Livestock Management RANCHING
head toward weaning. “Certainly by 6 weeks of age, calves need to be in a situation where they can con- sume other feedstuffs,” Holland says. “Where there is a lot of forage available, the calf
is going to learn from the cows how to eat the for- age. Provided it is available, that transition is going to happen just fi ne.” But many ranchers use grazing systems designed to divert higher quality forages to calves, under the broad defi nition of creep feeding. Holland says you can use specifi c feeders or gates that allow only the calf to get to the feeder, a pasture, or a different area of a pasture. “Creep feeds can consist of highly concentrated,
energy-based supplements,” he says. “These could be higher levels of cereal grains, corn or byproducts. From a dry feed standpoint, you could also provide supplements with higher concentrations of protein- based feed like cottonseed meal, soybean meal or some of the corn processing byproducts.” There is also what’s called a “green creep,” allow-
ing calves into different pastures or parts of a pasture that are off limits to the cows. This could include areas where a cereal grain or a summer annual has been planted. Dr. Vanessa Corriher-Olson, a Texas A&M AgriLife
Extension forage researcher at Overton, says she has experimented with creep grazing using the tropical legume Aeschynomene, commonly known as joint vetch or deer vetch.
The most important point is not to wait too long before attempting to get the cow into condition.
“Calves obviously have a higher nutrient require-
ment than cows, so you create a smaller area of higher quality forage available to calves,” she says. “Legumes are higher quality than are grasses. So, it’s an oppor- tunity to strictly allow only the calves to have access into this creep grazing area.” Other alternative methods include fi rst-last graz-
ing, where animals that need the highest nutrition get new grass fi rst; as well as forward creep grazing and strip grazing, which has the highest effi ciency of all grazing methods. Corriher-Olson says, “The more frequently we move our livestock, rotating them in our pastures, the more
42 The Cattleman June 2015
we’re increasing their effi ciency. They’re going to be more effective at harvesting nutrients from forage and converting it into our ultimate goal as producers, whether that is calves or weight gain.” One creep grazing method involves subdividing a
single pasture using electric wire set about 30 inches above the ground, thereby keeping the cows in the paddock while allowing the calves to go underneath the wire to the next paddock. That way, the calves are learning to graze and get the most nutritious part of the forage, the top, while they can still return and nurse from their mothers. A modifi ed version of this is fenceline weaning,
where the calves are separated from their mothers by an electric fence. While they can’t nurse, they can still see and smell each other and are typically weaned within a couple of days. Holland notes, “Weaning is the most stressful pe-
riod in the calf’s life, so all we can do to prepare that calf to successfully go through the weaning process is a positive thing.” He says the cows will initially remain close to the calves, and then begin to venture away over a relatively short period of time. There are also devices that can be placed in the calf’s nose to prevent nursing while allowing the animals to re- main in the herd, or more labor-intensive methods of separation such as placing the cows in a separate pen or pasture during periods of the day. The key is low stress management of the weaning process, which should be a priority in cattle operations. The calf needs to be able to grow to its potential
during the pre-weaning period, so there is a risk of malnutrition during times of low forage availability; typically due to an improperly stocked pasture or dur- ing drought conditions. Either way, there may not be suffi cient forage to support the cow’s milk production as well as her calf. As warm season forages like bermudagrass begin
to mature late in the summer and become low in pro- tein, a high-protein creep feed might be benefi cial. Holland recommends limiting intake of the supplement to about 1 pound per day per calf through the use of salt or ionophores. He notes that the protein derived from a supplement can stimulate the microbial organ- isms in the calf’s rumen and increase forage intake, thereby improving performance. On the other hand, if the goal is to reduce pressure
on forage due to drought or from overgrazing, creep feeds with high grain composition could be used to replace forage intake. He says studies have shown
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