One thing a drought certainly does is generate plenty of discussion about time of weaning - I wouldn’t try to estimate the number of times over the last 12 months I have read or heard about “early weaning”.

But using the term “early weaning” really does not describe much at all because it depends on the individual circumstances.

What I mean by that is very simple: weaning at five to seven months of age might be “early” for lots of producers but it might be just the normal age for others.

Weaning at three to five months is very common in the northern grazing areas but could be regarded as very radical, particularly in southern Australia.

So the question really should be: how to work out the best time to wean for an individual herd?

The factors that need to be considered are:

• feed availability, and how long lactation can continue before the cows lose too much condition;
• fat score (FS) of the cows. Low FS will affect rejoining rate;
• type of production - are the calves being sold as vealers or store weaners?
• post weaning performance - age and weight at weaning can impact on later life performance and carcase composition;
• replacement heifers - FS of the heifer calves at puberty can affect future milking ability.

The ranking of these factors based on importance will vary between herds, individual circumstances and different years.

You need to strike a balance between them for your herd and circumstance.

I had a great conversation recently with a beef producer whose judgement I respect about how he decides when to wean in his 500 cow herd.

According to him, it’s simple. It is all based on breeder FS at calving and he uses that as the most important overall indicator for the year round production cycle.

“Make sure the cows calve in FS3 and most things, for example, getting back in calf early, fall into place,” he said.

Correct time of weaning has a very important relationship with FS at calving - leaving the calves on too long will take condition off the cows and they will struggle to replace it before calving the next season.

For this producer, he knows that if his cows calve in anything less than FS 3 they will struggle to meet the expectations he has of them for the whole season.