Fence-line weaning our South Poll cattle

We wean our April-May born South Poll calves in December-January. It varies dependent on body condition of the cattle, weather, and available forage. We use fence-line weaning, when feasible, to reduce separation anxiety for both the calves and the cows.  Although at times we 

have done conventional weaning and have seldom needed to doctor calves, we agree with this Drovers article​ in general that “stress is a key contributor to sickness, weight loss, and poor performance.”

Fence-line weaning South Poll calves

Unlike the most conventional cattle operations, as a general rule, we don't feed any concentrates or “supplements” to our cattle that we sell direct off of the farm. So it's grass hay and pasture only for our South Poll cattle, but most articles we've read concerning weaning, discuss the importance of feed bunk and water trough placement for the calves. Some of them may be so stressed they forget to look for food or water for a time, which increases the chances of sickness and weight loss.

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​​An issue that we have dealt with in the past is neighbor dogs.  A group of young calves without the safety of their mama's can be susceptible to being run through fences or even attacked and killed by neighboring dogs or other dogs running loose.  Keep this in mind when choosing which pastures to use for your fence-line weaning.

We use a barbed wire fence with hot fence (electric-fence) offsets to keep them separated.  Sometime we use two offsets on the calves side of the fence.  Right now we're custom grazing some Corriente cows bred to our South Poll bulls.  Some of the Corriente calves retain some of their "squirrely" abilities, which is why we chose two hot wire offsets on this occasion.

During stressful times, cattle that are not climatically adapted will have a harder time coping.  They will lower their daily intake which decreases grass conversion efficiency.  Our ranch in Southern Missouri requires cattle that can thrive on fescue in relatively hot and humid summers as well as cold and wet winters.  In his book Man, Cattle, and Veld, Johann Zietsman reveals the importance of adapted animals and some of the climatic factors that adversely effect intake such as heat, cold, solar radiation, humidity, and rain (extended wet periods), and photoperiod (day length).  Johann states "A climatically unadapted animal is like a poorly tuned car engine.  It performs badly and is expensive to run."  One of our goals is to continue to make genetic progress toward climatically adapted cattle in our herd.  Our choice of using South Poll cattle genetics has gone a long way toward achieving that goal.  ​

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Here is an article with anecdotes from Jim Gerrish, Wally Olsen, and others about their experiences with fence-line weaning.

Here is an article from Michigan State University with charts and figures providing some numbers and more details about this method.

Do you fence-line wean? Why or Why not? What are some experiences you've had?