Weaning

A lot of spring-born dairy beef calves are coming close to weaning stage on beef farms. Weaning is an important stage, and it’s critical to get it right to avoid any setbacks in weight gain or other illnesses.

Many people think that the introduction of straw or hay to a calf’s diet is important in terms of developing the rumen prior to weaning.

While long fibre is important, concentrates will have a far greater impact on positive rumen development for the first three months of a calf’s life.

Because straw encourages greater saliva production, it is the preferred roughage source for calves as opposed to hay.

Calves that eat large amounts of hay may not eat as much concentrates, which will be detrimental to rumen development.

Too much hay can also lead to “hay bellies” or pot bellies in calves. Farmers often ask the question: at what age can I wean calves?

Calves shouldn’t be weaned on age, but rather on the basis that you have a healthy thriving calf that is eating 1kg-2kg of concentrates a day consecutively over five-seven days.

Calves can be typically weaned at 90-100kg. Many farmers will continue to feed 1kg/head/day of ration once calves are turned outdoors and with the current changeable conditions this is money well spent to keep calves right for their first few weeks at grass.

Breeding

Late calves are hard to make money out of, no matter what your system. In a weanling system selling calves in October, young and light calves are a big drag on the system.

While they may make a good price per kg, their light weight pulls back the gross output from that cow in a year. Keeping a 750kg cow to suck a calf for four-five months doesn’t make a lot of sense when she could be rearing that calf for seven-eight months. At €5.00/kg and at an average weight gain of 1.1kg/day, a calf born on 1 April vs 1 May will be worth €150 more at weanling sales in the autumn.

Based on a 286-day gestation, cows bred this week will be calving in the last week of March 2026. Think about this. Is there an opportunity to pull back your calving spread by a week or two each year until you get back to where you want to be in terms of earlier calving?

By taking out the bull, you may only lose a couple of cows not bred, and these can be replaced with earlier calving in-calf heifers. Cull cows are still a very good trade in the mart so you could use this as an opportunity to tighten things up a little.

Spraying Docks

Fields that were cut for silage four to five weeks ago are now at an ideal stage for spraying for docks. Leaving them to spray until a seed head is produced will not get an effective kill.

Spraying may check grass a little, so take care if grass is in short supply. Spraying in the morning or late evening and avoiding very sunny conditions will help herbicide uptake.

Take care to read the product label and apply the correct rate along with the correct amount of water per hectare. Make sure you have your sprayer course completed and the sprayer has been tested fit for use.