Calf Removal for Your Thin Cows

Calves removed from mothers

Cows who are thin at calving and thin throughout the first part of spring are less likely to breed back compared to cows who have an appropriate body condition score. The reason for this is they don't cycle back like they should and for a producer who may have been short on feed or margins this could become a problem. According to Glenn Selk, an Oklahoma State University Extension Agent, studies have shown that removal of calves for 48 hours has shown to improve re-breeding rates of moderately conditioned cows by 4-8%. The removal of this calf removes the nursing stimulus from the cow and allows the borderline cows to return to heat cycles earlier than they normally would have.

Table 1. Summary of 3 trials comparing 48 hour short term calf removal to cow/calf pairs that were traditionally suckled. (Simms, et al. 1982 KSU Cattleman’s Day)

Treatment	Number of Cows	% Pregnant at palpation	Calf A.D.G. from treatment to weaning
Control (normal suckling)	101	87.1	1.60
Removed 48 hours	86	93.0	1.63

Even though the study shows that removing the calf  from the borderline or thin cow helps the cow cycle back sooner than normal leaving the calves off their mothers for 48 hours concerns me. This seems like a long time for a calf that may be no older than 2-3 months to be away from its mother and her milk. I believe this would put a lot of stress on the calf and could end up giving the calf scours once it does get back to sucking its mother. As a producer, we have heard about doing this type of practice but have never actually gave it try because most of the time our cows are in the proper body condition to breed back. If a producer was going to try it I believe they should do it with a portion of their thin cows to test it out first and possibly turn the calves back with the cows sooner. Overall, I believe this approach can have its benefits especially with increased conception rates but I would want to keep a close eye on your calves to make sure it doing more harm than good.