Over the next few months thousands of spring-born calves will be weaned, so it is timely to reflect on what makes best practice.

When two NSW DPI/Beef CRC researchers started looking more closely at weaning practices 15 years ago, the procedure was regarded as pretty simple.

Few would have thought that their findings would have so much impact.

Lloyd Fell and Keith Walker showed methods used at weaning had a huge influence on later performance of cattle destined for a feedlot some time in their life.

Part of their work looked at comparing animals that were separated from their mothers and: 

• held in secure yards with supplementary feed (yard weaned) versus 
• held in a paddock well away from the cows without any supplementary feeding or handling (paddock weaned).

After weaning, the young cattle were run together through a background phase before feedlot entry.

There was no significant difference in growth rate during this backgrounding phase.

But after feedlot entry, things changed. The yard-weaned animals had higher weight gains in all three years of the experiment - although only small in years one and two, the weight gain was 21 per cent higher at 90 days in year three.

The big bonus was in the sickness rate of the animals. The number of yard-weaned animals pulled from the feeding pens because of sickness was less than half the number for the paddock-weaned category.

That has a major impact on feedlot profitability.

I believe the simple explanation is the yard-weaned animals were better able to handle the stress of being placed in large pens with many other cattle as a result of the experience at weaning.

Being less stressed meant they had better weight gains and were less likely to suffer from stress-related respiratory diseases.

Pre-feedlot vaccination improved the performance of the yard-weaned animals even further - commercial products are now available as a result of this work.

Wean your calves this autumn using best practice recommendations.

Weaning Beef Calves is available at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/beef/husbandry/general/weaning-beef-calves