Evaluation of an early weaning program for dairy calves

Abstract

One experiment was conducted to compare an early weaning program, using a prestarter , when calves were weaned at 2 or 3 wk of age with programs using conventional feeds and weaning at 3 or 6 wk of age. Daily gains to 8 wk of age were 1.19 and 1.03 pound for calves fed a commercial starter and weaned at 6 and 3 weeks of age, respectively; and were 1.1 and .97 for calves on the early weaning program and weaned at 3 and 2 wk of age, respectively. Another experiment was conducted to test one variation of the early weaning program. Calves fed according to the early weaning program and receiving a high quality, fibrous starter gained an average of 1.3 lb per day to 6 wk of age. Calves fed prestarter but no starter until weaning did not perform as well.