Early Weaning Beef Calves at 70 to 90 Days of Age An overview of recent research

The benefits of early weaning during instances of environmental strain, usually witnessed by a shortage of summer forage, has been understood and practiced for many years. However, the use of early weaning as a normal, annual management practice for beef cows is not common. Our interest in the topic originated from the common production practice in the Southeast, which allowed heifers to develop for two years before being bred the first time. Calving heifers for the first time at three years of age is quite common across production regions that utilize a high percentage of Bos indicus lineage (i.e. Brahman). Compared to heifers of traditional English lineage (Bos taurus), Brahman-crossbred heifers have been shown to have lower calving rates when developed to calve at 24 months of age (DeRouen and Franke, 1989). The reason relates to the slow rate of maturity common to Bos indicus cattle, witnessed by both delayed onset of puberty (Rodrigues et al., 2002) and increased time required to achieve mature body size (Martin et al., 1992). Nevertheless, heifers that calve for the first time at three years of age have reduced lifetime economic efficiency than those managed to calve at two years of age. Although, calving at three years of age may increase repeatability of pregnancy, forcing all two year olds to remain non-productive an entire year decreases the overall economic efficiency of the cowherd (Nunez-Dominguez et al., 1991).