Early Weaning
is a difference of almost a 1.5 body score less for the
cows with calves that were weaned traditionally.
The focus today is the cow. In a dry year, the logic would be
to do some culling, getting poorer cows off the pastures.
But before culling too deeply, consider pulling the calves
off the cows and simply leaving the cows on pasture.
If the year continues to be dry, the cows may not perform
as well as the cows in Landblom’s study at the center, but
we have no reason to believe they would not be better
off than the cows with calves at their side. The logic is
that calves can be hauled to the feed easier than the
cows, so keep the good cows on pasture and move the
calves to a more plentiful and reasonable feed source.
One point of caution: Although the early weaned
calves perform very well postweaning, lightweight
calves still do not bring enough dollars to offset
the production costs associated with the cow.
The center calves weighed just shy of 400 pounds in August. A
400-pound calf has tremendous potential to grow once feed
is located and appropriate arrangements made. The question
of selling the calf or retaining ownership needs to be asked.
Retaining ownership is an established concept, but for many,
a new concept. In fact, many producers are very uneasy
with the additional risk of owning calves once the calves
have left the control of the home operation. But still, fast-
gaining calves with good genetics designed for premiums
on the rail make exploring the concept worthwhile.
More on that later. Let’s return to where we started.
By weaning calves early, a producer can save more
than 25 percent of available forage in a dry year. That
is a great tool to have in the management plan and
may very well need to be implemented this year.
As with any drought management tool, do not wait until
forage availability is critical for the herd. Implement
drought plans sooner than later. More next time.
May you find all your ear tags. I
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