Weaning is a stressful time — stressful on calves, cows and producers.
Weaning can have a major impact on a calf’s short and long-term health, growth performance and economic returns. Minimizing weaning stress should improve calf health and weight gain.
“Weaning can be approached many different ways depending on what facilities are available,” says Jason Warner, Kansas State University extension cow-calf specialist.
Four beef cattle extension specialists chime in on weaning methods, including the pros and cons of each option.
“Everybody’s got an opinion,” says Ron Lemenager, Purdue University beef specialist. “I don’t think it’s a one option fits all.”
He also encourages producers to minimize any additional stressful events at weaning time, such as castration, dehorning, vaccinating, physical separation or transportation.
“While we can’t eliminate all stresses, castration, dehorning and the first round of vaccinations can be done preweaning in many situations to reduce weaning stress,” he says.
The three weaning methods discussed by the specialists include:
Fence-line weaning.
Calves and cows are separated by a fence but can still see each other. Fence-line weaning is considered a low-stress method because calves can still see, hear and smell their mothers, which helps reduce the psychological stress of separation. This method helps calves settle down faster.“Fence-line weaning is ideal if the facilities are available,” says Megan Van Emon, Montana State University extension beef cattle specialist.
John Hall, University of Idaho extension beef specialist, agrees.
“When you’re set up for it and used to it, my preference is fence-line weaning. We’ve gotten along very well with it over the years at the research station here. Those calves do settle down more easily,” Hall says.
Warner says fence-line weaning requires good fences and the ability to gather and separate cows and calves that rejoin each other.
“Many producers often remove calves from their dams, leave the cows on pasture and then place the calves in pens or feeding traps,” Warner says. “If producers do the opposite — take cows to the pens and leave the calves on pasture — then it is generally best to keep a few older, trainer cows with the calves during the initial weaning period to help reduce stress. Nutrition is key during this time period regardless of the approach used.”
There are pros and cons of putting the cows or the calves in the lot. If the lot is dusty, it might be a better option for the cows, due to health concerns. Ideally, it would be a grass lot, not dirt.
“Putting the calves in a lot gives an opportunity to really keep a close eye on those calves,” Lemenager says. “I can get them into the handling facility if I need to — a lot easier than if I’ve got to move them off of pasture.”
Nursing prevention tools.
Devices, such as nose flaps or clips, can be placed in a calf’s nose to prevent nursing while allowing them to remain with their mothers. This is also considered a low-stress weaning option.Lemenager explains his apprehension with the nose flaps are the lesions they create.
Both Hall and Van Emon say nose flaps help reduce anxiety at separation but require additional labor to put in and remove.
“There’s been some research done on nose flaps that seems to have positive benefits if you’re trying to early wean,” Hall explains. “But it is a whole different level of stress for the rancher and cattle to get those animals up, put the nose flaps in, and then take them out at weaning time.”
Abrupt weaning.
This method is the complete separation of calves from cows. This can be separating and taking straight to the sale barn or it can be to a completely different location owned by the rancher.“Here in the West, we tend to wean straight onto a truck and into the sale barn,” Van Emon says.
This method can be the most stressful on the calf if they go straight from a pasture setting with mom to a new location they do not know and are subjected to a new concentrate diet and water source.
Lemenager’s preference is abrupt weaning with his personal cow herd. He moves the calves nine miles away from their moms to be weaned and backgrounded. He says with this method, the cows and calves cannot hear each other and the bawling is done in three days.
He gets the calves used to eating with a pre-weaning creep feed and drinking out of a water tank. At weaning, the creep feeder moves with the calves in a grassy lot with shade and easy access to both a water tank and an automatic waterer along the perimeter fence.
Hall says asking calves to transition from pasture to a dry lot setting with a feed bunk and from creek water to a water tank can be stressful and hard to understand. If possible, allow the calves access and train them to feed bunks and water tanks before weaning.
He encourages producers to choose the weaning method they are most comfortable with, that works for their specific ranch and fits their facilities, labor and management style.
“Don’t try a new method during a challenging weaning year,” he summarizes. “The goal is to reduce stress as much as possible for both cows and calves.”
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