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Birthweight question for those who are calving.

Big Swede

Well-known member
For those of you that weigh calves at birth is the cold winter increasing birth weights to any degree? That's always been what I have heard but I don't know if there's anything to it. Another theory that I used to hear was that you better not feed your cattle too good before calving or the calves will get too big and you'll have trouble. I never agreed with that one but I know a lot of people that swore by it. I'd much rather have a calf that weighed a few more pounds that was vigorous at birth than one from a cow or heifer that was shorted on feed. I never saw much upside to skinny cows and weak calves.
 

Silver

Well-known member
I'm not sure about feeding affecting birth weight, but I've got my opinion. One year we came up short of hay so made up the difference with ground barley. That spring Dad and I did 22 c-sections, it wasn't a lot of fun. We had used the same bulls as the year before, and we used the same bulls the next year. The only amount of c-sections we did was the year we fed the barley, so I tend to think that that may have been the cause. We generally do one or two some years because of a bad presentation or a one off monster, but never anything like that year.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
No calves here yet- and hopefully not for another 3 weeks-when hopefully some of this snow will be gone.....
I like my cows to be in good condition come calving time- not fat- but just in BCS 5-6..
The only thing I've heard/experienced is that you don't want to feed cows/heifers that are going to calve too high of protein in the last trimester...I had a problem years ago when I had a bunch of hiefers on high protein tubs, to make up for a shortage of hay- and had overly large/heavy calves even tho they were bred to low BW bulls- and had to pull some and had a couple of C-sections...And I know several years ago- one of Leachmans co-operators in NW Montana that raised angus had some large/heavy calves 90 -110+ lbs out of average BW EPD cows and low BW EPD bulls-- and they put it to the fact they had been feeding high protein 3rd cutting alfalfa hay the last trimester..
 

Denny

Well-known member
No they are varying from 60#s up to 93 so far. One cow did have 130#s worth of calf but she split it up on two.It has'nt been overly cold here this winter only a week of the real ruff weather here and there.
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
i think energy probably raises bw more than protein-grass calving cows are on pretty hiogh powered grass protein wise but don't see abnormally large bw's.
 

Larrry

Well-known member
I have a question and would be interested on thoughts. I got mine but we'll see.

If hotter feed causes big birthweights, then why do feedlot heifers almost always have little calves?
 

Grassfarmer

Well-known member
Northern Rancher said:
i think energy probably raises bw more than protein-grass calving cows are on pretty hiogh powered grass protein wise but don't see abnormally large bw's.

Aren't the two linked at some point? Feeding excess protein over a period of time would tend to increase bw as you are supplying them with the extra building blocks. Feeding excess energy would put more condition or fat on the cow which might reduce the size of passage the calf has to come through. I think the easy calving on grass may be more affected by other factors. Calving on grass up here tends still to be early in the spring (May/June) - if you calved in late July where you had the benefit of several months of good grass in them I think the bws would be higher - but wouldn't expect problems generally as they usually seem to calf at grass no problem. I've seen calving problems in Sept/Oct calvers where the cattle have had the chance to really lard up though.
 

Grassfarmer

Well-known member
In terms of the seasons grass growth I consider May/June to be early season - maybe "early spring" was the wrong term to use. My point remains though - if you calf in May/June a lot of the calve's growth will have been made on whatever your winter ration was. Late July calving will give you a calf that grew most of it's 3rd trimester on grass.
 

WyomingRancher

Well-known member
This has been a long, hard winter, very cold, and lots of snow... 9 feet since October, windchills 50 below at times. January was a better month, but still cold.

I'm 8 days into calving, and close to half the heifers have calved and a few cows. So far I haven't had trouble with big birth weights. I hope this trend continues! :D

I've been feeding grass and alfalfa hay. I've never been impressed with underfed cattle, especially those close to calving :wink: .
 

hillsdown

Well-known member
I always winter calve and last year was very cold in Dec and Jan the cows consumed alot of feed. The birth weights were higher than normal but all were unassisted ,,except 2 sets of twins where the second calf had gotten hung up inside mom.

I really don't think if you maintain a decent body score and your cows have a good pelvic score that even the coldest weather and higher birth weight would cause a problem However big fat pigs calving can always have complications. Just like always feed management and knowing your cattle comes into play.
 

Big Swede

Well-known member
The theory I had always heard was that cows needed to increase intake which increased metabolism which increased bloodflow to the uterus which made the calf bigger. I don't know how true all that is but it makes for interesting debate and conversation.
 

flyingS

Well-known member
I know that if you short your cows on protein in the third trimester that it will directly affect the fertility of the female off-spring and also the carcass traits of the calves taken to harvest. We have cows that calve in Aug. and Sept., they are generally in excellent condition, I do not see excessive birth weights on average.
 

Lonecowboy

Well-known member
I find it interesting that no one has mentioned exercise yet!

my observation has been that diet and exercise are both equally important both in calf size and cows calving condition.
Where I've seen the most problems is cows that are very well fed and locked into a lot and get no exercise. They also lay around too much and have many more abnormal presentations.
Where I've seen the least problem is in range cows that have to walk a couple miles a day. Seldom (almost never) have an abnormal presentation.
When feeding I feed at least a 1/2 mile away from water to force them into walking at least that far.
 
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