Early Weaning

Weaning season is upon us and Corn harvest isn't far away. Tonight reporter Sarah Gustin introdu...  More »

Weaning season is upon us and Corn harvest isn't far away. Tonight reporter Sarah Gustin introduces us to one researcher who's letting his calves be his combine. For many producers-especially those in western North Dakota-how much or how little moisture-decides how long the calves stay on the cow. (Doug Landblom / Beef Specialist) Part of our thought process behind it was could we use early weaning in the beef cow enterprise maybe more in a routinue management approach rather than crisis management. This is Doug Landblom's 5th year in a 6 year study of early weaning calves. One group of calves was weaned in August and the control group will be weaned in November. But here's the kicker-the early weaned calves aren't eating in a feelot. They are grazing unharvested corn fields. (Doug Landblom / Beef Specialist) We have it being delivered back to the land in a very, as the animal scatters it, the only thing that we have really carried out of that field is the conversion of forage and the grain in that corn to beef. Landblom says the calves grazing corn are gaining about 2.6 pounds per day. Compared to the unweaned calves gaining 1.4 pounds per day. (Doug Landblom /Beef Specialist) These calves that are early weaned will produce us about a 21 dollar bill, 21 dollar advantage over the conventionally weaned calves in net return after expenses. Landblom says the early weaned calves are also healthier when they do go to a finishing feedlot. And we can't forget about mom. (Doug Lanblom / Beef Specialist) In terms of the cow, when we have taken the calf away we have increased body condition score, we have increased body weight and an increase in body conditioin score gives us the opportunity to feed maybe a little bit poorer quality feeds going into the winter. We may be able to graze much longer into the fall and winter with these animals without a lot of additional hay and supplementation. The cows and calves aren't the only ones reaping the benefits. Landblom says on average by taking the calves away early they have saved 40 percent of the avialable forage in the pastures. South of Manning Reporting for KX news, I am Sarah Gustin. If you are interested in learning more about early weaning you can contact Doug Landblom for more information.  « Less