Making weaning in the suckler herd low stress

When weaning calves, reducing stress must be your priority. Stressed weanlings are much more prone to illness, such as pneumonia, writes ruminant nutritionist Brian Reidy

Grass quality is currently excellent, and with dry matter 21-23%, grass intakes are good in beef and dairy herds as a result.

The harvest is more or less done for 2025. Conditions have been excellent for harvesting and saving straw. The recent weather has also created excellent grass-growing conditions, which were so badly needed after the dry spell. 

Grass quality is currently excellent, and with dry matter 21-23%, grass intakes are good in beef and dairy herds as a result. As will always happen, as we edge closer to September, growth will slow down, and dry matters may drop as the days get shorter. 

It will soon be time to start banking grass to extend the grazing season later on in the year. For those lucky enough to take second cuts in June, you need to aim to get any third-cut or bales made ASAP, if not already cut, so you will be able to bring after-grass into the rotation sooner rather than later. Grass will need a bit longer to wilt at this time of year, particularly if it is being baled.

Weaning to reduce stress in both cow and calf

The remainder of later autumn-born calves and early spring-born suckler calves will be weaned over the coming weeks. Weanling sales have just started around the country, and good weaning practices will help to optimise the price you get. Prices have remained buoyant, particularly for quality lots. 

Continental bulls 350-400kg are commanding up to €6/kg, while dairy-bred bulls are making well over €4/kg. Doing a good job at weaning is well worth the work as buyers know which animals have been weaned well and can spot the ones who have just come out from under the cow.

Regardless of whether or not to join the suckler welfare scheme, feeding creep to calves pre- and post-weaning is still good practice around weaning and will improve animal performance. It will also help reduce stress on the calf as it reduces its dependency on its mother’s milk.

This, in turn, makes it easier for the suckler cow to dry off without the associated complications. The creep feed supplied to calves should include good-quality ingredients, be palatable and include minerals.

Weaning methods 

When weaning calves, reducing stress must be your priority. Stressed weanlings are much more prone to illness, such as pneumonia. Any dosing, vaccinations, castrating, etc, should be done well in advance of weaning. 

Once weaning has occurred, then the calves should remain on creep feed for at least one to two weeks, along with top-quality grass. What I have noticed is that if calves are well settled on meal pre-weaning, then it is the cows that are far more upset post-weaning.

The calves, in actual fact, miss the milk far more than they miss their dam, and if milk intake has dropped in the previous weeks, then weaning is easy for the calves. Whatever system has worked well for you in the past, stick with it, but try to optimise calf performance and minimise sickness throughout the process.

I wean calves at home by putting the group of cows and calves into the shed with locking barriers, the cows put their heads through the barriers, locking themselves in, and I only have to run the calves out of the shed, and the job is done.

Put straw only at the barrier for 72 hours, and the cows are dry and ready to return to grass. I put the weanlings in another shed on bale silage and meal for six to seven days.

After that, the bulls go out on grass and 3-4kg meal per day before they go to weanling sales, while the heifers head to grass on an outside block with good grass.

Creep feeding efficiently 

Some use an electric fence wire in the corner of a paddock as their creep area. The fence is high enough for calves to go under and the meal is fed in an open trough in the creep area. 

One benefit of this is that you can regulate the amount of meal consumed daily by the weanlings as they can all eat at the same time. You can also be sure that all weanlings are getting some meal and you can identify shy eaters. 

It is important that the calves eat the meal allocation quickly so that the meal doesn’t attract birds, which can be a major source of disease. You will need plenty of current in the fence, however, to prevent suckler cows from getting through!

Some may also forward creep grass, and with this method, you can also feed creep meal to calves in open troughs in the forward paddock. This method requires either a forward creep gate or lifting of the electric fence so calves can move forward while cows remain in the previous paddock.

Managing dry suckler cows

As I mentioned above, plenty of straw for three days after taking away calves is usually ample to dry off suckler cows. If you have issues on your farm with mastitis, consider tubing cows.

Once dry and settled, many will let dry sucklers follow other stock to clean out paddocks. Remember most sucklers at drying off have plenty of condition and don’t need to put any more on. 

Leave them work a bit harder for their feed for a period of time. If weaning now, they are a good bit away from their next calving, so controlling condition will reduce complications at calving and also make the cow cheaper to keep.