Managing the upbringing of calves after the weaning

Source: INTA

In the upbringing, the feeding conditions and of life of the calves they are usually low control and the daily revision of the animals assures the detection of problems on time. The step towards raising, without milk, is usually a long fall to a black well, but the upbringing does not end when the animal stops taking milk.

The artificial upbringing of calves is the beginning of a process that has as its target to achieve females for substitution or males for meat production. The short age of the animals, the feeding type and the individual systems of upbringing demand an intensive handling, different to the collective treatment that one makes with the rest of the categories in the pastoral systems.

It is common to consider that the upbringing concludes when it is suspended the supply of milk or milky substitute, between the 45 and 60 days of age, dedicating scarce attention to both or three following weeks that are fundamental even the adaptation of the calf to field conditions.

This constitutes an error since small animals that you/they were housed in cages or tied to stakes, suddenly they have to learn how to cohabit with others of more size and age, to know in very big spaces the location of the shepherding spots, the access to water and to face an abrupt change of their habitual diet.

The period after "milk-feeding" is crucial

As consequence of that pointed out is observed loss of weight commonly, diarrheas, general decline and possibly deaths, affecting the whole process of breeding.

The obtained information of a real system of production during more than one decade, in which any handling peculiar of the calves was not made to the exit of the stake, it showed some of the inconveniences mentioned in the stage "milk-feeding" of the upbringing artificial, particularly low earnings of weight. In this system, the stage of liquid diet had a duration average of 48 days, with daily earnings of 0,409 kg, as long as the stage "milk-feeding" extended 96 days and the gain was of 0,469 kg.

The experiences of the INTA Rafaela

In the last three years the artificial upbringing of the Experimental dairy farm of the EEA Rafaela, includes a stage of adaptation that contemplates handling rules after the "milk-feeding" period to avoid the signal problems.

The practices consist on housing the calves in small pickets, in which consent with scarce displacements to the allowances and the water. The feeding is based on the optional consumption of medic hay and a concentrated initiator, similar to the utilized one in the stage of liquid diet. The duration of this stage is of 15 days, although the calves that manifest some delay in its development remain more time until its recovery. Also, the concentrate is given under a shed of foils that allows to still offer it in days of rain and it also serves as shade to the calves. The average of the daily consumption of having concentrated by animal is of 1,4 kg.

After this period they are managed in combined form with the rest of the calves with access to medic pastures, hay of optional medic and 2 daily kg of grain of corn left until completing 90 later days to the "non milk-feeding".

D.G.W.: Daily gain of Weight

The daily gain of weight (D.G.W.) stayed during the period of adaptation, avoiding this way decline from the calves to the exit of the stage of liquid diet and an important increment in the following period.

To avoid the stress pos milk-feeding, some recommendations are mentioned below:

To suspend the liquid food to calves that consummate daily around 1kg of concentrated and have a good corporal state.

To have appropriate infrastructure for the easy access to the allowances and the water in the two following weeks to the milk-feeding.

To continue in this stage with the offer of concentrated and of hay of high quality

To frequently observe the evolution of the calves to detect in quick form any inconvenience.

To delay the exit to field of the animals that don't manifest good evolution and don't have appropriate sanitary conditions.