The Age of Aquariums. Most people who keep fish have a tank or two; perhaps they start with a five-gallon model and graduate to the 35- or 50-gallon version that doctors put in waiting rooms to keep patients calm.
Although calves are usually weaned at 8 weeks or older, many producers use early weaning programs to lower the costs of feed and labor. Calves tend to scour less when consuming solid feeds compared with liquid feeds. As a result, health costs may decrease. The following table illustrates the difference in the cost of feed and labor for weaning a calf at 5 or 8 weeks of age. This example represents estimated prices for a good quality milk replacer and calf starter. Under these circumstances, weaning a calf at 5 weeks instead of 8 weeks saves $26.89 per calf.
RESEARCH RESULTS An important reason for weaning calves early is to allow the cow to build body reserves for the winter. Cows nursing calves that were weaned late gained 66 pounds between July 15 and September 15 (Table 1), but their gain was 31 pounds less than that of cows from which calves were already weaned.