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Fence-line weaning offers calm, gentler way to wean

published: August 10th 2007
by: Martha Hollida Garrett

Weaning calves is a ritual for cattle producers and it’s a critical step to having that calf reach its potential and make a profit.

Fence-line weaning is a process that is gaining ground and a helpful tool for weaning. It is a very simple process and one that can be incorporated very economically. Cows and calves are maintained in a set area for a few days together. Then the cows are removed and placed in an adjoining pasture or trap for roughly a week. Separation is maintained ideally by high tensile electric wire or woven wire fence.

This method keeps the calves in a familiar area with the same feeding routine, grass and water. The calves have visual contact with their mothers and can even have nose-to-nose contact. This has a calming effect on them and results in less bawl, less walking the fence and most importantly less stress.

It also has the potential to reduce post weaning sickness related to the stress of conventional weaning.

Dr. Jason Cleere, Texas A&M University assistant professor and extension beef cattle specialist, says, “a hard wean is best handled by avoiding it.”

Fence-line weaning results in less stress and stress has always been associated with increased sickness, resulting in less weight gain and reduced carcass quality.

Cleere cites data compiled though the Texas Ranch to Rail program that documents that calves who suffer postweaning sickness have lower average daily gains, reduced feed efficiency and lower carcass quality grades.

Over a five year period in Ranch to Rail, sick steers had an average of $93.20 less return. Steers that got sick averaged 571pounds upon arrival in the feedyard.  Medicine costs averaged $31.97 for the sick steers. This is a significant factor since 26% of the calves required treatment for respiratory disease. The remaining difference of $61.87 was due to reduced performance, increased feed costs of gain, higher interest expense and lower quality grades. The fact that healthy steers cost of gain was $14 lower resulted in them making a substantial profit, while the steers that got sick lost money and produced lower quality carcasses. This directly points to the need to takes measure to reduce sickness and indirectly the need to reduce stress.

In work done at the University of California at Davis, E.O. Price’s research indicates the calves weaned by fence-line weaning spent more time eating and resting and less time walking or bawling than traditionally weaned calves. The data reflected that the fence-line weaned calves kept up with their un-weaned counterparts early on, but slowed down late in weaning. In contrast, conventionally weaned calves performed poorly from the start. Even though, conventionally weaned calves started to catch up to the other groups by 70 days after weaning, they never did catch-up in terms of weight gain.

Price’s work points out the difference is important in short-term (45 to 60 days) weaning and background systems because there is insufficient time to regain reduced performance.

His data, which was reported in 2003, showed that after two weeks, the fence-line weaned calves gained 47 pounds, while conventionally weaned calves gained 30 pounds, and non-weaned gained 44 pounds. Then at 10 weeks, the non-weaned calves had gained 143 pounds, the fence-line gained 110 and the conventional group 91 pounds on the average.

From the practical side, cow-calf producers can utilize existing traps and put their emphasis on the fence that separates the cows from the calves. It is suggested to use high tensile electric wire. This way the calves can even touch their momma’s nose, but yet not nurse.

It is suggested to bring the pairs into a designated area and leave together for a few days. This gets the calves used to the grass, any creep feeding and water location. Then the cows should be moved to the adjoining area, rather than the calf. This puts the majority of the stressors on the cow, as the only change for the calf is it is now not nursing.

Calves are calmer in this situation and after a few days, spend less and less time at the fence. It has also been noted in some research that the cows spend more time walking and bawling than the calves in this scenario.

Stress is a negative on growth and performance of calves and fence-line weaning is one way to almost negate the stress of weaning.