Space to spread out in a clean pen can also help prevent post-weaning illness. Producers should also visit with their local veterinarian about vaccination schedules and protocols that would be most effective for the early weaned calf as well as developing a protocol for treating illness if it occurs, well before weaning takes place.
Even with a price slide for lighter-weight calves, the early-weaned calf will usually not bring as much as a calf at a traditional weaning weight.
Fortunately, these young calves are very efficient and with proper nutrition can gain as well or better than calves left to nurse the cow. Evaluating the cost of feed and the predicted value of the calf are critical, especially if early weaning is due to drought, as harvested feed resources are typically expensive in those situations. Once weaned, these calves may fit well in an annual forage grazing backgrounding program. Additionally, after a short growing period approximately 90 days these calves may be put on a finishing diet.
They traditionally are very efficient during the finishing phase and have a high percentage of upper two-thirds choice carcasses. However, as stated earlier, feed and labor costs should be evaluated against the predicted value of the calves at each marketing point.
Early weaning is a strategy that can be advantageous in several scenarios. Feeding, management, and marketing needs to be evaluated prior to weaning so the best options as well as best management practices are selected. Start a dialogue, stay on topic and be civil.
If you don't follow the rules , your comment may be deleted. User Legend: Moderator Trusted User. Managing early weaned calves News News. If their is such a chart when you buy a heifer at a certain weight the age should be established by knowing the weight. HDRider Well-known member. Click to expand Texas PaPaw Well-known member. I subtracted when I should of added. HDRider":2wpbb1rv said:.
HDRider":3bwf1tx5 said:. Nesikep Well-known member. A few years ago I regularly weigh taped all my calves every 2 weeks.. Some would grow in spurts, and some had very steady growth.. One heifer in particular was VERY steady, so I plugged it all into Excel and got a formula which I use to compare the weight of all other calves Calves tend to put on more weight in the first month than the 5th if the feeding regime is similar, so I came up with this Nesikip Your formula looks accurate as to weight and age.
TexasBred Well-known member. Nesi I know you've been bored to death since finishing all those computations so here's a little something to keep you occupied for minutes. A post from 4 years ago, to review and the new members might find useful. JPF New member. Joined Jun 8, Messages 1 Reaction score 0. Jeanne - Simme Valley Well-known member. I shoot for per month of age.
Obviously, not all my calves do that, but that is always the goal - on grass and momma's milk. Nesi's formula looks pretty accurate. Im assuming breed comes quite a bit in play here? JPF said:. Doing this I had no sick calves to doctor. My calving began April The 20th of August I weaned the older calves on grass with no shots and no special feed.
They never looked back, gaining from day one. No sick calves. The first week in September I weaned the younger calve. No sickness. My weaning procedure always began with waiting until the calves had sucked their mothers and eaten some grass before gathering at about I used good stockmanship while sorting and turned the calves out with a full belly.
Calves are resilient if handled as naturally as possible. They had no strange foods causing rumen stress. We weaned calves ranging in age from 80 to days several years ago by gradually increasing separation from cows.
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