Unit 8 - Weaning Management

Question 1

What is the focus?

Answer 1

Maintaining health of and stimulating intake by highly stressed beef calves

Question 2

When does weaning management occur?

Answer 2

During a 1-60 day period that commonly begins at anywhere from 30-270 days of calf age

Question 3

What are the key activities?

Answer 3

1) vaccination against respiratory, clostridial, and possibly other pathogens
2) training to eat from a bunk and drink from an automatic watering device
3) adaptions to high energy diets
4) managing calf stress
5) treating stress related illness

Question 4

What are the major functions?

Answer 4

1) support health
2) promote transition to a dry grain based diet
3) minimize stress

Question 5

What month does weaning begin for spring calving herd?

Answer 5

October

Question 6

What month does weaning begins for fall calving herd?

Answer 6

April

Question 7

Definition of weaning

Answer 7

1) Beef producers definition: the permanent physical separation of dam from calf (an event in time)

2) Textbook definition: a process to accustom the young of a mammal to take nourishment other than by suckling ( process that occurs over time)

Question 8

How are 50% of beef calves in the U.S. weaned?

Answer 8

Separation of calves from cows followed by immediate transport and sale

Question 9

What kind of stressors are present during weaning?

Answer 9

1) maternal seperation
2) processing
3) diet change
4) transport
5) environment change

Question 10

How is morbidity, mortality, health cost, and growth performance affected by weaning?

Answer 10

Morbidity increases 5-35 fold
Mortality increases 5 fold
Health costs increases 10-100 fold
Growth performance decreases 10-50%

Question 11

What are the 5 elements of weaning management?

Answer 11

1) preparation for weaning begins well before weaning
2) vaccination against common pathogens
3) training to eat dry feed from bunks and drink from automatic watering devices that are located parallel to fence lines
4) abrupt elimination of milk from the diet, gradual increase in the amount of forage consumed and introduction of nov feedstuffs
5) sufficient time to allow adaptations to be completed

Question 12

What are 5 goals of sound weaning management?

Answer 12

1) minimized and compartmentalized transition stress
2) Excellent DMI within 7-10 days of maternal separation
3) improved animal health following shipping
4) improved growth during finishing
5) maximum carcass value at harvest

Question 13

What is arguably the most important aspect of weaning management?

Answer 13

Overcoming the reluctance to eat,
DMI

Question 14

Stressed cattle are more likely to consume more energy from?

Answer 14

Concentrate based rather than roughage based diets

Question 15

How to improve palatability to encourage DMI intake?

Answer 15

-moisture content 12-30%
-uniform particle size
-ingredient aggregation

Question 16

When making diet changes what might affect selectivity?

Answer 16

-digestive disorders
-deficiencies

Question 17

During bunk and water training what are some consideration made for diet adaptation?

Answer 17

-feed is offered at a predetermined percentage of body weight
-familiar feeds are blended with a complete, nutrient dense, concentrate based weaning diet for 7 days
-coupled with gradual removal of the long stemmed forage

Question 18

During bunk and water training what are some consideration regarding water?

Answer 18

Clean and abundant water provided
Monitor at regular intervals throughout the day
Pay attention to the height of watering device for calves
Don’t expect calves to easily adapt to fence line watering devices
Water should be presented in a way that facilitates discovery and stimulate interest

Question 19

What is the optimal length of the weaning period?

Answer 19

45-60 day recommendation

Question 20

What is the abbreviation DART?

Answer 20

Objective criteria to evaluate for health.
Depression
Anorexia
Respiration Index
Temperature

Question 21

Why can accurately diagnosing respiratory diseases in calves be challenging?

Answer 21

Calves can behave in a depressed manner or appear unhealthy and have no febrile response; treatment for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) should be objective and not arbitrary

Question 22

What are the 4 steps to treat BRD?

Answer 22

1) calf appears depressed, anorexic, or appears to have some degree of respiratory distress
2) calf is pulled from its home pen and restrained
3) rectal temperature is measured
4) therapeutic antibiotics are applied only if DART criteria are met

Question 23

How can weaning stress be altered by the manner in which maternal separation is achieved?

Answer 23

-familiar vs unfamiliar environment
-complete separation vs maternal contact

Question 24

During familiar vs. unfamiliar environment maternal separation, what techniques can be used?

Answer 24

1) familiar pasture: cows removed, calves remain in home pasture
2) Unfamiliar pasture: calves removed, cows remain in home pasture
3) Drylot: calves removed to drylot environment, cows remain on pasture

Question 25

During complete separation vs. maternal contact what techniques can be used?

Answer 25

1) traditional separation: cow and calf do not have visual or auditory contact
2) Fence-line weaning: cow and calf can see and hear one another
3) nose-ring weaning: cow and calf are together but suckling is prohibited