Early weaning

[mickey43]

This past winter was very hard on my cows, so I've made the decision to "early" wean. This is a group of about 20 calves that I'm pulling off the cows so that the cows will be able to gain condition back before winter. The cows now are anywhere from a BCS of 3.0 to 4.5, so in my mind the quickest way to get some weight on them with grass was to pull the calves.

The calves are anywhere from 350 to 450 pounds. I'm planning on giving the calves some creep feeding, but is there anything I'm forgetting about the calves - to make certain that they develop as well as they can.

I really hate to pull calves off early, but for the good of the cows, there really is no other choice.

Any comments out there?

 

[Caustic Burno]

This is one of the best short articles I have read that I saved.
Short and to the point.
http://msucares.com/livestock/beef/mca_apr2005.pdf

 

[mickey43]

This is one of the best short articles I have read that I saved.
Short and to the point.
http://msucares.com/livestock/beef/mca_apr2005.pdf

Thanks CB;

I knew it would be beneficial to the cow, but the MSU article states that it can actually be beneficial to the calf as well, if you feed them. Good article.