Case study: Early weaning at Chilwell
- ASHEEP & BEEF
- Mar 2
- 5 min read
Sarah Brown, ASHEEP & BEEF
The final breeding season has wrapped up for ASHEEP & BEEF’s Optimising Age of Weaning Cattle project, facilitated by Dr Enoch Bergman (Swans Veterinary Services) and funded through the Meat & Livestock Australia Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) program. An interesting PDS with some useful learnings – though not always those we expected!
This PDS was driven by producer interest in whether calves were being weaned at the optimal age, and whether earlier weaning than traditional timings could deliver good calf weight gains, improved management of cow condition, better feed utilisation (with less feed required when cows and calves are managed separately), and the potential to increase carrying capacity.
Demonstration sites were run over three breeding seasons (2023, 2024 and 2025). At each site, half of the calves from a group of young cows were weaned approximately 60 days earlier than the producer’s usual practice. Calf weight gain, cow weight gain and cow body condition were measured.
Six producers were involved in the first year, with four continuing across all three seasons.
Case study on Chilwell Farms
Simon Fowler is an owner of Chilwell, a mixed cropping and livestock enterprise in Condingup on Western Australia’s south‑east coast, where he leads livestock operations. Chilwell has hosted a demonstration site for the full three years of ASHEEP & BEEF’s Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) “Optimising Age of Weaning Cattle”, funded by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and facilitated by Dr Enoch Bergman (Swans Veterinary Services). With the final year of demonstrations now complete, we’ve caught up with Simon to get his take on Chilwell’s results and key learnings.
Farm & cattle program overview
“Chilwell is a large broadacre cropping business with an intensive livestock component, with a focus on maximising production in all enterprises and utilising the synergies that exist between cropping and livestock systems,” said Simon.
“Our cattle breed of choice is Angus, with our genetics coming from Blackrock Stud in Vasse and Allegria Park in Esperance. We finish our steers and cull heifers for Woolworths on grass in the spring so our breeding objectives are based on selecting genetics that will allow the finished animals to have good fat cover and moderate frame size to meet supermarket specifications. Cattle fit in well to our farming system as they have the ability to perform well in parts of the farm that are too wet for cropping and can utilise stubbles and summer crops efficiently.”
Key approximate dates for the cattle program include calving 25th March, bulls in 16th June, pregnancy testing in November / December, weaning from 7th November into December, with sales timed between September – October the following year.
“We start weaning calves on the 7th of November,” said Simon. “We wean in batches of about 400 calves, and the calves spend a week in the weaning pens, so the whole weaning process takes about 5 weeks. We aim to get the weaning finished before Christmas to make management easier over the holiday period and enable the calves to settle before they start grazing summer crops.”
Overview of how the demonstration ran at Chilwell
“By joining the PDS, we were interested to see if we could wean early to enable the cows to gain extra condition without impacting too greatly on calf performance.”
“We used our first calvers in all three years of the demonstration (2023 – 2025), as we see these cows as the most important animals to look after because they are still actively growing and take longer to recover from having their first calf. For year one and two, these animals calved down on dry paddock feed and were fed on straw and silage until the paddock feed was sufficient. Calves were weaned based on having an odd or even numbered ear tag. In year three, the first calvers calved down in containment pens to allow us to better meet their nutritional requirements and to ensure easier management of the calving process.”
During the course of the demonstration, Chilwell trialled a range of different weaning strategies for the early-weaned calves.
In 2023, the first year of the PDS, half of the randomly selected calves had Easy Weaner devices applied 35 days earlier. All cows and calves were weighed and the cows were body condition scored. All cows and calves were then reweighed and cow body condition score estimated again when the remainder of the calves were yard weaned. Cows were also wet/dried at that point to attempt to identify the dams of the early weaned calves. Data was summated for cows and calves identified as either early weaned, or traditionally weaned.
In 2024, the process was repeated, however, half of the calves were removed from the population of cows and calves and were fenceline weaned adjacent to the cows and unweaned calves on strong Balansa clover. 49 days later the remainder of the calves were weaned.
In 2025, the calves which were weaned earlier were removed and went directly into containment pens where they were fed a daily ration of silage and grain. 28 days later the remainder of the calves were yard weaned and both groups of calves were weighed 6 days later.
Each year all of the cows were returned to the same mob as the unweaned calves so condition score could be monitored.
Seasonal conditions in 2023 and 2024 were challenging, with notably early finishes and declining feed quality. 2025 saw an improvement on that with a more typical spring finish.
What did you observe?
“In the first year, the unweaned calves weighed in at 306 kg with an average daily gain (ADG) of 1.25 kg/d and the early-weaned at 292 kg with 0.82 kg/d. The second year, unweaned calves weighed in at 263 kg with an ADG of 1.36 kg/d and the early-weaned at 256 kg with an ADG of 1.18 kg/d. The third year, the unweaned calves weighed 312 kg with an ADG of 0.92 kg/d and the early-weaned were 291 kg with an ADG of 0.49 kg/d.”
“Across all three years the body condition and weight of the cows that had been early-weaned was definitely better.”
Have you modified your target weaning date as a result of the PDS?
“No, but I will be happy to wean early in the future if seasonal conditions dictate.”
Are there any changes you think you could make to get an improvement in the weight gain of earlier-weaned calves in future?
“I would change the ration we used in the containment pen for weaning to see if we could improve performance. Earlier weaning won’t be standard practice for us, but will definitely be used when the seasonal conditions are dry and the feed availability is limited. I would use the containment feeding option as it was easy to manage and was good training for the calves for future feeding. It also frees up grazing areas for other livestock classes which is often required in tough seasons.”
Thinking back on the PDS learnings, any advice for others looking to wean early in dry seasons?
“Don’t be scared to wean early if seasonal conditions are tight, it is a good tool to improve the condition of your breeding stock and allocate resources more efficiently. Early weaning will not impact on long term calf performance if you are finishing them on farm and if you are selling as a weaner it may be worth developing some infrastructure or system to help with the process.”
What are your other focuses for taking Chilwell’s beef enterprise forward?
“Current focus is on intensifying the production system, which includes more virtual feedlots and calving in confinement. This will allow us to achieve better pasture deferment and a higher stocking rate.”
