Early Weaning Feeding Weaner Cattle

158 Beef Breeder MANUAL

6.2.2. Early Weaning

In some circumstances, weaning some or all calves before the planned weaning date is necessary. Poor calf health, inadequate milk supply from the mother, and weaning to prevent excessive body condition loss by breeders in adverse times e.g. drought may all be prompts to wean calves early. Calves can be weaned as early as eight weeks old as long as a high protein and energy diet is provided minimum of 11.5 MJ ME and 15 protein. However, they are easier to manage if early weaned around 3 to 4 months of age. If grain is used in the weaning diet, the grain must be introduced gradually over a period of 14 to 18 days, and always provide a ibre source. Providing a small quantity of supplementary feed to the cows whilst they still have their calves at foot helps to educate the calves to accept the supplement as they see their mothers consuming the feed and mimic their actions. Once calves are adapted to the supplement, they may even be ‘creep fed’ in the paddock prior to weaning to assist in the transition to a prepared diet whilst they are in the yards during weaning. Creep feeding is enabled by placing the supplementary feed in a structure that can only be accessed by the calves and not the cows Fig. 6.2.

6.2.3. Feeding Weaner Cattle

Weaner cattle have high requirements for both protein and energy to accommodate their requirements to grow and achieve reproductive maturity by 15 months of age, and for heifers in particular, to be able to subsequently calve by 24 months of age. Post-weaning diets should aim to provide rations containing 11.5MJ of metabolisable energy ME and a minimum of 15 crude protein. A diet of this quality will enable the weaners to gain weight at a rate in excess of 1kg per day. Lower quality diets will reduce the daily gain of weaners. However, lower growth rates may be desirable in circumstances where heifers are assessed to be in an ‘over fat’ condition in the period immediately before they are due to be joined, and are at risk of lower conception rates at joining. Figure 6.2. Creep feeding facilities can be either specially designed feed bins with calf-only access left, or a small pen placed in the paddock with an access gate through which only the calves can pass. Source: Advantage Feeders, Georgia Simmental. 159 Cold Winter Climates 7. Winter Management

7.1. Adaptation of Australian Cattle