Early weaning of calves was a research project Barry Irving hadn’t
planned this year for the University of Alberta’s Kinsella Ranch, but
it’s happening anyway.
With only two centimetres of rain since spring, ranch manager Irving
has no choice but to wean the four-month-old calves from their mothers.
“We’re doing it as grass relief,” said Irving, who has thrown away the
drought management book this year.
The cows have eaten the grass from the regular and reserve pastures.
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“We’re so far into a drought it doesn’t matter if you’re a good, bad or
in-between manager,” said Irving.
He had no choice but to wean the calves at the ranch early.
Traditionally, calves are weaned from their mothers at seven or eight
months of age.
Previous early weaning studies at the Kinsella Ranch show it is
possible to wean beef calves at 120 to 130 days with no long-term side
effects, said Christoph Weder. He is Alberta Agriculture’s provincial
beef and forage specialist and is wrapping up his PhD thesis on the
effects of early weaning from research at Kinsella.
The rule of thumb is the calves need to have doubled their birth weight
before they are taken from the cow.
Dairy calves are traditionally weaned at six to eight weeks or earlier,
but that early weaning is coupled with more intense management and
nutrition.
By 120 to 130 days, a calf’s rumen is fully formed and is able to
digest grain and grass.
For the past month, Irving has offered the calves a creep feed ration
on pasture to get them used to eating grain and to help develop micro
flora in their rumens needed to break down and digest the food.
On a year of good grass and ample feed, it doesn’t pay to wean the
cattle early, said Weder. But this year is the exception for many
farmers.
“This year in a major drought when you’re short of feed, the best thing
is to pull those calves,” said Weder.
Weaning the calves early allows the cows to put any extra nutrition
into building fat reserves.
“You want to get cows as fat as possible going into the winter,” he
said.
During previous early weaning studies at Kinsella, 240 calves were
removed from the cows at 72 days with no long-term effects.
Other calves were removed from the cows at 130 days and the normal 200
days. By one year of age there was no noticeable difference in weight
gain of the animals, he said.
If the calves are weaned early they must be given a high-quality ration
to ensure energy requirements.
“You have to make sure you’ve got a balanced ration to feed the calves.”
Irving said once this year’s calves are weaned, they’ll be put into a
feedlot.
Extra water troughs are put into the feedlot to help the calves make
the transition from dugout to watering bowl.
The early weaning at Kinsella is not unusual this year, said Weder, who
estimates he’s talked to the owners of 5,000 cattle who plan to wean
their calves early or send the pairs to auction.
Many older or thin cows will be slaughtered while their calves go to a
feedlot.
Wayne Woodman of Heartland Livestock in Lloydminster said the company
has only seen a trickle of young calves through its market so far, but
he expects a change shortly.
“We’re going to see thousands of cattle over the next month,” said
Woodman.
