milk is generally withheld for 3 days after calving from going into the bulk container. The cow could produce enough for the baby and the farmer but the farmer can sell the milk that the baby is drinking and it would be really inconvenient to try to milk cows with their babies around. As Kathy D. pointed out from her posting about weaning baby horses, there seem to be a lot of similarities between modern animal rearing and reasons for early weaning of human babies, however inaccurate they are. Donna Hansen Burnaby, BC (looking for a career change)