Ensuring the successful gradual weaning of calves

Many calves will be approaching eight weeks of age in the coming days and weeks, which means the gradual weaning of calves will be set to commence.

For calves getting weaned, they must come off milk gradually. If they are not weaned gradually, the calf’s digestive system can become stressed which can predispose them to illness, such as pneumonia and subsequent growth checks.

The weaning process is important, as this is when a calf moves from a monogastric to a ruminant animal.

This is where the calf goes from getting most of their nutrients from milk to solid food, such as grass, straw, hay, or concentrates.

During the milk feeding or early days of rearing, you are aiming to strike a balance between achieving adequate growth rates in your calves – while promoting rumen development.

Gradual transition

Calves must have access to clean, palatable starter concentrates as soon as possible, even though they will only eat small amounts in the first three weeks of life.

Calves need to drink water to help ensure bacterial growth and requires 4-5L of water for every 1kg of concentrates, so provide calves with clean, fresh water at all times.

Once-a-day (OAD) feeding may have already started for February born calves which can significantly help with the gradual weaning of calves and help reduce the workload.

Only put calves on OAD feeding that are four weeks of age as calves younger than this cannot consume the required amount of milk in one feed.

Calves are not under-fed when an OAD feeding protocol is correctly implemented, and they should receive their daily allocation of milk in one feed rather than two.

From 28 days of age, studies have shown that whole milk or milk replacer can be fed once-a-day with no difference in weight gain or scour incidence.

Weaning

For the next month, when calves are on an OAD feeding regime, the amount of milk being fed should be gradually pulled back and replaced with more and more concentrates each day.

Weaning can be achieved at week eight to nine of the calves’ life if the gradual reduction of milk and increase in concentrates is done in conjunction with each other.

Calves should only be weaned after they have been eating at least 1kg of starter concentrates/day for a number of consistent days.

Some may argue and say that calves should be eating at least 1.5kg of concentrates/day before weaning and I would say the more you can get them to eat before completely shutting off milk offered, the better.

The amount of concentrates a calf eats depends on the availability of concentrates and the volume of milk being fed.

Weaning can safely take place when the heifer has reached approximately 15% of her target mature weight.

The predicted mature weight and target weaning weight of replacement heifers of different maintenance sub-indexes as per Teagasc are as follows:

Calves should ideally be weighed before getting fully weaned off milk to give the farmer comfort, knowing that the calf is at right weight and is eating enough meal.

However, many farmers will solely wean calves by the amount of concentrates they consume daily along with a visual assessment of weight gain, health and so on.

Weaning should be done for a three week period at least, after about week five of the calves life when they are on a once-a-day feed for about a week – then the amount of milk should slowly be substituted with concentrates.

Remember, calves don’t respond well to sudden changes as it causes stress and can affect their health, so, consistency and a gradual transition is vital.