Optimising Age of Weaning in Cattle
| Project start date: | 19 December 2022 |
| Project end date: | 01 December 2026 |
| Project status: | In progress |
| Livestock species: | Grass-fed Cattle, Grass-fed Beef |
| Relevant regions: | Western Australia, Mediterranean |
| Site location: | WA: South Coast region |
Summary
This producer Demonstration Site (PDS) project aims to demonstrate that weaning cattle 60 days earlier than each participant’s current practice has the potential to improve pasture use efficiency allowing improved stocking density, conserve high value feed stuffs for finishing weaner cattle and conserve the body condition of breeding females improving their ability to both calve successfully and rebreed at the subsequent mating opportunity.
Objectives
By May 2026, in the Esperance Region of Western Australia, Asheep will engage 11 core producers & a minimum of 20 observer producers to:
- Demonstrate across 5 demonstration sites that:
- Calves weaned 60 days earlier than their control group siblings can be managed to prevent a reduction in weight gain comparatively measured after the control calves are yard weaned.
- Cows with calves weaned earlier will gain or maintain more weight and have higher average body condition scores (BCS) than the cows from the control group to the point of traditional weaning on the same pasture, demonstrating a reduction in maintenance requirements (15.5 kg DM vs 6 kg DM per day) and apparent partitioning of resources to BCS.
- Cows with calves that have been weaned earlier will have maintained more weight, better body condition scores, and will have an improved pregnancy rate in their subsequent mating.
- Enrolled producers will realize that better utilisation of forage will improve their kgs of beef per hectare turn off for the same quantity of forage additionally reducing their net carbon contribution per kg of beef produced per hectare.
- Conduct a cost benefit analysis to determine the economic impact on weaner weight, cow repreg rate, feed efficiency and potential to increase stocking rate, as well as impact on net carbon.
- Implement skills and training development with core and observer producers via workshops, newsletter articles, field day discussion and You Tube videos.
- 75% of core producers will have intention to adopt earlier weaning practices. 50% of observer producers will be considering practice change and 25% will intend to implement.
- 100% of core producers and 75% of observer producers will have improved their knowledge, skills and confidence in relation to understanding the impacts of time of weaning
Progress
The ‘Optimising Age of Weaning’ Producer Demonstration Site project commenced in 2023, based in Esperance, WA. Final results are expected in early 2026.
The project aims to demonstrate that weaning cattle 60 days earlier than each participant’s current practice has the potential to
1) improve pasture use efficiency allowing improved stocking density,
2) conserve high value feed stuffs for finishing weaner cattle, and
3) conserve the body condition of breeding females improving their ability to both calve successfully and rebreed at the subsequent mating opportunity.
Weaning and data collection is underway for the first breeding cycle of the project and the second cycle has recently commenced.
The project is being driven by grower group ASHEEP & BEEF, in collaboration with Dr Enoch Bergman from Swans Veterinary Services.
