Trey Patterson, COO of Padlock Ranch, discusses the benefits of Weaning calves ahead of schedule.
by Heather Smith Thomas
Sometimes weaning calves earlier than traditional weaning
dates can be beneficial for both the cows and the calves—and for the rancher’s
financial picture. To do this
efficiently, however, a person needs to plan ahead and be set up to do it
properly.
Trey
Patterson, PhD (nutritionist and Chief Operations Officer of Padlock Ranches, in
Wyoming), says their ranches have sometimes weaned calves as early as 4 months
of age. “We’ve used this management
strategy, weaning calves earlier than usual, primarily in our first-calf
heifers, but we’ve sometimes done it with cows as well. In both cases, it is a strategy to manage
body condition,” he explains. This gives
the cow or heifer a chance to regain weight or to not lose weight in the
fall—so you won’t have to supply more feed in order to pick them back up again. This can be a consideration on a dry year
when a ranch might be short on forage.
“I did some
research when I was on faculty at South Dakota State University, working with a
team of range scientists from SDSU and NDSU,” he says. In comparing spring-calving cows weaning in
August with cows weaning in November, the studies found that the dry cow from
August through November used 76% of the total amount of forage that a pair
did.
“When we
early-weaned, we were able to save 24% of the forage that would have been used
during that period of time. Thus early
weaning can be a beneficial tool when trying to manage body condition score on
cows and/or forage use. If it’s a
forage-availability question, you can calculate this to see if you are ahead to
leave the calf on the cow (assuming body condition score is adequate) and feed
the cow more during that extra length of time she’s lactating, or if it is
cheaper to wean the calf and feed him, and not have to feed the cow as soon or
as much,” he explains.
Efficient Feed Converters
Young
calves are very efficient feed converters.
“They eat a little more--on a dry matter basis—as a percent of body
weight than a bigger calf and are pretty efficient at converting that to
gain. One of the things we do here at
the Padlock Ranch, when we wean a younger, lighter calf, is to make sure the
ration is built with that in mind. We
provide a higher concentration of energy, protein and minerals, and a little
less roughage.”
The higher
concentrate ration helps the younger calves start gaining quickly, and they are
very efficient in utilizing this kind of feed.
They can’t eat very many pounds of forage because the rumen doesn’t have
that much capacity yet. “So we increase
the concentration of energy, protein and minerals,” says Patterson. Thus a producer would typically wean these
calves onto some kind of concentrate ration rather than onto grass pasture like
you could an older calf.
“Later-weaned
calves can go right on grass and do well, but early-weaned light calves need a
higher level of nutrition to keep growing and gaining. They would survive without it, but will gain
faster and might stay healthier on the higher level. I haven’t found that earlier weaned calves
are less healthy; I think they are just as healthy as late-weaned calves, if
they are managed appropriately,” he says.
“We’ve
weaned them when it’s hot and dusty in September, when you’d think they’d be at
risk, but they don’t seem to be any different in their health from those that
are weaned later when it’s cooler and there’s snow on the ground,” says
Patterson.
“We wean
them in a feedlot facility with concrete pads and bunks and feed them a total
mixed milled ration. They are separated
from their mothers and we get them on feed as soon as possible. In our situation they don’t really get a
chance to eat this type of ration and learn about it until they are
weaned. The mixed ration contains hay
and concentrate,” he explains. The hay
helps the calves adjust and keeps the rumen healthy.
“Another thing we do, from a rumen
safety standpoint, is use some fiber-based energy products like wheat mids and
distillers grains (along with corn or barley), just to keep the starch load
from getting too high. That’s a good way
to get energy levels up without getting a diet that’s too high in starch,” says
Patterson.
The wheat-mid pellets are very
palatable and the calves start eating those fairly quickly in a mixed
ration. They aren’t off feed much at all
even though they are stressed at being taken off their mothers. The more stressed they are and the lower
their feed intake, the higher the nutrient concentration must be in what you
are feeding. If the calves aren’t eating
much, every bite needs to be nutritious.
“We need to be thinking about pounds and grams of ingested nutrients at
this point and not necessarily percentage of the diet,” he says.
“Typically on these lighter calves,
we don’t use a wet ration. If we are
using silage or haylage for weaned calves, we leave these young ones on a dry
ration longer than we would a normal-age weaned calf. The older calves get worked onto corn silage
fairly quickly. After those early-weaned
calves get a little more size and weight, over 400-450 pounds, we can start
working more silage into their diet.
From that point on they can be managed similarly to the older-weaned
calves.”
“Once they get a little bigger, the
moisture (within reason) doesn’t have a lot to do with dry matter intake. If you feed them a wetter ration, they just
eat more. But the little calves don’t
have enough rumen space to eat enough to get adequate nutrients to meet their
requirements for growth,” he explains.
They can’t consume as much silage as a larger calf.
Planning to Pull
“We hear a lot of talk about early
weaning, but a person needs a reason to do it.
If you have a reason to do it, then you want to make sure you do it
properly and the diets are managed appropriately and you have a good management
plan for the calves. A feed shortage, or
cows thinner than you’d like them to be, or if you hope to market some bred
cows and don’t want them losing weight before sale, could all be reasons to
look at early weaning. If you plan to
sell some cows and your feed costs are reasonable, you might be money ahead to
leave the weight on the cow to sell her, and efficiently put weight on the
calf,” says Patterson.
“Often you reach a point,
especially with first calf heifers, where the calf doesn’t seem to be growing
very much on the cow but the cow continues to be pulled down. She’s still trying to grow and produce milk
and can’t quite maintain herself. If you
can identify that point, this is an economical time to wean the calf. You are not gaining much by leaving them
together. You might actually be hurting
yourself and those young cows because you have to start feeding the cows
earlier or feed more, to pick them back up if they are thin and have to go
through a hard winter,” he says.
“There is also some good
information on carcass quality on these early-weaned calves. They marble better. But I think the main reason people do it is
to manage the cow and/or their land more efficiently."
Early weaning is something very few
people considered in earlier years, thinking the calves would be bigger (more
pounds to sell in the fall if they are left on the cows longer), but often the
cows would be thin by the next calving season.
If a person is set up to retain
ownership of the calves, or plans to keep them as replacements or to sell later
as breeding stock, they might do very well with early weaned calves. “Otherwise marketing them can sometimes be a
challenge unless a feedlot is set up to handle those,” says Patterson. You need
to check into the marketing aspect before you jump into this, especially with
really young calves.
“If you are used to weaning and
handling calves and have the facilities to do this, then it’s an easy decision
if you have issues with thin cows or running out of grass. But if you are not set up for it, and don’t
have experience with early weaning, it could be a wreck,” he explains.
It’s not for everyone, but can work
well for a person who is set up to do it and can commit to it. “Your feed costs are an important
factor. If you have feed bought or put
up at a reasonable price—your forages and/or some concentrates or
by-products—there are some real opportunities here to help manage your cows and
do a good job managing calves. If that’s
not the case, however, then it becomes more difficult to make it work.”
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