Weaning Dairy Calves

A crucial stage in a calf’s life is weaning. Weaning a calf means removing milk from their diet. This is a stressful time in a calf’s life. They experience a diet change, as well as the loss of something that has been a part of their routine since birth. The stress of weaning can lead to weight loss, scouring, and increased incidence of disease. Calves should be weaned no earlier than six weeks of age, and when they are consuming two to three pounds of starter per day.^1,2

The key to successful weaning is understanding rumen development in calves. When a calf is born, they are considered a “pre-ruminant.” This means that digestion of nutrients consumed by a calf primarily occurs in the abomasum. The rumen needs to be conditioned to proper function through consumption of rumen-developing feeds by the calf. This includes ensuring your calf is consuming adequate amounts of water and a highly palatable, high quality calf starter grain along with their milk ration prior to weaning.³ Once you have determined that your calf is ready to be weaned, knowing how to wean a calf to minimize stress and incidence of disease related to weaning is important. The two primary methods of weaning are the “Step-Down" method, and complete removal or “Cold Turkey” weaning. 

Step-Down weaning involves gradually reducing the amount of milk fed to calves in the weeks leading up to weaning age. This will encourage the calf to begin consuming starter to make up for the energy not supplied by milk, as well as increase water intake. This reduction in the amount of milk fed should begin 10 to 14 days prior to when weaning is planned. Reducing milk fed can be achieved by decreasing the volume offered to the calf at each feeding, or by reducing the number of milk meals offered per day. When implementing step-down weaning, the timeline should be adjusted based on calf health and feed and water intake. If the calf begins scouring or there is a significant decrease in intake, complete removal of milk should be delayed until the calf’s health or appetite improves.⁴

Cold-Turkey weaning involves the abrupt removal of any milk offered to calves once they reach weaning age. This method requires less management than step-down weaning but tends to result in increased incidence of scours and decreased body weight in the weaning period.⁵

Sources

1. Wolfe, A.R., P. Rezamand, B.C. Agustinho, D.E. Konetchy and A.H. Laarman. 2023. Effects of weaning strategies on health, hematology, and productivity in Holstein dairy calves. J. Dairy Sci. 106: 7008-7019.
2. Hill, T.M., H.G. Bateman II, J.M. Aldrich PAS, and R.L. Schlotterbeck. 2012. Methods of reducing milk replacer to prepare dairy calves for weaning when large amounts of milk replacer have been fed. Prof. Anim. Sci. 28: 332-337.
3. Ghaffari, M. H. and A.F. Kertz PAS. 2021. Review: Effects of different forms of calf starters on feed intake and growth rate: A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis of studies from 1938 to 2021. Appl. Anim. Sci. 37: 273-293.
4. Mirzaei, M., H. Khanaki, M. Kazemi-Bonchenari, M.A Khan, A.H. Khaltabadi-Farahani, M. Hossein-Yazdi and M.H. Ghaffari. 2020. Effects of step-down weaning implementation time on growth performance and blood metabolites of dairy calves. J. Dairy Sci. 103: 10099-10107.
5. Steele, M.A., J.H. Doelman, L.B. Leal, M. Carson, and J.A. Metcalf. 2017. Abrupt weaning reduces postweaning growth and is associated with alterations in gastrointestinal markers of development in dairy calves fed an elevated plane of nutrition during the preweaning period. J. Dairy Sci. 100: 5390-5399.

Photo Credit

Bailey Travers - Jersey calves at UNH's organic farm

Related articles:

• Colostrum
• Milk Feeding to Dairy Calves
• The Key to Ruminal Development: Starter Grain