Early Weaning
BeefTalk: Wean Early and Save 25 Percent of Pasture Forage
By Kris Ringwall, North Dakota State University Extension
Did you know you can save more than 25 percent of available forage by weaning calves early?
The current dryness affecting the land has caused all livestock producers to review options. For some in a drought situation, the only real solution is rain. But producers need to take charge, whether the season is dry or wet.
The Dickinson Research Extension Center has and will continue to manage during dry times. The center is in a semiarid climate and dryness is not a stranger.
Managing grazing time and stocking rate is critical. As a result, the center has measured available biomass on the range when cows have their calves removed in mid-August versus early November.
The thought is that removing calves would lessen the impact on the production unit during times when rain is scarce. First, no drought plan works if there is no grazing plan to start with.
To begin, a properly designed grazing system that does not put undue pressure on grass is a priority. While those wetter-than-average years tempt producers to increase stocking numbers, years like this remind us overstocking is never a good idea. Stick to the properly planned grazing system and appropriate adjustments.
This discussion is not about what grazing system is best, though. The main point is to have a grazing system.
The next step is to plan on orderly herd reductions that fit the operation. Today, I want to focus on early weaning as an option to manage dry pastures later this summer.
Center research has shown weaning calves in August lowers the nutritional requirements of the cow herd because dry cows eat less than lactating cows. Center animal scientist Doug Landblom notes“… weaning calves early has a positive impact on growth and efficiency during the backgrounding phase, improves cow body condition score, reduces range forage utilization, and shortens the lifetime feeding period of steers held for retained ownership.”
Data collected by Landblom showed significant benefits of early weaning. At the center, the body weight of cows whose calves were weaned in mid-August was 1,296 pounds in August and the cows still weighed 1,311 pounds in November. Cows with calves not weaned early weighed 1,333 pounds in August but lost significant weight nursing calves on dry pasture and weighed 1,197 pounds in November.
In other words, the cows with calves that were weaned early gained 15 pounds and utilized 28 percent less forage biomass than the cows whose calves were not weaned early. The cows with calves that were not weaned early lost 136 pounds of body weight.
Wow! Cows with August-weaned calves gained weight and saved a significant amount of valuable feed. Cows with traditionally weaned calves lost weight while consuming more feed.
The data also reflected a significant decrease in body condition score for the cows: 6.1 for the cows with calves that were weaned early and 4.7 for the cows with calves that were not weaned until November. This
24 | AUGUST 2017