Cowman, you are resorting to worst case scenario again to prove your case against preconditioning / weaning.
"I don't know about you but I want to be paid very well if I'm out babying sick snotty calves in the middle of the night? Personally I would want about $30 an hour!"
It bears no relation to how we do things! We fenceline wean calves October 1st (even with our later born calves) onto grass that has been especially set up for them. We have found that you are better to leave them on grass alone rather than trying to feed them a grain ration they are unfamilier with ( we don't need to creep feed here as the calves have adequate milk and grass to be still gaining 3lbs a day at weaning). After a few days we add a trough at the back of the field to introduce them to pellets. We test weighed calves one year two weeks after weaning and found they had gained 2lbs a day since weaning. They were lying sunbathing in the grass at 24C with not a concern in the world, helped by the fact they had been preconditioned by vaccinating in the spring and again at weaning. We have not treated a calf for "post weaning troubles" in 4 years.
Contrast that to conventional management where the cows were out of grass in August, the calves were already less healthy because they didn't have enough grass or milk. The calves are weaned in November into corrals after you have "toughed them out" as long as you can on the cows taking 1.5 condition score points off the cow in the process, the calves have maybe gained 1lb a day for the last month. That's when you have to "baby sick snotty calves in the middle of the night" - or else dump them in the auction to be someone elses problem. That is not what preconditioning is about.
"I don't know about you but I want to be paid very well if I'm out babying sick snotty calves in the middle of the night? Personally I would want about $30 an hour!"
It bears no relation to how we do things! We fenceline wean calves October 1st (even with our later born calves) onto grass that has been especially set up for them. We have found that you are better to leave them on grass alone rather than trying to feed them a grain ration they are unfamilier with ( we don't need to creep feed here as the calves have adequate milk and grass to be still gaining 3lbs a day at weaning). After a few days we add a trough at the back of the field to introduce them to pellets. We test weighed calves one year two weeks after weaning and found they had gained 2lbs a day since weaning. They were lying sunbathing in the grass at 24C with not a concern in the world, helped by the fact they had been preconditioned by vaccinating in the spring and again at weaning. We have not treated a calf for "post weaning troubles" in 4 years.
Contrast that to conventional management where the cows were out of grass in August, the calves were already less healthy because they didn't have enough grass or milk. The calves are weaned in November into corrals after you have "toughed them out" as long as you can on the cows taking 1.5 condition score points off the cow in the process, the calves have maybe gained 1lb a day for the last month. That's when you have to "baby sick snotty calves in the middle of the night" - or else dump them in the auction to be someone elses problem. That is not what preconditioning is about.
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