The benefits of creep grazing suckler calves

Looking to boost the performance of your spring-born suckler calves? Future Beef Programme Advisor, James Mullane discusses the benefits of creep grazing.

With many herds not planning to wean until October, creep grazing of the calves ahead of the cows from now until weaning needs to be considered. Creep grazing suckler calves involves allowing calves to forward graze ahead of their mothers, either through a creep gate or under a raised electric fence before weaning.

The benefits of creep grazing are:

• Calves gain extra weight by accessing higher quality forage before weaning, leading to a heavier calf at the time of separation,
• With an adequate supply of quality grass, less meal is required giving a cost saving,
• During periods of drought, the nutritional requirements of the growing calf can be prioritised,
• Calves get used to grazing away from cows to reduce the maternal bond between cow and calf, leading to reduced stress at weaning time,
• It is cheap to operate – it can be done by installing a creep gate or by raising an electric fence wire,
• It allows you to feed calves in open troughs rather than a creep feeder. This saves on the cost of buying a creep feeder and on the amount of concentrates fed.

A creep gate can be used to allow calves access quality grass ahead of cows

Getting set up 

Now that we have examined the benefits of creep grazing, we will look at the key steps involved in carrying out the practice on your farm:

• Ensure the paddocks/boundaries are well fenced. Make use of mains/solar powered electric fencers and make sure that fence lines are free from vegetation to prevent earthing. Use high quality polywire (6/9 strands) if setting up temporary divides.
• Set up a small area for creep grazing in the corner of a paddock to get calves used to creep grazing. Some farmers will use reels to force the calves into the creep area in order to help train them. This allows the calves to maintain sight and smell of the cows which helps them settle. Once the calves get used to this system, the area ahead of the cows can be increased.
• For creep grazing ahead of the cows, the wire can be raised using plastic horse posts or cable tying two pig tails or plastic posts together to make a longer post. The fence should be raised close to the boundary of the field as this will make it easier to herd animals back to their mothers if required.
• Calves can easily be fed meal in portable troughs when they are creep grazing ahead of cows, this allows all calves to access meal at the same time.
• In order to break the calf and cow bond pre weaning, the calves can be locked onto the creep area for longer periods by using a second temporary wire. The calves can then be allowed back to suckle the cows for a period and this process can be repeated each day coming up to weaning.

James Mullane is an Advisor on the Teagasc Future Beef Programme. For more tips, advice and to keep up to date with the farmers enrolled in the Future Beef Programme, visit here.