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The target growth rate for weanlings over the winter months is somewhere between 0.5kg/day and 0.7kg/day in order to avail of maximum compensation after turnout. On many farms, weanlings will have been offered 1-2kg/head/day over the winter months to achieve target growth rates and this supplementation can now stop in advance of turnout.
If weanlings gain too much weight over winter months and become fat, it has been shown that they subsequently lose this fat at grass and the extra weight is not carried through to slaughter or sale at the end of the second grazing season. Weanlings should be offered a silage-only diet from now until turnout. The earlier they are turned out, the higher the compensatory growth will be.
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