The moral of the story is simply this . . . we finally have some moisture and enough time to grow forage yet this fall. We can also each create bunk space pretty easily. It's a great opportunity to try to do what your neighbor likely said couldn't be done.

Fenceline Contact Eases Weaning of Beef Calves - Mark L. Wahlberg, Extension Animal Scientist, 4-H Livestock, VA Tech

A group of scientists at the University of California just published a paper dealing with 3 years of research on different methods of weaning beef calves. In each year 100 heifer calves were used to compare 4 different methods of weaning. In each year, weaning happened in the month of May. Those methods were:

· Fenceline separation from dams on pasture, which involved cows and their calves being on opposite sides of a wire mesh fence with openings too small to allow the calf's head to go through. Cows and calves were on pasture only.

· Total separation from dams on pasture resulted in calves being weaned in pasture lots and the cows were not located in adjacent pastures

· Total separation from dams in drylot, either with or without a 10-day period of preconditioning to alfalfa hay prior to weaning.

· An unweaned control group stayed with their dams for 8 more weeks until they were weaned.

In the three years calves averaged anywhere from 203 to 228 days of age at weaning with 85% of the calves being born in a maximum of a 55-day period each year. At weaning they weighed an average of 460 pounds. Calves were maintained in their respective weaning treatment for 7 days, at which time the calves were commingled in 2 groups (50 each) on pasture until day 28 postweaning, then in 1 group (100 calves) on pasture until day 70 postweaning.

In addition to weight gain information, behavioral observations were made during the firs 7 days postweaning. Specific behaviors recorded were eating, walking or pacing, lying down, and vocalizing.

Results are in the table below.

Calves weaned and separated from their dams spent less time eating and lying down than the fenceline contact weaning group or the nonweaned control group. Behaviors of the fenceline contact group were very similar to those of the nonweaned control. Weight gain data at 2 weeks indicates significantly less weight gain for the groups which were weaned and separated. This weight gain disadvantage persisted through 10 weeks post weaning. The 17-pound advantage at 2 weeks of the fenceline weaned group versus the separated at weaning group was still present at 10 weeks postweaning.

Fenceline contact of newly weaned calves with their dams is less stressful and results in more weight gain than weaning methods whereby calves and their dams are separated by distance. The authors observed that fenceline weaned calves were relatively independent of their dams after 4 or 5 days. They walked less and ate and lay down more than the other groups of weaned calves. Weight gain advantages during the first 2 weeks post weaning persisted to 10 weeks post weaning. This appears to be a useful technique to ease calves through the relatively stressful transition period from being a nursing calf to being an independent feeder animal.

Reference: Price, E.O, J.E. Harris, R.E. Borgwardt, M.L. Sween, and J.M. Connor. 2003. Fenceline contact of beef calves with their dams at weaning reduces the negative effects of separation on behavior and growth rate. J. Anim. Sci 81:116-121.

The Best Person to Teach Use How to Work Calves Could be a Pre-School Teacher - Steve Boyles, OSU Extension Beef Specialist

The most stressful time in the life of most calves that follow the conventional marketing channels is from weaning through the first month in the feedlot. My wife, who grew up on a farm, works as a Pre-school teacher. I'm convinced she uses some of the lessons she learned on the farm on how to work with kids. Dr. Steve Loerch of OARDC put together a table of the stresses calves go through during the weaning process. He also mentioned it is like sending a child off to school. I've expanded on his comment to illustrate what he meant.

The Six-Letter Word: STRESS

To get cattle to do what you want takes knowledge of animal or kid behavior. The process of moving a group of 4-year-olds or a group of calves is greatly improved by having well designed facilities. The design should have an easy, non-confusing flow with straight alleys and not a lot of turns. My wife is working this week getting the room in order and making sure all the doors are working properly to prevent those "little darlings" from trying to escape. We should go through our corral before we actually work the calves and make sure all the gates are in good working order. Pick up all the trash and anything else that might distract them. Foreign objects easily distract kids and calves. A Styrofoam cup on the ground will cause calves to stop moving and pause to investigate. A shadow or a flapping shirt on a post or some other distraction can prevent smooth cattle flow. Being well prepared can reduce some tantrums and reduce aggravation for the teacher. By doing this with our corals we can reduce injuries to cattle and the people working them. You know how aggravating it can be to work in a corral with soft, rotted boards and gaps between a chute and fence posts. How many of you like gates that don't open and close easily?

How do pre-school teachers handle tantrums or difficult children? A primary goal is to minimize injury to the child and to the teacher. Calves can kick! Typically this is straight back versus a cow that is a "round house" puncher. To minimize pain to yourself, keep them at arms-length or be right up on them.

What causes injury? If we can correct corral design flaws, we must next look at ourselves and our cattle. What are the personal qualities of a good pre-school teacher? One is that they are not preoccupied with their own personal problems but are focused on the children. Not paying attention to how cattle are moving can lead to injury. Yelling and swearing in a loud voice would not be qualities we would consider conducive to acclimating kids for grade school. If it is then we must consider the quality of those schools/feedlots they are entering.

I have competition for my wife's affection from some of her students. She understands that children live in a wonderful and sometimes different world. She is very patient and moves with each individual's pace of learning. Having a well-designed corral can accelerate the rate calves move but if you are still aggravated at the speed things are moving; you need to adjust to the herd's pace. Always pushing and crowding calves can lead to bruising and create stress on the calves and yourself. Admittedly, I have to pause in those situations and remember I actually enjoy working cattle. It is part of this wonderful business we are privileged to be in.

Nutritional Strategies for Receiving and Feeding Early-weaned Calves - Francis L. Fluharty, Research Scientist, The Ohio State University

· Provide clean water and grass-legume hay directly off the truck and allow cattle a rest period before processing them. Adding an electrolyte solution to the water calves drink immediately off the truck is a good way to restore needed sodium and potassium salts.

· Receiving diets should have .3 ppm Selenium and 1.0% Potassium on a dry matter basis, because of low feed intake.

· Provide 1.0 to 1.5 ft of bunk space per calf if possible.

· Urea can be added up to .5% of diet dry matter, but higher levels may depress feed intake.

· Ionophores should not be used (at the upper levels they are approved for) during the first 14 days due to reductions in feed intake, however, lower levels may be beneficial in high-grain diets.

· Research at OARDC has shown that feed intake on stressed calves is severely reduced during the first week. Therefore, receiving diets for calves should be approximately 16-18% crude protein, on a dry matter basis, for the first seven days. The protein concentration used should be increased to the upper levels of this range with highly stressed calves that have very low feed intakes. After the second week, feed intake increases and the crude protein can be dropped to 16% of diet dry matter. After the calves reach their normal weaning age, the crude protein level can be reduced to 14%, since the cattle should be on full feed by then.

· After cattle have reached approximately 1.5% of body weight in feed intake (dry matter basis), increase the amount of feed offered every other day. Increases should be no more than 10% of intake. High-concentrate diets require that calves are brought on feed more slowly than high-forage diets. Bringing calves onto feed more slowly will help prevent acidosis and reduce nutritional stress.

· Soybean meal is normally the protein source of choice due to cost and availability, but using a source of rumen bypass protein such as blood meal, corn gluten meal or fish meal in combination with soybean meal is acceptable.

· Feeding hay during the receiving period reduces the energy density of the diet. Intake is the main problem during this feeding phase. Therefore, a 70 to 85% concentrate diet should be fed to ensure the calves have adequate energy intakes (Remember that corn silage is approximately 50% concentrate and 50% roughage on a dry matter basis).

· Microbial data from OARDC indicates that cattle do not have a need for hay in order to increase their bacterial numbers after feed and water deprivation and transportation. In fact, a higher energy, protein dense diet provides the bacteria with more substrate to grow on.

· Receiving diets should be formulated to provide the animal with the actual amount of protein required (in grams) rather than a percentage of protein in the diet during the first two weeks. Therefore, the level of feed intake should determine the % protein fed.

· Corn silage is fine, but it MUST be kept fresh. Clean out feed bunks daily and remember not to push feed to the back of the bunks where calves can't reach it. Keep feed about in the middle of the feed bunk.

Feed Bunk Management and Feed Intake Control - "The most important operation in the feedlot"

Defined as the supervision and execution of determining and delivering, in an acceptable and consistent manner, the amount of feed that an animal can consume in a given period of time.

OBJECTIVES:

1. Maximize animal performance.

2. Minimize digestive disorders.

3. Keep animals consuming a consistent amount of feed.

Good bunk management increases feed efficiency and lowers cost of gain.

Feed Bunk Scoring System

Normally, feed is given on a weight per head basis and multiplied by the number of head in the pen.

Guidelines:

1. Follow the 10% rule. Never increase or decrease the amount of feed offered by more than 5-10%.

2. Always allow 1 day between increases or decreases in feed offered to allow animals an adjustment period.

3. If the score is 0-, for two consecutive days, increase the amount of feed by 5-10%.

4. Dry feeds may be fed once daily.

5. High moisture feeds may need to be fed twice daily to avoid spoiling in hot weather, and freezing in cold weather.

6. Animals not being fed enough will engorge when fed, and this leads to acidosis and the "yo-yo" effect of over-eating and under-eating. This dramatically decreases animal performance and animal health.

7. Prior to cold fronts, animals feed intake increases dramatically, and decreases after the front passes.

8. Feed should be fresh!

9. If animals rush the bunk when fed, they are probably being underfed.

10. If animals have no interest in coming to the bunk when they are fed, they are probably being overfed, or there is spoiled feed in their bunk.

11. Bunks containing spoiled feed or "fines" should be cleaned out.

12. If fines are constantly a problem, consider adding molasses, silage or other wet feeds to the diet to decrease the sorting of mineral and vitamin supplements.

13. Clean waterers are necessary to maximize feed intake.

14. Many of these rules also apply to self feeders.

For Farm Fresh Calves That Are Not Trucked:

Start the calves on 4 pounds/head of a corn/supplement mix formulated to be 16-18% crude protein.

Start calves on 2.0 to 3.0 pounds/head/day of hay, and then top dress the concentrate mix. As calves consume more concentrate, back off the amount of hay fed to 1.5 to 2.0 pounds per day.

If they do not eat the mix, weigh back the uneaten concentrate into a large bucket (we use 30 gallon rubbermaid trash cans). If the uneaten feed looks pretty similar to the original mix (no sorting), it can be re-mixed with new concentrate mix so that there is little feed wasted, but be sure that you take into account the pounds of uneaten feed that you are re-feeding, and don't give them that plus the normal amount of new feed, or they will be fed too much.

Don't increase intake by more than 1 pound of concentrate/head/day, even if the feed is cleaned up in a couple of hours. Also, don't feed more than 2-3 pounds of hay/head/day. This concentrate feed is what allows rapid gains (not hay), but the cattle must be adjusted to the diet slowly.

Keep a feed record book with the daily amounts of concentrate offered, hay offered, concentrate refused, and hay refused. This is the only way to actually know intake. If the amount of refused feed is guessed and not weighed, the data is useless. Once the calves are on feed, I would expect little or no refused feed. In a properly managed feed bunk, the calves should clean up the feed in approximately 18-24 hours.

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BEEF Cattle is a weekly publication of Ohio State University Extension in Fairfield County and the OSU Beef Team. Contributors include members of the Beef Team and other beef cattle specialists and economists from across the U.S.

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