Weaning is very stressful for calves because they are separated from their mothers, cut off from milk, mixed with other animals and put in a new environment.  A study found that if calves were given a nose clip that cut them off from their mother’s milk, but still remained near their mothers, the calves ate more after being weaned and made 96.6% less noise than calves that were abruptly weaned. Also fence line weaning appeared to make the process easier on calves.