 I think early weaning is one tool in the toolbox to be used in several applications if you want to market your cows early or in a drought situation especially that we're in this year I think early weaning is absolutely an option to be on the table and you talk about early weaning everyone's interpretation of early is very broad you know you can go from we've done it as young as 30 days all the way up to 120 and you know ideally probably at 90 to 100 days is probably quote-unquote early weaning but it works just fine well the benefits of for early weaning is depending on the situation for your pasture or time of year for us we're we also farm as well so our time frame really gets busy we have a lot of row crops so our fall once we start harvesting tends to go late into November December sometimes on on corn harvest so we'd like to get the calves weaned early they'd be in the lot and we don't have to worry about getting them from pasture so for us our early weaning is before row crops start and get them off also gives a chance for that cow to gain back you know getting good condition for over the winter so we are seem like we get double benefit for that. I think another advantage is once you pull that calf off that cow her nutritional requirements get cut in half and on if you're in a situation drought or otherwise and feedstuffs is tough it is beneficial to get that calf off that cow but that cow on a maintenance diet instead of a lactation diet and you'd be amazed at the cost difference. And what part of that too is if you have them weaned, growing, and you can pull that trigger any time to send them to market so if the market takes off you are able to truck and you know get them back and if they wanted to be... Hi everybody I'm Jana Block I'm a livestock system specialist with North Dakota State University Extension and I'm here today with Brett Henderson who is a producer in the Headinger North Dakota area. Brett we're here today to talk about early weaning as part of a drought management strategy this pasture we're in looks pretty good right now but there's others around that have been hit a little bit harder by the drought and you've implemented early weaning as a management strategy on your operation regardless of drought status so can you tell us a little bit about why you do that and kind of the experience you've had over the years? At some point 40 years ago we started weaning in October and then about 20-25 years ago we pushed our calving date later we used to calve in March now it's predominantly April-May and we weaned the first week of October and I guess for us it fits what we want to do we do background them at this point for 90 days after that weaning but it it gets the cows in better condition for us going into fall after paging and weaning getting ready for winter and it takes some stress off pastures. So you're weaning those calves right around five months some of them might be a little bit earlier? Yeah I would be the youngest the youngest of them would be about 135 days the oldest calves on our cows are probably pushing 180-185 yeah that's that's probably the spread. Okay so in a drought year have you ever moved that up even further? We have in 2017 and I guess this year is yet to be seen but it's a possibility we weaned everything mid-September the pastures were heading the wrong direction and and so we weaned them all then for our operation the cost benefit of early weaning is just less less requirements from in a pasture from that mature cow is we're trying to get their body condition back up for the winter months it's it's tough to put on condition in the middle of winter so that for us is the biggest thing just to get them get them weaned and get them get them out of here let the cows get back to getting ready for winter. To me you want to make sure and give them plenty of space to eat comfortably early weaned calves or weaned calves generally circle in a pen so you try to put that feeder and water in some place where they're going to stumble across it literally stumble across it just to say oh this is what I'm supposed to be doing here and and that seems to help a lot. We always put in a lift hub so that would be something that they would always seem to find whether they found the feedbunk or the creek feeder at any time they would always seem to go to that lift hub so we do usually a mineral tub or you can do a stress tub in there something to give them a little bit of energy but get that licking action would create saliva get their keep their stomach working keep the buffering in their stomach going so then they'd be thirsty and then they would go to feed instead of getting too shrunked down so they wouldn't know what to be looking for or even hungry. And I truly believe that salvation production increases appetite so anytime you can stimulate appetite on these young calves they've got a rumen but it's not necessarily functional so we've got to get that rumen functioning and going and with that being said you know there's several opportunities several products out there for for a ration for these early weaned calves um we personally like a complete feed and there are several out there but I like it when that calf takes a bite of something everything that calf needs is in that is in that product and you know it's probably going to cost you over a dollar a day to do that but I'll tell you what you know when we're talking about early weaning to me it's it's not so much what it costs it's we want a healthy functioning rumen calf moving forward to put on feed I think that is so critical I think sometimes cost enters into it and I don't think it should be you know the the complete feed program is probably only going to be 10 days in 10 days on that window of that calf that's the most critical 10 days of that calf's life and I don't think we can forget that and sometimes I think that's overlooked on price so sometimes and I personally have done it if you try to skimp on costs through those 10 days it will cost you more money in the end so just keep that in mind I'm not promoting any one product but I just think a complete feed with a lick tub access to clean water is very critical once you get past that 10 days it seems like that calf is is is eating and ready to move on to any kind of diet the other reason I like that starter program is even if you're crib fed in those calves doesn't mean every calf is eating and we don't know that you know and I've learned that probably the hard way so when we get them into a lot confinement area and we can see each calf in there we know what those calves are eating or not so it's so critical to get every calf eating not just the top end when we wait for the first seven seven to ten maybe even 14 days it's a long stem grass hay nothing grain based for us nothing without falafel if we can find it and that's just free choice and then the salt block and we do use some lick tubs and it's an easy to get to source of water so the younger smaller calves can can get to it at some point it's not too high for them and that's for the first few weeks that's that is what they they give with us so some of the things that that we have found to be beneficial is just to make sure that they have ample access to water so some of those fountains are set for much taller calf than what these are so you know we've gone to putting mineral tubs below the drain hole so you pull the plug on that water fill that tub several times a day it just seems like once that calf figures out there's water in that tub all of a sudden they lift their head a little bit more and they realize that there's water up above um tire tanks even on a dry lot situation you know whether in a drought situation or not I think access to clean water it goes back to animal science at ndsu it's it's uh not set enough we need access to clean water so oftentimes you got to put fill in there and make sure that that calf can get access to that water if it comes up um I just think that's so critical we bunk feed we do have bunks um after they're done after we finish up and they've stopped balling and you know get on a round of shots into them we do use a you know uh early calf creep pellet and try to work with them getting a bunk ready bunk broke probably one of the challenges uh worth early weaning on the health side of it is is dust ammonia you know and we could fight dust ammonia in the drought year even you know I think sometimes on some of these pasture areas you know where the grass gets short there's dust and those calves are picking it up but for sure in a dry lot situation you know we fought dust ammonia before and and uh our vets know it and when we work closer with them when we try to be proactive on that um but it's absolutely something you have to watch and in all fairness I've run into dust ammonia and fall weaning calves too so you know sometimes we don't want to wean when the weather's going to be bad and and so I think some of the same health issues that you experienced during a normal weaning period you're going to experience with the early weaning period that's the other thing you fight sometimes whether you wean early or later in the fall oftentimes it could get hot in that lot and those calves aren't used to that black dirt and that heat so if we can get some kind of grass area that's secure so you don't have jail breaks I think that's very important even if not spreading straw on you know in the lodge or something just cut that black out and get it to have something so it's not bouncing the heat of the sun off of it help you know lower that temperature just get those calves a little bit more comfortable disadvantages you've got to make time to do it you've got to be set up to do it I am not talking to anybody out of doing it you just you just got to go do it get in contact with NDSU extension veterinarian come up with a plan that's probably the biggest thing is is develop a plan you want to plan on herd health you want to plan on nutrition you want to plan on a facility and and the more eyes on that the better I mean everyone can bring something we like to talk about teams you know as diverse as we are we have a lot of team members and and the more eyes the better you don't want to overlook something on here and it's an awesome tool in the toolbox but it's definitely worth looking into just to look at all the variables that are out there this gives us an opportunity to look at something that probably we haven't looked at and so maybe not look at it as a negative but as a positive we are we always have opportunities around us and maybe we don't take advantage of them and this is is now a new opportunity facing us so look at it and explore the options that are out there and just the different markets we hear some people are trying to find grass you know further away that's an option look at so early weaning that's an option just to be open to explore different ideas that might help your operation just develop a plan get your team members together think through all options don't close the door on any one option not any one plan will work for every beef producer out there it just won't but little bits and pieces of everyone's plan will absolutely incorporate into everyone's plan early weaning is is a is an excellent tool especially in drought years and it's worth your consideration with your team members when you have these early wean calves what is your strategy as far as marketing do you go ahead and feed them out to what you would consider a normal weaning weight and then sell them or are you retaining those calves or what does it kind of change depending on the year it changes we've we've done a little of well we've done a fair amount of different things over the years we've you know we've weaned them we've fed them for a while and then finished them at a feedlot and now we wean them background them and try to shoot for that first week of January sale so roughly 90 days if you wean them early you're looking at a hundred five hundred and ten days the replacement heifers the red and black females will keep the whole time you know and then try to get them back in our herd so I guess for us it's it's less about targeted way more about time just shooting for that early January sale and at times if we're worried about it and we have like a a steer or open replacement heifer something that's not lactating we'll we'll put them in the pen with young calves it's it's kind of a you know an adult or you know parent figure for them to latch on to because once it's uh once your yard is quiet and they've done balling then everything spooks calves unfortunately so it's good to have something in there I think that they can automatically gravitate to in times like that um because you don't you don't want them to spook and injure themselves so for somebody that hasn't early weaned in the past but might be thinking about it this year what would be your advice to them as far as how to prepare or things to think about well I think I think you'd you want to make sure you'd have the feed stuffs lined up um I mean we've we found it incredibly important with long stem grass versus alfalfa I mean that's it's alfalfa is fairly common and it's common in a mix but if you can find just just grass hay it it works way better um you less chance of fighting blow especially in young calves whose rumen is still working on developing and everybody kind of approaches a different some guys sell off the cow and some guys sell calves that have been weaned and what we found I think the weaned calf is a good product to sell kind of everybody has their approaches and in their you know what they can and can't do but it's not it's not something people should be afraid of if you're not used to it because it's not a bad process I mean you're going to fight a little sickness varying on conditions and even if your conditions are perfect you're going to fight some of that and you want to have the feed around to do it but it's not it's not something that people should shy away from you know just because they're not they're not used to doing it it's it's not bad you're going to need help because you're going to run into stuff that you don't understand and and you know I'm not a cattle nutritionist I can guess and I can use what people have done for the last 50 plus years but you know I mean at some point you get to evolve beyond that um and same with the health same with uh you know you put your cattle on a health program that starts with shots either at birth or branding and you know we do two rounds of false shots but that's not everybody but everybody seems to have an approach or a a way they handle vaccinations and that's that's a good way to do it I mean you want the professionals there to help you we're here with Pete van bedef from van bedef dairy and he's going to talk a little bit about how they handle young calves and and work their way towards early weaning as we know dairy operations thrive on on utilizing early weaning strategies a big thing for us was having a starter that entices calves to eat it so in the beginning we started with a palleted starter similar to this and the calves didn't really like the taste so they would stay away from it longer and we've switched to a starter that's got a cornflake plus it's got some molasses in it so that's really entices them more to start eating that and once they start eating it they'll on their own start to increase that daily and then as their milk as we cut back their milk they'll increase their starter intake even more at that point so a bit of a textured feed of it yeah that seemed to make a big difference for us yeah once they get to this stage here three three to four months old they they go to a palleted it's still starter pellet really and then with some hay and then from that point they'll transition to a tmr and then we top dress with that same starter pellet this is an 18 percent I believe and the starter that we start with is also an 18 percent it just has some corn flakes in it and the molasses is the biggest it's a textured feed like you said up until about four months old when they switch to the tmr it's all they can eat we put as much out there as they will eat there they don't go they don't won't have empty buckets in the hutches and the the bunks never empty here the only other thing we've touched on a little bit is fresh water make sure that they have clean water available to them all the time that's a big thing too when they're not getting milk anymore they need to drink water and if they don't have fresh water they're not going to drink it so we we provide clean water twice a day for our calves in the hutches and we're cleaning water bowls on a regular basis