TAP asked
"Sounds like you have a good system Cowpuncher. Does weather bother you much during calving in your country? Or do you have some canyons or some kind of cover?"
Some of our pastures have creek bottom with trees, but cows rarely go there to calf. Most just go to a lonesome spot where the wind isn't to fierce and have at it. We have some sandhills where the lee side is pretty nice, even in the wind.
We had a snow storm followed by a ground blizzard about two weeks ago and we lost five calves. We keep 30 old gummer cows and steal replacements from them. So far, we are about 65% done calving and have taken about ten calves off the old cows. Couple of calves were born dead. If we lose 15-20 calves herd in a corral
and taking pairs out. So far, no sickness out of about 500 calves.