Early Weaning of Beef Calves

The early weaning of beef calves should always be considered by beef cow owners, especially when summer pastures are short due to drought and overgrazing. Keep in mind the fact that dairy calves are all weaned at birth and removed from milk or milk replacers early in life without adverse effects on their health or growth.

The benefits of early weaning of beef calves include enhanced nutrition of the calf, a dramatic reduction in the energy requirements of the cow and the option to cull cows when they are heavier.

Beef cows generally only produce 2.5 - 3.5 lbs. of dry matter as milk under good conditions, let alone when feed shortages are occurring. The production of this small amount of dry matter as milk requires the consumption of twice as much feed compared to the same cow not milking. So when feed is scarce, it is logical to feed the calf directly rather than feed the cow huge amounts of feed to produce a small amount of milk.

For several years, spring born calves in the beef cow herd at Ridgetown College were either weaned at 90 days of age or 180 days of age based on the order of birth. Creep feed was introduced at about 30 days of age using a 18% crude protein calf ration designed for dairy calves. At 90 days of age half of the calves were weaned and fed the calf ration free choice with some good quality hay and the other half stayed on their mothers and the creep feed.

The growth rates were similar when the two groups of calves were compared, in fact calves remaining on their mothers ate almost as much calf ration as creep feed as did the weaned calves. Feed conversion for calves weaned early was in the range of 4.5 to one.

The mothers of calves weaned at 90 days that were being culled from the herd consistently weighed over 100 lbs. more than cows that nursed their calves for 180 days and were sold late in the fall rather than mid summer.

As far as disadvantages to early weaning is concerned, the only thing experienced was that calves appear more gutty during the period when they are first weaned but by 6 months of age, very few retained this appearance. 

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