Weaning is generally the most stressful time in the life of a calf, and stress can lower its immune defenses. Finding ways to reduce stress at weaning is key to minimizing sickness. Keeping calves calm (and eating) is crucial. There are many ways to wean calves; every ranch does it a little differently, depending on herd size, facilities, feed and labor availability. But the goal is the same – to get calves through this transition as smoothly as possible.
Nutrition
Shannon Williams, University of Idaho, Lemhi County Extension, says one of the most important things is the nutritional status of calves before and during weaning. “Are they grazing crop aftermath or being fed older hay? It pays to test forages, to know if what they are eating is adequate or needs supplementation,” she says.
Don’t forget minerals. A healthy immune system depends on balanced nutrition, with enough trace minerals like copper, zinc, manganese and selenium. On a year like this where many regions have been extremely dry, cows may be thin coming off of summer pastures and short on protein and minerals. You may have to catch up on calf nutrition at weaning.
If you had adequate irrigation to keep some pastures green, you could save your best pasture for calves at weaning. “Green grass is better than hay nutritionally and doesn’t have dust issues,” Williams says. Weaning on pastures is ideal if a person can do it, but sometimes you don’t have a choice.
If they’ve been on poor feed, they need something better, but it’s best to transition gradually rather than make an abrupt change. It’s best to start with good-quality long-stemmed grass hay – something they are familiar with – rather than put them immediately on concentrates, rich alfalfa or corn silage. The diet needs to gradually change.
One strategy is to bring the herd into an area where you can feed for a few days. Calves mimic their mom and eat what she eats; so, cows can teach the calves how to eat from a bunk. Then the calves will get on feed quicker after you separate them from the cows, if they already know how to eat the feed.
Vaccination
Vaccination can give calves some protection against the most common respiratory diseases, since stress of weaning and shipping may make them more vulnerable. “Work with your veterinarian on a good vaccination program and have it in writing, so that when you ship the calves, you can send all the records with them – what vaccinations they’ve had and when, and how long they’ve been weaned,” Williams says.
Some calves are vaccinated ahead of weaning, some are vaccinated at weaning, and some are given boosters a few weeks after weaning in backgrounding programs. If possible, it’s generally best to vaccinate before the stress of weaning. Stress hinders a calf’s ability to mount good immunity from vaccination. Anything you can do to minimize stress will pay off in better calf health and weight gain, with less setback.
Facilities
Some producers don’t have facilities to do fenceline pasture weaning or two-stage weaning with nose flaps (the method least stressful for calves and cows). “If you have to ‘cold turkey’ wean by putting calves in a corral and taking cows away, it’s even more important to have them on really good feed and have a good vaccination program. You need to vaccinate far enough ahead of weaning that the calves have time to develop strong immunity,” Williams says.
Try to control dust and limit the amount of pacing around the corral. Williams says, “Low-stress handling and working with those calves is also helpful. They need gentle handling, especially if they’ve been on big pastures all summer with their mothers and haven’t seen people very often.”
Weaned calves in this smoky feedlot will take a few weeks to become accustomed to corn silage in the ration. Photo by Jared Judy. The Malson family raises registered Black Angus and Hereford cattle in the high-desert country near Parma, Idaho. Josh Malson, who is third generation on the ranch, says they’ve weaned calves many different ways over the years. “It often depends on how much help we have, the weather, feed, etc. I really like using nose flaps for weaning and have had good success with that method. When calves can stay with mom, out on good grass, it takes the stress out of weaning,” he says. There’s a lot less stress on both the calves and cows when they can be together while the cows start to dry up and calves get used to not having milk.
“I’ve weaned calves all different ways; I’ve weaned with no vaccinations and with vaccination, and I’m not the best in using those programs; I think they are mainly about marketing – since many buyers have a preference on what those calves have had for vaccinations. In terms of calf health, it’s not always necessary to follow a certain protocol, as long as you can wean the calves with minimal stress,” he says.
“We’ve tried to combine and do several different things. If I put calves through the chute to get weaning weights, I can put in nose flaps at the same time and get the first round of shots in them,” Malson says.
Jared Judy (with Judy Ranches near Blackfoot) is part of a family operation that runs 1,300 mother cows. Calves are born in March, weaned mid-October and usually are shipped in late December. “Every calf is weaned and fed at least 45 days – usually 60 days – before shipping. If they have not already been vaccinated when we bring them to our feeding pens, they are vaccinated the day they get off the trucks. We start them in very small pens, so they don’t have a lot of room to walk around,” he says. This cuts down on time spent pacing, running back and forth, bawling and trying to get out to find “mom.”
“After they’ve settled down, we graduate them into the feedlot,” Judy says. “We keep good long-stem grass hay in front of them for the first week; we try to keep their feed similar to what they are used to. After they go into the feedlot, their ration is changed gradually to get them going on corn silage and chopped hay. It takes a couple weeks to introduce them to the corn silage.”
Water is important from the beginning; if calves aren’t drinking, they don’t eat much. “Our water troughs in weaning pens are along the fence, so they find it as they pace the fence. A person can vaccinate with whatever you want, but it seems like the most important thing is getting calves back on feed and water as quickly as possible,” Judy says.
“We generally split steers and heifers when they get off the trucks and keep the steers in our feedlot and put heifers out on grass pasture. They do very well weaned on good grass. It’s amazing how quickly it takes the bawl out of them. They don’t travel as much; they just put their head down and eat – and just keep gaining,” he says.
With a large number of calves to wean, it’s not as easy to do fenceline weaning or two-stage weaning with nose flaps. Judy says, “One thing we’ve done with older cows we plan to sell is keep them home rather than send them to summer pasture, and sell them earlier. We generally just leave their calves in the pasture where they’ve been and send the cows to market.” The calves are still in a familiar place, on good grass, with the buddies they grew up with, and they don’t miss their mothers as much, he says.
