What is it?
QuietWean uses a simple technology consisting of a palm-sized flap made of hard plastic. While tough enough to withstand day-to-day use, it remains pliable for easy application. Creating a two-step weaning process, QuietWean allows for a healthy, quiet transition from mother’s milk to grazing.
Its semi-circle design fits easily into the calves’ nostrils and stays put for the duration of the weaning process, which is about 4-7 days long. It is a pain-free method that restricts the calf’s ability to suckle from the mother’s teat, but allows the calf to freely eat grass. With full access to their mothers’ physical touch, the calves remain comfortable and happy while they transition to solid food.
Image sourced from QuietWean.
Challenges
- Using nose paddles to facilitate two-stage weaning requires additional labour, as it requires calve handling for both nose paddle insertion and removal.
- The additional work and costs associated with performing two-stage weaning falls on the cow-calf ranchers, however, they do not receive increased profits for doing this work.
How Does it Prevent AMR?
By expanding the weaning process to two separate stages, the QuietWean paddle reduces the stress on the calf during the weaning process. This encourages the animals to stay calm, continue eating, drinking, and growing, instead of losing energy to pacing and bawling. In turn, this helps reduce the calves’ risk of developing respiratory illness.
Use of antimicrobials are standard practice to treat respiratory illness, which is traditionally a rampant illness in newly weaned calves. Antimicrobials to treat Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) are given at such high rates that the effectiveness of the drugs have been declining. By eliminating the need for mass treatment, the development of AMR can be slowed.
