"We believe in combating this with a good mineral and vitamin program — it's an added bonus."
Levi & Stephanie Whipps
Max, Nebraska
December, 2008/December, 2009
"It's all about getting calves ready for what's next in their
life." These are the some of the fundamentals in preparing
calves for weaning at Lazy Y Cattle Company. The year,
2008, was not a normal year in anyone's mind; but what is
normal about the cattle business anyhow? When weaning
time or, more practically put, "transition time" for calves
occurred at the ranch, a fence line system to wean was
practiced. It was the first time this system had been used at
the ranch, and when the time came conditions were dry
and dusty. A couple of calves had already been treated for
minor respiratory problems and these could have been
compounded from the stress of weaning in a dusty dry-lot.
"Stress is the first limiting factor in performance," says Levi
Whipps. "We believe in combating this with a good mineral
and vitamin program — it's an added bonus."
"We start all our calves on CRYSTALYX® Brigade® to help them deal with stress. We
have seen an increase in their appetite and improved health. We really like the results."
Brigade® actually prepared the cattle.
The old adage, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, is often an understatement. Most weaning
programs that include CRYSTALYX® Brigade® involve placing barrels at the moment of calf separation from their
dams. For Lazy Y Cattle Co., Brigade® barrels were placed with cows and calves on pasture one month prior to
fence line weaning. Approximately five days prior to separation, the cow-calf pairs were moved to a pasture
consisting of both native range and a field of volunteer wheat stubble. The weaning transition took place over a
seven-day window. The fence line weaning system consisted of holding cows in portable corrals on one end of the
pasture and then placing calves back on the same pasture of native range and volunteer wheat. Brigade® barrels
were then placed in three separate areas: near the corral, at a midpoint near water in the native rangeland, and in
the volunteer wheat.
Placing barrels as such not only supplied additional supplement at a stressful time for the calves, it aided the fence
line system as it gave calves another reason to graze out and away from the cows held at the corral. "The calves
would loaf near the cows at times, but would also graze to and from the barrels. Within three days
our calves were fine, and we had no additional sick calves," said Levi. With CRYSTALYX®
being offered ahead of time, and with the pasture being previously known to
calves, it made the weaning transition less stressful.
Pasture Management and Understanding Animal
Behavior were an integral part of the success.
The month long period of feeding Brigade® to cow-calf pairs prior to
weaning not only helped provide needed nutrition, but it also helped Lazy Y
better manage some rough native rangeland in areas nearly a mile from water.
These areas typically do not get the best use of all grass that can potentially be
grazed. Thus, CRYSTALYX® was used as a pasture management tool.
Once calves were weaned and in a relatively large pasture, the volunteer wheat stubble was nearly one mile
from where the cows were corralled. Since the calves were already familiar with CRYSTALYX,® placing additional
barrels in the wheat stubble helped attract the calves away from the cows and onto a higher quality forage.
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