Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

All our Dexters and Belties live outdoors all year round and fed on grass/haylage only. As we do not feed any creep feed or concentrates to the young or old I am interested in finding the most effective time for weaning to avoid stress and growth checks etc, and also interested in working out the most effective calving time and pattern so calves are weaned in sync with best time of year to transfer onto 100% roughage.

All the cows look well, they are holding enough condition and happy feeding their calves who also tuck into the haylage. Our calving currently starts mid March.
I also plan to adopt the temple Grandin methods for weaning this year but may struggle with our set up.

Everyones ideas, experiences and scientific knowledge is most appriciated,

Mima

The Burnside herd calves in April, a few into May. In March every year I take the calves in and feed them on silage/haylage inside, and leave the cows in the field just outside. Not much noise, very little fuss and bother. The calves are then inside till there is enough grass outside for them to go to separate field, usually end of April, sometimes a week or two into May.

During their time in the byre I try to have every calf used to being tied up and going on a halter, perhaps not to show training standards but at least they get used to handling and human (?) presence.

I try to outwinter as many as possible, only older bulls and any cows not maintaining condition are allowed inside. Feed grass/hay/haylage/silage only, have not bought any concentrate for years.

One disadvantage of the system is that those for slaughter tend to be ready very seasonally, but I have killed some as early as April straight out of the field.

Duncan

Our cattle come inside during the winter (usually) because we're on clay. We calve late-Feb through to early-April, but in practice most are born during March. That gives us time indoors to keep a close eye on them and then the grass will be ready for them when they are a few weeks old and can then go out. We tend to treat the calves for cocci and worms before they go out.

Number one factor for me though, would be to consider what you are doing with the beasts and your market, if you have a market. i.e. if you get good Christmas business which I would have thought to be common with Dexters (?) you might want to calve at a time so that at whatever age they finish, it is some time before Christmas. Mine, being born in March, are ready in March 2 years later because they take around 24 months, minimum 22. These are Dexter crosses by the way, Dexters I leave longer. So I miss a lot of XMas business although I've normally got a few that have done well and can go early. Because of that, with the benefit of hindsight, I would do autumn calving, but too late now.

Or to put it another way, decide when you want your steers to finish, and at what age, and work backwards from there.

We wean at 9 months, sometimes a month earlier if there's a reason, cow not coping or sold, and up to 10 months but we always give the cow at least 2 months to recover before she calves again. If the cow went to the bull late for some reason, we may not wean till 11-12 months, but always take the calf off 2 months before the earliest possible date of the next one being due.

Not saying what we do is the right way, it's just what we do.

Thanks for your replies. We have decided to wean the calves at approx 10months old and see how this works out in our system. In previous years we have weaned earlier with no obvious side-effects and stock have always looked well however we have no idea if weaning earlier hindered their growth and if so by how much so we will monitor and see if this makes a difference.

Although we do have a barn and pens for emergencies we have a solely outdoor reared herd and so this includes the newly weaned calves, they will however be weaned in bunches for familiar company and live with a few nanny cows to give them guidence as we find this reduces stress and anxiey which is all good for relaxing and growing!

I guess I am interested in the biology of the calf to know (and understand) at what age can they be weaned to go on haylage/grass only with no creep feed or sheltered barn and still grow well and make good weight and taste?

Many thanks
Mima

Mima wrote:I guess I am interested in the biology of the calf to know (and understand) at what age can they be weaned to go on haylage/grass only with no creep feed or sheltered barn and still grow well and make good weight and taste?

I think you've got it right Mima. i.e. wean as late as possible/practical, 10 months, say 8-9 minimum as long as the cow is doing OK. Personally, I would feed if weaned earlier. I've just weaned some at just 8 months and whilst I can't say they are not doing well as nothing is showing yet, they aren't as bouncy. So I'm going to start feeding as soon as I can get them separate. But they are 75% Dexter, not pure.

A problem with weaning at 10 months is the bull that has to serve the cows for the next lactation.

How do you provide that the bull serves the young heifer calfs?

PorcPrunus NL wrote:A problem with weaning at 10 months is the bull that has to serve the cows for the next lactation.

How do you provide that the bull serves the young heifer calfs?

Bull them at three months and take the bull out after six weeks, he only ever comes into contact with heifer calves up to 4.5 months of age.

Just going back to the original post. This year I lost a cow to staggers this year for the first time. Her calf was 6.5 months old when this happened. I couldn't separate to feed it, so it had to survive on grazing and forage + licks and pinching milk from cows in the group.

I have just weaned the whole group of calves (all Angus-Dexter crosses 9-10 months) and the difference is very clear. She is behind the others in every way, size, condition and her general look isn't as lively. She's fine and if you saw her n her own you'd probably not notice, but when you have a direct comparison she's clearly not done as well. The whole group of weaners are now on forage and I'm feeding them a bit as well, and will continue this till the grass comes good in the spring.

As far as weaning at a given age is concerned, in practice, if you have a herd, there will be a variety of ages when you wean as a group unless you pick them out one by one! Our bull goes back in for 9 weeks pretty well on the same day each year (middle-late May) and we haven't had any problems with heifers (yet!). We did have a couple of heifers caught at 6 months of age when I left the bull in too long. But our calving was widely spread out back then so mixed ages of calves, real pain in the butt having them spread out.