Calving Season Routine

[randiliana]

Since calving season is upon some of us, and fast approaching for the rest, here is our calving season routine...

First off, a few things that we do, if we have a cow calving, once the water bag is out, we expect to see a calf or significant progress within about 1/2 hour for cows and 1 hour for heifers. I would rather help out a cow that didn't really need it than leave one that DID for too long. Newborns are checked to make sure they have been up and sucked within about 4-6 hours. If they are weak, or on a cow that we are concerned may not have enough colostrum (say twins) we will milk the cow if necessary, and/or supplement with frozen or boughten colostrum. Cows calve in one area, and are moved to another shortly after calving (usually within 24 hours), this reduces problems with mis-mothering, and sick calves. Calving area is pretty much only used for calving and the Maternity area ONLY sees cows during calving season. Manure is cleaned out of both every year. Cows are sorted into the calving area on an as needed basis, so around noon we will try and snag the heavies when they come to drink, failing this, we will bring the main herd in and sort the heavies off.

We start calving about Mar 10 this year. Which can be really nice weather or really cold, or anywhere in between. On a normal year (not too cold) here's the routine. Starting about 7 AM

7 AM, first check of the day. On foot, the cows are penned up in an area small enough to walk through in a few minutes on foot. Takes about 20 minutes if things go well.

9 AM, we start feeding and bedding when all the cows are busy eating. May leave bedding til later if we have cows busy calving.

10-11 AM feeding is done. Now we will do another walk through, and bring whatever babies were born in the last 12-24 hours up to the barn for processing. Can be anywhere from 1 -10 of them, although we try to keep newborn numbers low in the calving area, to reduce the risk of mismothering. We find that around this time is a good time to move them because they are usually up and bouncing around. They have to want to move, or its not worth the effort.

11 AM - process any new babies that were brought up to the barn. This involves Tagging, banding, dehorning, weighing. Also may include some shots if needed. Then take a walk through the 'Maternity Ward' to check on the newer babies and make sure everyone is healthy.

NOON - time to eat, hopefully, if has gone well in the morning.

11 AM -2 PM - Hang around the watering bowls, and try to pick off any heavy looking cows, and redirect them down into the calving area...I will usually check this area out several times in this window of time as this is when most of them come to drink.

2-4 PM - Afternoon check.

Late Evening (7-8 PM) last check before dark. This is when (if it is really cold out) we will bring any cows that we are suspicious about up to the barn yard, or barn for the night. In theory, this makes our night checks easier... but in reality, we are often wrong about the ones we bring up...

11-12 PM/AM - Another check. This is usually my time, since I am a night owl. DH is usually in bed by around 10. I will stay up later if I have a heifer or cow calving (depending on how far along they are) to make sure things go well.

3-4 AM - DH usually does this one, and if things have been going well and the weather is nice, he may not get up.

and back to 7 AM...

As a side note, when the weather is nice, we only use the barn if we have to help a cow/heifer out. When the weather is nasty, cold below -10 C or windy (even when the temps are above freezing) most cows will go into the barn either (hopefully) before they calve, or as quickly as we find their calf.

We have a camera in the barn, in the corral outside the barn, and we are in the process of getting a PTZ set up to cover the bigger calving area.

Here's a couple videos from last year when I brought a cow up the hill to the barn. Keep in mind that she's an older cow and knew the routine, and was quite co-operative.....

Up the hill
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10 ... 3608348307
Into the Barn
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10 ... 0783091652

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Sounds like you have a good handle on everything.

We start a month later so most of the cows are in the hills and we turn our attention to the first and second calvers.

 

[littlejoe]

I envy those who calve now----all the baby deer, ducks, elk calves, etc you all must be seeing!

 

[Hayguy]

I envy those who calve now----all the baby deer, ducks, elk calves, etc you all must be seeing!

....and we're off.... :lol:

 

[George]

That sounds like you have developed a very good routine - - - One of the things nice about having a small herd is we are able to keep track of things easily!

 

[3 M L & C]

I envy those who calve now----all the baby deer, ducks, elk calves, etc you all must be seeing!

Comments like these are why there aren't more people posting. Your not doing the work so what's it to you? Here is a nice long detailed post of how their operation works (which I find very interesting how other people do their stuff) and you spewing this sarcastic crap probably keeps a lot of others from sharing how they do things. Didn't your mother ever tell you about if you don't have anything nice to say.............

 

[Jake]

I envy those who calve now----all the baby deer, ducks, elk calves, etc you all must be seeing!

Comments like these are why there aren't more people posting. Your not doing the work so what's it to you? Here is a nice long detailed post of how their operation works (which I find very interesting how other people do their stuff) and you spewing this sarcastic crap probably keeps a lot of others from sharing how they do things. Didn't your mother ever tell you about if you don't have anything nice to say.............

We have to calf during the late winter/early spring for labor purposes. Once mid april hits it is time to be in the field until the end of May. Can't get much accomplished on the farming end if you are checking heifers or feeding cows constantly. Our cows for the most part calve out on corn stalk fields or out in the open. We luckily don't have more than a couple of weeks worth of colder weather left before it's mainly 40s and 50s during the day.

Somebody else may share their experiences but in our environment it never seems like calves born after about April 20th ever do much for us. Grass starts drying up right when they should be hitting their stride and they seem to stall out and its hard to get them to recover and gain after weaning. We have even let them run with the cow over winter and doesn't seem we have a system to make the darn things grow.

 

[littlejoe]

Randiliana---kudos on a lovely, interesting post~~

I will never snowbank calve again, but I would have put a smiley face on my post, had I known where they wandered off to.

 

[Denny]

Randiliana---kudos on a lovely, interesting post~~

I will never snowbank calve again, but I would have put a smiley face on my post, had I known where they wandered off to.

I'm with you was thinking of early ai'ing my heifers but it's cold out here today and I remember why I bought creep feeder I'd rather creep feed some in the fall wean and background than calve this early mid april sounds better to me. That and I like viewing all of natures new creations while calveing. :wink:

 

[randiliana]

Well, I would havereplied earlier, but I haven't gotten any email notifications....Checked my settings and all looks good there, so I don't know what's going on.

I suppose, we could move to calving with the wildlife, but May/June calving would mean calving the cows out in several smaller bunches, in pastures 1/2 to 2 hours away from home. Along with some major changes to marketing, wintering and probably summering...

I like my 650lb calves that we sell in October...

As a side note, there are a lot of people in our area who are calving in Apr/May, there are many, many years where a late snowstorm or cold rain hits, and they lose calves... It is fairly uncommon for us to lose any to the weather. We have the facilities to keep that from happening. Sure, we do a bit more work, but is a 10-20% death loss worth it, to calve later?

Oh, and as a side note, we are calving 160 of our own, 50 custom cows that start with ours, and 120 custom heifers, that are due Apr 10.

 

[Angus 62]

One of the biggest reasons people move their calving season back is because the extra pounds often don't pay for the added expense of early calving. Couple of weeks ago watched four weight steers bring within a little over a hundred less per head than steers close to nine weights, over four hundred pounds for less than 25 cents a pound. Pretty extreme example because of the large drop in feeder cattle market and demand for stocker calves. But still something that happens.

 

[littlejoe]

Hey, my comment was never meant as a critique to how others do it, just a friendly smartass wisecrack.
We've calved in march, got tired of the equinox storms, moved it earlier. Way too long till spring, moved it later. Then bought some feb 10 calvers so we could calve for 4 mos and have lotsa fun!
Farming, mtn grass, res grass, market a guy wants to hit, labor availability, personal preference---all play into it and everybody gets to saddle their own horse.

Personally, (and knowck on wood, my haid bean handy) we have had tremendous luck calving late. I have not given a scours pill in at least 3 yrs. I have not dealt with dystocia in last 400 calves. Our death loss--birth to weaning--is well under 2%. For the last 3 yrs. I feel blessed.

We had more winter pasture (our deal has changed) and typically wouldn't full feed till mid march. Apr 7 due date. My cows now get a round bale alfalfa per 100 hd. Every 3rd day they get two, for a protein spike. All the straw they'll eat. I prefer yr old. Better digestibility. Currently eating 4 or 5, 740# every two days, of which about 1/4 may be wasted. Will eat more when weather is colder. Tiny amount of picking. I am firm believer in quality mineral, chelation now, and bovatec.

These are med to large cows, bales weigh maybe 1200. I do not believe one can starve a profit outa anything, whether it's help or cows. I believe if you own animals, it's your duty to take care of them. Our goal is to meet all nutritional requirements at lowest cost.

Instinct and experience tell me I am not feeding these cows enough. MARC numbers kinda say otherwise. My eye says they are about a condition score 6 or better, shiney, and doing fine. I do think sometimes, some feed is put out to make the owner feel better. We run black baldys, if you don't know why, go raise cats! :lol: :lol: :lol: :cboy: Hey, I found the little faces~~

good luck to all, whenever it works for you.

ps---been seeing many bluebirds?

I am trying to meet protein, calcium, vit a with the alfalfa. Straw added for tdn, energy, to slow down the pass thru. Probably half the energy in straw is given off as body heat, thru digestive process.

 

[mrj]

One of the great things about ranching is the variety of ways to manage the business.

We calve in pretty big pastures and prefer April or May. However, we have had the biggest losses from snow storms in May! Got hit with a big, wet, heavy snow a few years ago, and NOTHING could move. Tractors bogged down in a few feet, pickup, same thing. Even the horses shod hooves piled up the snow till they couldn't move without stumbling and nearly falling. We lost every calf born that day, a pretty big hit, especially for younger members of the family building their herds.

We have decided to start the heifers earlier to have them done before the cows start in April, and we watch them closer than the cows and do bring some in closer and corral them or put in barn and check late in evening, deciding then whether or not to check during night, then again early in morning. We get by pretty well on that schedule, most of the time.

mrj