Weaning suckler calves: Insights from Michael & Niall Biggins
Michael & Niall Biggins share practical strategies for weaning suckler calves and managing red clover grazing in this farm update.
Watch the video below where Michael discusses the weaning process on the farm.
Animal Health
Michael and Niall have been busy weaning their suckler cows over the last few weeks. However planning for weaning started back in July when the home-made creep gate was placed with the herd. This allows the calves to forward creep graze ahead of the cows all year; they have access to the best quality grass and their bond is not as tight.
The creep gate is home-made and makes weaning much easier on the Biggins’ farm
In June, the herd is split where the bull weanlings and their mothers go to one area and the heifer weanlings with their mothers go to another part of the farm, to ensure the heifers are not put in calf.The creep feeder was introduced to the calves in July. When Michael and Niall were happy that the weanlings were eating ration, they removed the creep feeder and started feeding them in troughs, which was possible through the use of the creep gate. This means all the calves are getting concentrate, not just the stronger ones that get in first. They were gradually built up to 2-2.5kg pre-weaning.
Before weaning, all weanlings were dosed and vaccinated against respiratory disease; firstly with an RSV, Pi3, Mannheimia haemolytica vaccination which must be given in 2 shots, four weeks apart. Secondly they received an IBR vaccine which also consisted of a 2 shot programme.
Michael and Niall have a repeat customer that typically buy the bull weanlings in the autumn and they really value that they are properly weaned, which in turn means he has minimal issues with disease and weight loss when they move to his farm.
Two weaning methods were used on the farm this year. One was where the creep gate was closed off and the bull calves were immediately separated from their cows. Michael and Niall found that both the cows and calves were very noisy for a few days afterwards. The second method was with the heifers where they inserted paddles into their noses to prevent them from suckling. They stayed in place for 5-7 days and Michael and Niall found that while the cows roared for a day afterwards, the heifers were very quiet and settled. They were still able to eat grass and ration and it helped to break the cow-calf bond.
Heifers eating ration with nose paddles
Clover
The red clover crop is growing back well this autumn – so much so that the cover will be too heavy to leave it over the winter. There is approximately 900 kg DM/ha currently on 1.84 ha which amounts to 1.656t dry matter in total.
Michael and Niall are reluctant to cut the crop again and have instead decided to graze it with the weanling heifers. While conscious of the risk of bloat, they have decided to feed a bale of silage to the heifers and will continue feeding them 2kg ration/head/day for another week before dropping it to 1kg when the heifers will be over 2 weeks weaned by then.
They will not be let in hungry, to help avoid them gorging themselves, and a water trough is set up so that it can move along the divisions. The heifers are approximately 300kg so will be eating 6 kg DM/day, or 170 kg DM/day in total for the group of 28. Allowing for the ration that they will be fed, there is 12 days of feed ahead for them without allowing for any growth. Michael has decided to split the field in 4 divisions which will give them 2-3 days per section so that they will move through it quickly to avoid any damage or over grazing.
The growth pattern of red clover means that it has a higher growing point than grass and the plant ca die if it is damaged. Therefore it will be important not to overgraze the field.
Red clover /ryegrass field will be grazed by the yearling heifers