54 The Business of Ontario Agriculture Better Farming | September 2024 Livestock yearlings in a week. The cows are a little more difficult. They take three or four days to settle down,” he says. A smooth weaning will also help calves that are sold post-weaning to transition onto feed easier. Setting up calves for feed Reduced feed intake caused by stress can disrupt gains in newly-weaned calves. “The calves spend three days trying to find mom,” says Stookey. “If they are spending all that time vocalizing and walking around, of course they are not eating as much as calves fully adjusted to the weaning process.” Mitchell describes a few ways that producers can better prepare their calves for feed. His first recommendation is to vaccinate before weaning. “If you give vaccines when stress is low, they are prepared for weaning and the other health challenges that lie ahead,” says Mitchell. “If you do that, you don’t have to run a stressed calf into a crate at weaning. It can be pulled from mom and go right onto feed and can be revaccinated later.” His second recommendation is to prepare them to eat out of a manmade facility. “You don’t have to spend a ton of money to creep feed, but if you have it set up, they are going to be used to finding feed in something man-made,” explains Mitchell. Many calves are weaned on grass and would not be used to seeking feed outside of the pastures or their dams. “They don’t exactly have to be bunk broke, where they’d be lining up at a bunk and eating side-by-side, but having a gate set up so calves can go into a pen and find feed is enough,” he continues. “It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it gives calves a chance to leave their mothers and go to their own place and eat out of man-made facility, which they now associate with food.” They should also have the opportunity to seek water from man-made facilities to prepare them for barns and feed yards. While minimizing stress and easing the transition to feed should be the goal of all weaning programs, there are other factors that play a role in the strategy that best suits a farm. Weaning protocols Each farm has different facility capacities and production goals. While some farms may choose to retain their weaned calves, some weaning protocols may work better for producers that aim to sell theirs. Stookey lists a few factors that farmers should consider when creating a weaning protocol. “Look at the market. Are they keeping or selling calves? How soon do they need to sell? Do they have a facility to keep them at home? Those are big factors,” says Stookey, noting that retention can carry more financial risk, even if the experience of the calf may be improved. “If you retain ownership, can you put on gain at a cheaper rate than what you would get at market? If you sell your calves, there is no death loss and no risk. “If you retain a calf and it gets sick, it can result in treatment, which costs more, and if some die, that’s a significant loss. “There’s a lot going on there.” Many of the decisions related to weaning require consideration of marketing plans. Mitchell explains that while preparation for a smooth weaning benefits the calves and the farmer who purchases them, the cow-calf producer doesn’t necessarily receive the benefit. “Farmers aren’t often really rewarded for waiting to ship calves until after they’ve come through the weaning process. “They get paid the same and there’s not a lot of incentive and many farmCreep gates give calves access to the barn for bedding. Peter Kotzeff photo
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