Yard weaning makes ‘steady, happy cattle’

Hill Springs co-owner Curtis Pannett at his new cattle yards in Teviot. PHOTOS: SHAWN MCAVINUE

Yard weaning helps produce calmer, better-adjusted calves, a Teviot Valley sheep and beef farmer says.

Hill Springs co-owner Curtis Pannett said about 120 calves were weaned in the yards in autumn so they could be used to humans.

Due to the size of the 3400ha property, weaning was often the first time some calves had been in the yards.

"They do need a little bit of domesticating."

The calves were kept in the yards for up to five days and given baleage and water.

Each day, he spent more time walking among the calves in the yards.

Over time, the calves settle in the confined environment and began to follow people rather than trying to avoid them.

Any cattle staying at the back of the yards, avoiding people, were the most in need of domestication.

"They can lead the others if they’re not right, so make sure every animal can feel a pressure point on you," he said.

Docile cattle transferred their energy to improving growth rather than to showing a sign of aggression.

Yard weaning set the calves up for life, he said.

"To be steady, happy cattle, who will keep their head down and eat and grow."

In Australia, he had worked with cattle with "a bit more boogie" and a similar weaning technique was used to produce a calmer herd, Mr Pannett said.

More than 60 people attended the Beef + Lamb "Power of the Cow" event on Hill Springs sheep and beef farm.

New yards had been built on Hill Springs, replacing "poky" yards, which had made the weaning method easier.

PGG Wrightson animal production technical expert Andrew Dowling, of Central Otago, said farmers should avoid drenching their calves at weaning because it could make the cattle angry at a time they should be as calm as possible.

"When they first come in they are pretty bloody stirred up."

A calve’s worm burden was low and a faecal egg count could show if an oral drench was necessary.

Mr Pannett said he was trialling leaving the testicles on any bulls heavier than 280kg at weaning of cattle from the nearly 1500ha run block, between 600m and 1100m above sea level.

"It is hard on the animal to take the nuts off at that stage," he said.

The intact bulls’ growth was "motoring" and they would be slaughtered in February or March.

The heaviest of those bulls now weighed nearly 600kg.

"They’ve skyrocketed."