Weaning Strategies When Milk Volumes Increase

Adding more milk to your calf feeding program has been proven to improve health and growth, and results in higher future milk production. But for as many people as you have seen do it successfully, there are equally as many people that it has been a complete waste of time and money, How is that possible? Weaning. 

When everyone was feeding their calves 2 quarts 2x, weaning was easy, you took a feeding away for a week or a couple days and then they were just done, no more milk. 

Nowadays, many calf raisers are pushing 2+ gallons of milk per day because of all of the benefits, but many people are also seeing major slumps after weaning.

One question that always gets asked is, “what are your wean weights? Did your calf double her birth weight by weaning?”

To be quite frank, wean weights don’t really tell you a lot.

Yes, they will tell you if you fed a lot of milk they will be big and if you feed less milk they might be smaller, but wean weights don’t tell you if the calf is successfully set up to be a ruminant or not, and at the end of the day that’s really the only thing that matters. Many times, calves on accelerated milk programs will gain a ton of weight, and will have lost all of the extra investment you made by the time they are 30 days post-weaning. 

How can that be avoided? By matching your weaning strategy to your milk program. When a calf is drinking 2 gallons or more of milk per day, that doesn’t leave a lot of want or need for starter consumption. But, as you know, you can’t get rumen development without it, so that sure leaves quite the predicament. 

A couple notes on weaning: First, in order to wean the best way possible, it is essential that you are tracking grain intake. If you are looking for a way to easily track grain intake, download our grain sheet here! 

Second, Calves should be eating a minimum of 3-5 lbs. of starter per calf per day, and more is always better. Many people say 2 lbs. is adequate, but we believe it takes a lot more than that for a calf to be ready to wean. They also need to be eating that amount for at least 5-7 days before you stop feeding milk. 

Third, if a calf or a pen of calves isn’t ready to take the next step down, and you are able to with space and time restrictions, don’t change their diet until they are ready. 

Fourth, try to keep any other stressful events like vaccinating, dehorning, or moving as far away from the step down days as possible. Yes, that takes some fancy footwork, but trust us, it’s worth it. If possible, we like to keep the calves in the same pen eating the same feed for at least 1 week after weaning. 

Here is how we recommend managing weaning. This strategy can be applied to any calf on any feeding program. Decide when you want to wean, decide what you want your peak milk amount to be, and work your way backwards. 

For example, this is what our milk program looks like:

0-14 days, 2 quarts, 2x

14-35 days, 3 quarts 2x

35-42 days, 2 quarts 2x

42-49 days, 2 quarts 1x

This is obviously a lot easier because we only bump them up one time, but even with only feeding 3 quarts 2x, we still do two step downs, each over a one week period. 

You want to get them up to their peak as fast as possible without causing problems, and also, in increments of 2 quarts every 5-7 days. The same goes for when you wean, increments of 2 quarts every 5-7 days, and watching starter intake along the way. 

Say you want to feed 2 gallons and wean at 8 weeks, this is how you could think about setting it up:

0-14 days: 3 quarts, 2x OR 0-7 days 2 quarts 2x, 7-14 days: 3 quarts 2x

14-35 days: 4 quarts 2x

35-42 days: 3 quarts 2x

42-49 days: 2 quarts 2x

49- 56 days: 2 quarts 1x

56 days: wean

If you want to wean later, you can stay at the peak amount of milk longer. 

These are just a couple examples of how you could manage weaning your calves, while also doing the things above like tracking grain intake, weaning (going to 1x feedings per day) when calves are eating 3-5 lbs. of starter for 5-7 days, not stepping calves down that aren’t ready, and avoiding other stressful events around step down days.

All of these strategies require advanced planning and good communication with all employees on your calf team. One thing about raising calves, you don’t have to be perfect every time, you have to be consistent and do the best you can with every calf. Sometimes you’re going to be out of room and overcrowded, the calves have to go. They are just going to have to be done with milk whether they are ready or not. Is it the best? No, but sometimes that’s how farming goes and you can learn what not to do for the next time around. Just because we can’t always get it right, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

If you want help with your specific milk program and weaning strategy, send us a message, we will help get you and your calves set up for success.