How do you prep for calving season?
December is nearly here and for many cattle folks that means calving season is within view. I’m looking for readers input on what you do on your operation to make calving season run smoothly. How do you keep calves warm? Prevent frozen ears? Minimize scours outbreaks?
Growing up on a farm, my dad always had one trick to try and prevent cows from calving at nite. He always fed a bale of hay at about dusk. He believed the cows were busy eating and then ruminating in the nite, so they didn’t go into labor until the morning. I have to admit, it seemed to work pretty well. We didn’t have too many night-time babies.
Related Topics: Small Producer Challenges
December 20th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
We have moved to Late September calving on all of our replacement heifers as the weather is nicer that time of year and it allows the heifers to regain weight and get a better BCS when the bulls are turned in. We also feed of the evening which seems to decrease the amount of night born calves we have.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:16 am
My grandpa kept his Hereford bulls in a separate pasture away from the cows until August 1 for 40 years. His first calves would come at the very end of April when the risk of a blizzard is extremely low in SE Nebraska. I can recall very few calf losses and extremely low feed costs with this system. Many grain farmers in our area calve in the winter because that’s when they “have time.” I’ve not seen any convincing evidence that the excessive amount of extra labor and feed cost provide a return on investment. I’m the next generation on our farm. I’ll work 24 hours a day in the spring and summer before I’ll calve in the wintertime. I’m more concerned about fertility, calves weight per day of age, and minimizing high priced winter feed costs. Getting the “top price” and having the heaviest calves at the sale barn in the fall are not costly priorities for me. With the high cost of labor in this country it just makes more sense to calve when the weather is more cooperative. No time of year is perfect, but the challenges in May & June are much easier than January, February, and March.
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I agree with Travis. When we first got into the beef business about 5 years ago we bought cheap bred cows out of the sale barn They were calving year round. What a mess! We have moved our calving to the first of May and aregoing to be finished by June 15. This last year we had no problems and weren’t around for calving except in the late afternoon. They calve on pasture so we have no scours. This year we will be calving in a mob grazing situation, so someone will see them more often than once a day.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I would have to agree with Travis. I turn my bulls out a little eailier (June 15th-30th) I have started to think that waiting until August would be better because the late spring heifers/cows could have a few weeks of pasture in them before calving. I think I have lost some calves before due to mold in my hay (not sure) but just seems logical. The draw back for me is the hot humid summers here in SW Indiana put most bulls in the shade/ water holes and not sure what kind of service I would get.
As far as calves born in the cold,, well here is my take. As long as they can get out of the wind and have some dry area to lay, I think most calves that came from decent cows do ok. I have only had problems with 1st calf heifers and culls in this area. I do not think there is one right or wrong answer because it depends on your goals. I want to be profitable but squeezing each and every penny is not what drives me.
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
With feed being the biggest reoccurring expense in a cow calf operation, I plan my calving in March and April. By doing this, I can late pasture and/or feed the poorest (and cheapest) hay during the end of 2nd trimester, feed them the best hay during the 3rd trimester and turn them out on spring grass during initial lactation, supplemented with a small amount of good hay if required.
Most of the neighbors calve in January, February and have to feed those extra months of expensive hay after calving while they wait for spring grass. This might pay if you have access to cheap, high quality feed(oxymoron?). Otherwise, you’ll risk the bad weather and high losses, to have a good gross from selling heavy fall calves but I don’t see the net profit per cow being significantly greater to offset the additional risk.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
We try to have our calves in Feb-Mar and Sept-Oct. Works better with our hay and field rotations….and it seems to help make our bulls more productive.
It isn’t a perfect process but don’t have too many problems. If I have to choose between hot weather and cold weather to calve I would go with cold. Less traumatic on the cow and ultimately the calf.
It is more of course than just the calving season times and temps. We do other things as well…including: We obviously pull our bulls after 60-90 days with the cows. We work the cattle twice per year—proper health for the mom’s translates into less complicated pregnancy and better calves. I often have seen people scrimp on the meds, worming, fly, tick, pest control and even be cheap on minerals, salts and supplemental protein (bucket rattlers, etc.)! They just don’t realize they ultimately lose more money in the long run by being cheap. Better to have a smaller herd and handle them properly than large herds and suffer unnecessary problems when they are not taken care of properly. One lost cow or calf due to poorly kept records, etc. eats into any profit. Often folks don’t spend the money up front and lose it on the backend. When we are looking at a marginal profit of about $60-$80 per unit it doesn’t take many to have a losing year.
It takes a bunch of things to be prepared for that busy/fun/tiring time of the year….that is what it is all about for those of us who raise cows. Most of my cattle are Angus and Gelbievh…but experimenting with others too.
January 25th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
We have the possibility of stifling heat and humidity in SE Nebraska June 1 to September 15. I have off farm employment, so managing my time is of utmost importance. I don’t feel that calving before June 1 is using it wisely economically or emotionally. If heat is a concern, a person may want to look at their genetics and wait until late September to start their breeding season. I prefer red hided cattle, especially Hereford. Again, they’re not market toppers, but they make up for it with feed efficiency. Cattle can sometimes adapt better to change than people!
February 13th, 2008 at 11:18 am
As a Canadian, I see your perspectives are as broad in the south as they are here. Our grain farmers calve in the winter, our cattle ranchers calve later, either in the spring, summer or fall. The general trend is to move calving out of the cold winter months and to move as late as necessary to get out of the spring storm season. In my opinion, there is no advantage to calving in June compared to May except the odd chance of a spring storm. Should the storms come, they can be cold and wet but don’t last for long. In most cases the cattle are out of corrals/feedyards at that time and usually have some place to stay out of the wind.
One problem that I have experienced with summer calving is to have the little guys lost in the tall grass. In my case, I mob graze where I have high numbers of cattle in a relatively small area with frequent moves. The odds of leaving a new born behind is an issue or worse yet, the little guy decides to travel to find a “comfortable” spot, unknowingly goes under the wire, lies down, Mama can’t find him and the coyotes do. I have mysteriously lost calves to that possibility.
If the cattle move is a simple move forwards, the cows can go back and get their calves in a few hours. If the move is to another location on the ranch then this issue becomes a problem.
My thoughts of summer calving.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:03 am
We calve here in March and April. Here being the SW corner of Saskatchewan. We have several reasons, 1, is that almost all of our cows are pastured away from where we live. We simply do not have the land base to hold the cows at home if we were to calve in later spring. And driving 2 hours to check cows that are calving just isn’t an option. 2, is that we sell our calves in the fall. Bigger calves = more $$. ANd that is the bottom line here. We work a little harder, but end up with more $.
Depending on the weather of course we check about every 4 hours. If it is cold we check more often. If the heifers are done calving (or none are close) we will skip the nights when the weather is good. All the cows get moved within 24 hours of calving. They go from the calving yard, to the newborn pasture, then when the calves are about a week to 10 days old they are moved out onto a bigger pasture. Generally scours are not a huge problem, and we don’t vaccinate for them.
Until the temps get below -10 C we don’t do a lot to keep calves warm. At that point we try to keep a closer eye on them as they are born, and do our best to have them calved out in the barn. Of course the wind makes a big factor in decisions. A calf can handle -20 if there is no wind, but 0 with a wind can bring you big problems.
Once they are born, and sucked, and up on their own, as long as they have somewhere to get out of the wind they can take most anything. They have windbreaks and calf shelters and mama’s milk.
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