Wet weather over the last week 10 days has forced many farms into housing.

For many suckler farmers, this has meant weaning calves earlier than planned in some cases.

Where weanlings are already weaned and have been at grass for the last few weeks, the risk of sickness is lower. However, being forced to house cattle when wet is not ideal.

A downside of having to house cattle during a period of poor weather is that it is nearly impossible to get stock in dry. This has the potential to cause issues at a time that can already be quite stressful for the weanling.

Time to adjust

Where cattle are damaging ground and housing is necessary, do not wean the calves for a few days post-housing. Allow them the time to adjust to their new surroundings and grass silage diet prior to removing the cows.

Even if this means placing the weanlings in an adjoining pen to the cows and letting them in to suck morning and evening for two or three days, it will greatly reduce the stress levels on the calf.

After this you can move to once a day sucking for a day or two before completely weaning the calves after five to seven days.

While it does mean a bit of extra work for the few days, it will be well worth it if it means avoiding any pneumonia or high temperatures over the first fortnight of housing.

Meal feeding

While most weanlings will already be introduced to meal feeding prior to weaning, as is a requirement for anyone in the BEEP-S scheme, make sure the concentrate you are feeding is highly palatable and if you are just feeding 2-3kg/hd/day, make sure you have enough trough space for animals to feed at the same time.

Keep a close eye on stock and, if in doubt, check the temperature of the animal. if you are seeing temperatures of weanlings over 39°C, it is time to intervene. Early intervention is key to avoiding any serious sickness or loss of production.