Early weaning advice

November 2019

Matt Lieschke, Agriculture Advisor, South East Local Land Services

Brett Littler, Livestock Officer, Central Tablelands Local Land Services

Early weaning advice for cattle

Early weaning is taking calves from the cows between 3 and 6 months of age. There is little advantage in leaving the calves on the cow from 7 months of age.

We would only recommend leaving calves on the cows if you were supplying the vealer market after that age.

Why early wean?

There are a number of reasons to early wean.

• Maintain herd fertility: early weaning is one of the most effective ways of managing fat score and safe-guarding the future fertility of the herd. For this reason cow condition should be the biggest indicator of when to wean. Maintaining cow condition not only helps cows get back in calf, but future calving patterns will also be shorter and more condensed, with more calves born early in your calving pattern.
• Save feed: One of the most inefficient ways to feed a calf is through a cow. A lactating cow (about 500kg) will require about 13kg of hay/head/day. Once you wean the calf off the cow and feed them separately the amount required to feed drops substantially (7kg hay for the 500kg cow and 3.5kg of hay for a 200kg weaner.)

You will also find that that the stock will improve and do better than feeding them together.

• Save water: A lactating cow and calf unit will consume around 90 – 110 litres of water per day. Once weaned and managed separately, water intake can drop by around 50%.
• Marketing: Early weaning provides an opportunity to cull non-productive females earlier and to make decisions on what cows are kept and fed. Bringing this decision forward not only saves feed and water, but it also means that cows are likely to be in better condition and of higher sale value. Calves can also be sold or weaned and fed.

If you do early wean calves

If you are going to wean early there are a few little tips to follow.

Firstly, draft the weaners into weight lots. Make sure that you have no more than 100 calves in the mob. After weaning the calves make sure you spend enough time in the first week to watch them and draft off any shy feeders or calves that are appearing to be a little sick or dull.

Put these calves in a TLC pen and feed them good quality hay (e.g. vetch or lucerne). Make sure the area that you pick is accessible in all weather – in some cases bad spots have been picked that have caused problems for access after rain/storms.

Some health things

Marking: If you have not marked the calves, don't mark them if you are going to wean within 2 weeks (longer if you use rings). Give them a few weeks to get over the weaning process and to being fed, then start to plan marking.

Pink eye: Pink eye can be an issue in early weaned calves. It is suggested to control flies and one way to do that is with a back line treatment. It is important that you apply right up onto the poll of the calf. Also consider vaccinating for pinkeye as an extra preventative. Try to avoid overhead hay racks and minimise dust where possible.

Vaccinations: Vaccinations need to be done. At the very least a 5-in-1 booster. In dry times where green feed is limited a vitamin AD&E vaccination is recommended. A B12 injection may help in cobalt deficient areas.

Drenching: Drenching of your calves is essential as young stock are highly susceptible to worms. A fluke drench is also important if your property has a history of fluke.

Feeding: A high quality diet containing good energy (11 ME or better) and protein is essential. The overall protein level of the diet should be at least 16%.  Unless stock have access to high quality green feed, supplementation will be required.

There are a number of calf pellets on the market which are well balanced for energy and protein. Pellets need to be introduced slowly and fed in conjunction with good quality hay. Other options include Dried Distillers Grain and hay (70:30 mix); cracked legume grain and hay; oats plus a protein meal (70:30 mix) and hay; or a protein meal and hay.

Worried about cows going back into calf?

Getting cows back in calf was one of the biggest concerns 12 months ago, especially first calving heifers. Dry conditions means that some herds are likely to be facing the same issue again.

Assessing cow condition is really important as this determines the action taken. For example if your cows are:

• Fat Score 2 + or above: aim to maintain cow condition/ slight weight loss during joining. Cow A in the Photo below is a Fat Score 2 +.
• Fat Score 2- or below: wean calves and feed to achieve weight gain of 0.3-0.5kg/hd/day (cow) to increase conception rates. Cow B in the Photo below is a Fat Score 2 -.

Managing cows in poor condition (i.e. Fat Score 2- or below) is tricky due to the lack of time between calving and the bulls going out. One approach is to put the cows onto the best possible feed and wean the calves at the end of the first cycle (i.e. day 21 of the joining period). This way the majority of calves will be around 3 months of age, making post-weaning management much easier.

Photo 1: Cows with calves at foot.  Cow A is Fat Score 2+, while Cow B is Fat Score 2-. On average this mob was sitting around Fat Score 2 (on average). The cows were about to be re-joined. In managing cows in this type of condition, the aim should be to provide adequate nutrition to hold condition during joining. If condition can’t be held, consider early weaning calves at the end of the first cycle.

Photo 2: Autumn 2018 drop calves. These calves were early weaned in late July/early August. Average age at weaning was 140 days. The youngest calf was 3 months /154kg.

Following yard weaning, these calves grazed pasture and were supplemented with Dried Distillers Grain (2kg/hd/day) and hay up until early October. Weaners were weighed on 7 November and averaged 307kg. Average post-weaning growth rate was 1.25kg/hd/day. Interestingly, the youngest calf at weaning recorded the highest post-weaning growth rate.

This group demonstrates that early weaned calves can continue to grow and perform well providing they receive good nutrition, good animal health (e.g. drench, vaccination for clostridial diseases, fly prevention, AD&E injection etc.) and management.

Click here to view the Early Weaning Calves video.

Managing weaner lambs

Weaner death rates in both merino and cross-bred flocks are highly variable and can cause significant financial loss. Good management, both before and after weaning, has a major impact on weaner survival and profitability of your sheep enterprise - especially in tough seasons when lambs are weaned early or are lighter than normal.

Below are some tips on managing weaners.

Imprint feeding

Imprint feeding involves feeding a small amount of grain to lambs while they are still on the ewe. Without this teaching process lambs can take up to three weeks to get onto grain. If lambs haven’t been imprinted, one option is to run a small number of ewes or adult wethers with the lambs.

Draft into weight ranges

Drafting lambs into weight groups can really help with management and minimising losses. Light lambs (i.e. <20kg liveweight) have higher nutritional requirements and are more prone to losses. These should be separated and given preferential treatment.

Some lambs will handle the weaning process better than others. After 4-5 weeks, check all groups and re-draft lambs into weight ranges. At this point the very light lambs (i.e. the “poor-doers”) can be drafted off and sold.

Getting some liveweight data at weaning also means you can monitor liveweight gain and identify if they are heading in the right direction

Animal health

At the very least ensure all lambs are given their 6-in-1 booster vaccination at weaning along with a drench to control worms. Correct dosage is important - drafting lambs into weight ranges will help administering the right amount. Also, given the lack of green feed at present an AD&E injection is also worth considering.

Great care should also be taken to protect weaners against blowfly strike. There are many effective products available, with differing withholding periods to suit most situations.

Go for growth!

Post-weaning weight gain is critical in achieving good survival rates. Research shows that growth rates don’t need to be excessive, they just need to be moving forward. Even as little as 50g/hd/day in merino weaners can have a big impact on survival.

Weaners need access to a high quality diet containing high levels of energy and protein. Unless weaners have access to high quality green feed, supplementation will be important.

As shown in Table 1 below, the rate of supplementation depends on the liveweight of the animal, the quality of the feed and target weight gain. For example, for a 20kg weaner to achieve 100g/hd/day on a ration containing 12 Megajoules of Metabolisable Energy (ME), the required rate would be 570g/hd/day and a minimum crude protein of 14.9%.

This year we are seeing a big range in protein levels in cereal grains. Barley for example has been testing anywhere between 10% and 15% protein. It’s always worth getting a feed test done to check what you are dealing with! If you are feeding cereal grain, remember to add 1.5% lime and 0.5% salt to balance mineral deficiencies.

High protein feeds like dried distillers grain, pulse grains (lupins, faba beans) protein meals, high protein hay (lucerne, vetch, clover, canola) and silage can be used to increase protein level in the ration.

There are a number of pellets on the market which are well balanced for energy and protein. Like grain, pellets need to be introduced slowly and stock need access to roughage (hay or pasture).