“Early Weaning Nutrition”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
The hits just keep on coming. The promise of a long, green summer have evaporated with the moisture. It’s time to consider early weaning.
After the summer of 2011, the range needs rest to recover. Pulling calves off the cows now will not only reduce lactation drain on precious cow nutrients, but pulling those calves off the range will reduce the grazing pressure on the grass. Many ranchers have already reduced cow numbers through strategic culling, so pulling calves off early may be the best option to maintain cow numbers and improve range condition next spring.
The nutritional needs of those early-weaned calves are not greatly different from a conventionally weaned calf. If possible on the day of weaning, attract calves to the bunk by spreading 2-3 lbs of good-quality, long-stemmed hay loose in the bunk. On top of the loose hay spread 2-3 lbs of either a complete starter pellet or a mixed ration. The ration should be about 50:50 blend of good quality chopped hay:concentrate. The concentrate can be a blend of processed grain, grain by-products, and a complete balanced supplement. Make sure the diet stays well-mixed and calves can’t easily separate the grain from the hay. As soon as calves are all readily coming to the bunk and consuming the mixed ration, the loose hay is no longer needed.
If mixing facilities are not available, a complete starter feed can be used for the first few weeks after weaning.
Target protein concentration of the starter diet should be 15% crude protein, and most of that protein should come from natural plant sources, such as distiller’s grains or corn gluten feed. If the only forage available is dry, chopped hay, wet byproducts can be beneficial in “conditioning” the ration, which will help keep individual ingredients from separating out in the bunk. Silage or haylage can accomplish this same purpose. If needed, this can also be accomplished by adding water to the mixer during mixing.
Monitor consumption and step up the amount of feed carefully. Healthy calves should normally consume about 3% of their body weight of this 50% forage diet, on a dry matter basis. So a group of calves which average 300 lbs should ultimately eat about 9 lbs of dry matter, which would be 12-13 lbs of a 70% dry matter ration.
Continue to monitor the calves for symptoms of respiratory disease (depression, nasal discharge, lack of appetite) and coccidiosis (diarrhea). Calves which don’t readily come to the bunk at the morning feeding time are likely candidates for further observation. However, rectal temperature can be misleading in the summer, especially after 9 or 10:00 a.m., so just because a calf has a rectal temperature greater than 103.5°F doesn’t necessarily indicate respiratory disease.
Early weaning definitely challenges conventional thinking, facilities, and logistics. But it can be very effective at preserving range condition, cow condition, and calf performance.
