How Long Does It Take to Wean a Beef Calf

The best method of weaning beef calves may be the 2-step. The beginning step involves preventing the calves (still with the cows) from sucking, while still assuasive them to drink and graze. The second pace is actual separation of the calves from their dams.

In testing at the University of Saskatchewan, this ii-step process reduced weaning stress on calves compared to traditional weaning methods. That was the surprise development in a recent weaning written report at the Western College of Veterinarian Medicine in Saskatoon, Canada, designed to investigate the calf distress caused by traditional weaning methods.

Typically, weaning beefiness calves involves breaking upward a cow/dogie pair and moving each to a split location. Both the cows and calves show dramatic behavior changes at this fourth dimension.

Cows and calves spend lots of time and energy bawling and walking as they search for one another. Equally a event, they spend significantly less time eating and ruminating compared to before weaning.

Calves particularly show depressed performance following weaning. Many will get sick and demand to be treated.

So concluding fall, nosotros decided to find out whether calf distress at weaning was due to beingness denied milk or being denied the social and physical contact with their mothers.

To split up these two factors, we fitted half the calves with a device that prevented them from sucking their dams only still allowed them physical contact with their mothers. Calves could still swallow and beverage water while they wore the devices.

To our surprise, the calves prevented from nursing in the presence of their mothers behaved the same equally the calf group nevertheless allowed to nurse. Both groups ate with the same frequency and walked the same amount, while vocalisation and calling were essentially zero for both groups.

Once the anti-sucking devices were removed and all calves were separated from their dams, only the command calves (the traditionally weaned grouping) bawled and walked frantically. The calves that had been prevented from nursing for only a few days rarely chosen after existence separated from their mothers.

In fact, the two-step calves vocalized 85% less, walked 80% less and spent 25% more time eating compared to calves weaned the traditional way.

The benefits are far more dramatic than those seen with fence-line weaning, which is in itself a large comeback over separating moo-cow/calf pairs out of view of each other. In contend-line weaning, calves are physically separated from their mothers in adjoining pastures.

We believe that calves weaned by the two-footstep process are plainly less disturbed by the weaning process. This fall, we're using more than 600 cow/calf pairs to measure the furnishings of the two-step weaning technique compared to traditional weaning on the immunology, behavior and production response of the calves. The findings may have tremendous implications for the beef industry, especially if the immunological and production response of the calves is improved through such a uncomplicated direction tool.

In other piece of work leading up the ii-step discovery, we explored other weaning protocols that we hoped would reduce post-weaning stress.

• We replaced mother cows with "trainer cows" (cows marked for alternative) with the intent of helping calves settle downwardly, go on feed sooner and help stabilize their social surround after separation from their mothers.

  Nosotros found that newly weaned calves behaved the same whether or not they were kept with trainer cows. There was no do good in the calves' performance, immune part or health if they were penned with trainer cows.

• In another exam, we split a group of moo-cow/dogie pairs in half. We so gave each group of cows the other group'due south calves following weaning.

  Both cows and calves, however, searched for their ain partner with little or no obvious benefit from the presence of familiar adults. We're now certain that newly weaned calves are searching specifically for their mothers and gain little comfort from familiar or unfamiliar cows.

• Many producers follow the precept that 'out of sight is out of mind.' They feel the physiological and psychological stress of weaning is reduced and recovery is sped up if cows and calves can't run into or hear each other. Our research, though, suggests that cows and calves don't follow the same axiom.

This research showed the amount of fourth dimension calves spent walking and the number of times calves chosen was significantly reduced when calves and their mothers could encounter each other across the fence.

Research at the Academy of California-Davis shows that, in improver to reducing the distress response, calves weaned past argue-line contact gained about 30% more than weight than traditionally weaned calves in the ten weeks subsequently they were separated from the cows. Merely you need to make certain y'all have strong fences.

Our fence-line weaning observations suggest that for moo-cow/calf pairs, the mere sight of each other is enough to reduce some distress at weaning. This suggests that the fuss at weaning more often than not has to do with breaking the bond between the cow and dogie.

However, calves weaned past the two-pace method made no fuss when they were denied milk or when they were denied contact with their mother. This suggests that traditional weaning methods of removing both milk and mother at the same time cause undue stress on calves.

Joseph Chiliad. Stookey, Ph.D., is a professor and Derek B. Haley is a doctoral candidate at the University of Saskatchewan'due south Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Canada. For more information, e-mail Stookey at [electronic mail protected] or Haley at [email protected] , or telephone call 306/966-7154.

Other weaning resource from BEEF:

10 Ways To Have A Stress-Free Weaning Day

What's The Best Fourth dimension To Castrate Calves? Vets Agree The Earlier The Better

Plan Now To Wean Early

Low-Stress Weaning Helps Heave Calf Immunity

Ranch Direction: Quick Tips For Easier Dogie Weaning

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Source: https://www.beefmagazine.com/mag/beef_weaning_twostep

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