Late Weaning Option
Wintering calves with their mothers is an option for cattlemen
with later calving seasons.
A growing number of stockmen are calving later (April, May or June) rather than early, more in tune with nature. They have green grass at calving time and less need for harvested forage when the cow’s nutritional needs are highest. Along with later calving comes later weaning. Some stockmen are wintering calves with the cows, weaning at about 10 months (in late February or March) rather than during early winter with the stress of harsh weather.
Nick Faulkner, a rancher from central North Dakota, has been wintering calves with their mothers for eight years. “We pull calves off two months before the cows calve again. We calve in late April. This has worked well. We don’t have to give any vaccinations for calf diseases,” he says. Being on mother’s milk through winter, without the stress of weaning, helps keep calves healthy.
“A few cows can’t handle it (losing body condition nursing their calf through winter) but those are the ones we cull,” he adds. Those cows don’t fit the program.
“We look at body condition score throughout the winter. Our feeding program keeps most of the cows in good shape. We use a lot of cover crops to make hay for winter feed. Cows are getting top-quality feed to help them keep body condition,” says Faulkner. Even if some lose weight, most of those thinner cows bounce back before they calve.
“Some of the ones you’d think might not do well can really recover nicely. Wintering pairs together simplifies our winter feeding program. My father-in-law raised corn for silage (for winter feed) for 30 years, but now we no longer raise corn. We do more haying, but calves go through winter so much better on the cows,” he says.
The ranch has been gradually increasing cow numbers and is now calving about 250 cows. “We keep our own heifers. We keep all our calves after weaning, running them as yearlings on grass and sell them in the fall,” Faulkner mentions. The calves weaned in late February really bloom when they hit the grass.
“The calves are not stressed by weaning; half of them are already weaned by their mothers by the time we wean the group,” he says. This is a natural age for them to be weaned.
This makes it a lot easier on the cows and calves than early weaning. “We do fenceline weaning and within three days after we separate the pairs, there are only one or two bellowing at each other. The calves are so content that they don’t care where they are,” says Faulkner.
“Calves learn a lot from their mothers regarding eating habits, etc. The longer you can keep them with their mothers, the better the calves will do,” he says. “We are trying to cut feed costs in winter and do some bale grazing. The calves are eating with the cows — whether bale grazing or pasture grazing — rather than waiting for the truck to bring feed out to them.”
They are more motivated to find their own feed and don’t become so lazy.
He notes, “We want our cattle to be working for us, rather than us working for them. The biggest thing I’ve noticed about the later weaning is how much easier it is, with fewer problems and less sickness.”
Corn is expensive to grow. “We can use that land to raise grass — maybe a higher-quality grass — at less expense than the corn or grain,” he says.
Wintering pairs together is a new concept to many people, but it has been done in other places, such as Australia and Africa, for a long time. A person can adapt new ideas to fit their own conditions to avoid missed opportunities.
Editor’s Note: Heather Smith Thomas is a freelance writer and cattlewoman from Salmon, Idaho.