Weaning season brings challenges for cattle producers

Last week on the farm, one of my two least favorite parts of owning cattle took place: weaning calves. My absolute least favorite task is separating calves from their mothers. I have so much respect and appreciation for my momma cows, who work tirelessly to raise their calves, only to have that bond broken when weaning time arrives.

This year weaning felt harder than usual. After many consecutive years of heifer calves, my streak ended — 50% of my fall calves were bull calves. I keep some cattle and horses at home, utilizing both pasture and a dry lot (sacrifice area) until the grass is ready. However, I don’t have enough pasture at home to support all the livestock I own.

Thankfully, I have amazing neighbors who allow me to rent additional pastures. We are preparing to move my bred cows there next week, but to do that, the calves had to be weaned.

Over the years I’ve used several different weaning methods. This year timing and labor were my biggest challenges. I didn’t have the manpower needed to run calves through the barn multiple times to use anti-suckling nose devices, a method I’ve successfully used in the past. I’ve also faced some electric fence issues and didn’t trust everything was secure enough for fence line weaning.

So this year we went with the traditional method: pulling the calves into the barn and leaving the cows out on pasture. It’s been tough — both emotionally and practically — and it’s reminded me exactly why I try to avoid this method when possible.

Before diving into some of the pros and cons of each weaning method from extension sources, I want to ask you: Which weaning method do you use? Have you noticed differences in cow behavior, calf health or stress levels depending on the method?

The University of Maryland Extension provides excellent guidance on beef calf weaning strategies and vaccination protocols, highlighting how different weaning approaches can impact calf health, stress levels and sale value.

Using that information, let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of common weaning methods and how they might fit different beef operations.

Total separation (traditional weaning)

—Pros: calves can be sold directly off the cow, fewer feed reserves required, less space needed on the farm and no extended bawling period if calves are marketed immediately.

—Cons: extremely stressful for calves (and often cows), higher incidence of illness in calves, and calves are considered “unweaned” and may bring a lower sale price.

Fence line weaning

—Pros: lower stress on calves, nose-to-nose contact between cows and calves, familiar surroundings and existing feed and water sources, and potential premium for “preconditioned” calves at sale.

—Cons: requires additional pasture or dry lot space, calves will bawl for several days and increased feed requirements during conditioning.

Two-stage weaning (nose weaners)

—Pros: significantly reduced stress on calves, cows and calves remain together during the transition, no need for additional pasture or dry lot space, familiar environment maintained, and potential premium for preconditioned calves.

—Cons: calves must be handled multiple times, the cost of nose weaner rings (approximately $2.50-$15 each) and retention issues (some calves lose rings, delaying weaning).

Weaning is never easy, but understanding the available options — and matching them to your facilities, labor force and long-term goals — can make a tough job a little more manageable. I’d love to hear from readers about what weaning methods work best on your own operations and the lessons you’ve learned along the way.

In other farm news, I had my fingers and toes firmly crossed as we checked the mares last week, and I’m happy to report good news. Faith was successfully bred earlier this month and has a confirmed heartbeat, putting us on track for a mid-March foal next year. I have one more mare I unfortunately missed heat signs on, and we will recheck again in a few weeks. I am not sure how this will go with such a wide foaling window next year, but we will make it all work.

My 2-year-old filly and colt were sent to the colt starter earlier this summer for 60-90 days, and we’re excited to see how much they grow and mature. We’re looking forward to getting them back home and hitting the trails this fall.

Pasture season is officially underway as well. We’ve started utilizing our neighbors’ pastures and are rotationally grazing, with hopes the grass continues to grow strong throughout the summer for all the critters. I hope you are all able to get your stock out on pastures soon, and if you are not rotationally grazing, I hope to talk about some of those benefits in the next article. Holmes County Soil and Water also has a kit you can rent to help with rotational grazing in your pastures. You can find more information on this by calling them at 330-674-2811. They also still have the two free soil samples available for Holmes County residents.

What exciting new things do you have planned for your farm this spring/summer? I would love to hear about them.

I hope to start adding a Holmes County fun fact to each of the articles, and this one kind of hit me looking back through USDA Census of Agriculture County Profiles from December 2022. Did you know agriculture in Holmes County is an important part of the local economy? Holmes County agriculture includes livestock, grains, forages and timber. There are 1,736 farms in the county, with total land in farms equaling 184,549 acres. The average farm size is 106 acres.

I hope everyone has an awesome start to May, and please reach out if you have any questions or if I can help provide resources in any way.

Janessa Hill is an ANR educator with Holmes County OSU Extension.