Steps for success or failure at weaning

With weaning right around the corner for most operations it is a good time to define what you can do to help being successful at weaning. Weaning is one of the most important times because it shows how successful the producer was all year. It shows if all those late nights pulling calves or working in the hot summer sun was worth it. Here are 4 steps you can take to determine if it was a successful year.

Step 1: Define what is weaning success to you

Have you defined what success or failure would look like for your operation? Different producers can have different definitions so it is best to know what that term means to you. Success might be 85% live, healthy calves that put on weight rapidly. Failure may be a mortality rate that is lower than that. Also sick or distressed calves with a high rate of treatment and less weight to sell. With this step it’s a good idea to go through your expenses so you will know what your breakeven is.

Step 2: Don’t just wing it

Too often producers enter this time of year with no solid plan in place. Now sometimes having no plan may work out but more often it does not. Just like during breeding and calving season you should have a plan for weaning. You should develop a flexible plan about a month before you start. Doing so will give you time to order any feed that you may need, work on your health program, order vaccines, plus anything else you may need.

Step 3: Make sure your facility is up to it

You should prepare your facilities for calves wanting to get back to their mothers. If they’ll be in a fenced area check and reinforce the fences to prevent any calves from escaping through. The feed bunks should be place perpendicular to the fence so they’ll run into them as they circle around the pen. When selecting a feeder you should consider 12″ of bunk space per calf if you’re hand-feeding them and 6″ to 8″ if it will be a self-feeder. I discuss cattle equipment considerations here

Step 4: Make sure the water trough isn’t too high

Many times producers will use the same type of trough in the weaning pen that are too high for young calves. Calves are smaller with shorter necks compared to fully grown cows. So make sure it is a good height so all of them will be able to get a drink. You run into the same problem when you use a hay ring in the weaning pens. They are not able to reach all of the hay so you’ll end up with a column of hay in the middle that isn’t getting eaten. If you can’t use a smaller ring you will have to occasionally go out there and push the hay to the edges so they  can reach it.

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