Weaning time is the most stressful time in a calf's life. Use these pointers to minimize the bad effects of stress and optimize your returns.

Can we talk? Weaning time can be the pits for a young calf. He loses his mom and gets castrated, possibly dehorned, vaccinated and shipped off to the auction. There, he is grouped with bawling strangers and shipped off again, possibly hundreds of miles away. That's a stressful situation! The end result: sick calves. Let's see if Ben Franklin's "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" applies to weaning time.

Pre-weaning preparation: Ensure weaning pens are "calf-tight," waterers are in good shape and ample, clean bunk space exists. Consider leaving one at the edge of the pen, where calves circle by when walking the fences. Deciding when to wean may be based on several factors (kids are home, weather forecasts, livestock markets). Whatever the case, pay close attention to cow body condition score and pasture condition. When playing out "when to wean" scenarios, it's good economics now to feed the calf directly, rather than feed the calf through the cow.

Formerly, producers might have accepted calves would "stand still" when it came to weight gains in the first 30 days. Concerned more about keeping them healthy, they'd go after weight gains later. But weaning calves without getting healthy weight gains leaves significant money on the table. Weaning/receiving rations that efficiently put on weight with feed conversion rates (FCR) of 4:1 or lower, as consistently seen with MFA Cattle Charge, are your best bet.

Prevent sickness and keep calves healthy by considering the big three: stress, nutrition, vaccination.

Stress
Stress is the key player in weaning time health "wrecks." Without stress, few cattle would get sick. But combine weaning with the weather, castration, dehorning, separation anxiety, etc. and you've got problems. Minimize the effects of stress by:

1. Pre-processing calves 3 to 4 weeks ahead of your weaning date. This includes all surgical procedures, and the first round of vaccinations in a two round series of immunizations (shots). This key first round primes the animals' immune system.
2. Follow up 2 to 4 weeks later with the second round. Failure to do this step within this time frame renders the first round totally useless. "One-shot health programs" do no favors for calves, their owners or the buyers.
3. Keep calves on-farm 45 days after weaning. Records from more than 45,000 head weaned on-farm in MFA's Health Track Beef Alliance, which features a standardized health and nutrition program, show sickness rates less than 1 percent, and death loss rates less than 0.2 percent. This practice is a key factor in reducing sickness in calves arriving at feedlots. In building your farm's reputation, this keeps buyers coming back. As technology improves, it will be of increasing importance to identify your cattle as healthy, proven performers in the food chain.

Weaning ration considerations

1. Make it tasty! Rations must be palatable, so calves eat healthy amounts beginning on day one.
2. Nutritious: Rations must contain ample levels of readily available protein and energy, high levels of minerals and vitamins, and other nutrients that fuel the immune system to fight off stress.
3. Energy Dense: Intakes at weaning time are often reduced. Low intakes may not maintain animals, let alone help them meet the increased nutrient needs of warding off stress. Calves use up energy when they're bawling. Are they eating enough to replace that energy? Weaning rations must allow for this and supply higher energy nutrition with each bite.
4. Safety: Stay away from high starch rations, which can cause calves to go off feed.
5. Added Potency: Use AS700 in your weaning ration to fight off respiratory diseases. Or use Deccox to handle coccidiosis, if that's historically been a farm weaning time problem.
6. Finally, "just add water." Ample, fresh, readily accessible water is key to calves under stress. Initially, you may want to let waterers trickle over, helping newly weaned calves unfamiliar to the weaning pen find the water source and prevent dehydration. Water and good quality long-stem hay round out the program.

Vaccination recommendations
Dr. Tony Martin, MFA director of animal health and staff veterinarian, offers this schedule, which also fits MFA's Health Track Beef Alliance program:

1. 4-way viral respiratory vaccination (IBR, BVD, PI3, BRSV); give 2 rounds 3 weeks apart;
2. 7-way blackleg/hemophilus somnus; give 2 rounds as above;
3. Pasturella bacterin with leukotoxin (one dose per head).

Keep vaccines well refrigerated (pre mixing) and use mixed vaccines promptly post mixing. Don't save the "left overs" for tomorrow's task. Use clean needles, changing needles after every 7 to 10 calves. Inject in clean sites, under the skin, just ahead of the shoulder areas.