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Thoughts during a blizzard

B

Big Swede

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Joined
Jan 21, 2008
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South Dakota
As I was driving home tonight after a long school board meeting in a blizzard in the middle of February my thoughts drifted, no pun intended, to memories of calving in this kind of weather. Back when I was younger and tougher I would start calving heifers about this time of year. The memories that kept reoccuring to me were the stress and dread that the start of calving would bring since I knew that inevitably there would be weather like this to contend with either while calving or keeping the calves healthy during tough weather till green grass which is usually another 3 months.

I know there will be new challenges calving on grass, which I look forward to, but the stress and anxiety of fighting the weather are all but gone. We have all had this discussion before and what ever works for your operation and makes you happy is all that matters. I just never realized the load it would take off my mind, when I made the switch. Just not sure what took so long to realize there was another way to do things.

Happy Calving!!! :D :D
 
I used to calve starting Feb 7th then march 1st now were at march 10th on the commercial cows mostly because the bulls were all in that pasture when the cows got there last spring everything else starts march 20th.We do have 3 calves right now and 2 cows in pens in the barn the bulls got out a few times last spring.I may back them all up to April 1st but who knows.My trouble is the bull market but even at that I may just start selling comeing 2 years olds in febuary then april /may bulls would be just fine.
 
Big Swede, you are gonna like it, I guaraanteee it. Feed cost drops, survival rates better, less medication, shorter calving season.......Why didn't I think of it sooner???? Bet your pounds of calves to sell are not as far off as you thought they might be either.
 
Good for you Big Swede, all will be well until that 3ft dump and blast of cold in April. You will however be encouraged by the fact that the days are longer the sun is hotter and it will go away faster. Your winter calving skills will come right back to you except that it won't last long enough for you to stay good at it. :)
 
Big Swede, your memories drift back....my memories wash back! They wash back to '93 and '95. Those were the so called "El Nino" years. It rained and it rained and it rained and it rained all winter long. 33F degrees and rain and muck and disease and bottomless mud are not the conditions God inteded cows to calve in. I made two desicions in '95. I will never again start calving before mid-march (fairly warm in southern Kansas), and I will never again calve cows in a pen of any sort. I have "clung bitterly" to those two promises with my own cattle ever since.

Two winters ago, I needed something to do so I calved about 300 heifers for a man. He wanted them calved in the pens, so that's what I did. Without going into details, I'll just say that my beliefs were solidly reinforced!
 
per said:
Good for you Big Swede, all will be well until that 3ft dump and blast of cold in April. You will however be encouraged by the fact that the days are longer the sun is hotter and it will go away faster. Your winter calving skills will come right back to you except that it won't last long enough for you to stay good at it. :)
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Aren't we a breath of fresh air this morning? :lol:

Anytime after the first of April is better than winter calving, you never realize how much a cow knows about calving until you let her do it on her own.
Those that can't (barring storms) need to calve at someone else's outfit.
 
gcreekrch said:
per said:
Good for you Big Swede, all will be well until that 3ft dump and blast of cold in April. You will however be encouraged by the fact that the days are longer the sun is hotter and it will go away faster. Your winter calving skills will come right back to you except that it won't last long enough for you to stay good at it. :)
Click to expand...


Aren't we a breath of fresh air this morning? :lol:

Anytime after the first of April is better than winter calving, you never realize how much a cow knows about calving until you let her do it on her own.
Those that can't (barring storms) need to calve at someone else's outfit.
Click to expand...



Just trying to preempt those that will point out that spring has its issues as well. I would never go back and think our southern neighbor made a good decision. :)
 
Just to be contrary, we had seven calves yesterday!

These are the top ten reasons we do it.

1. We already have the facilities. They've slowly evolved over many years, at a lot less cost than you may think.

2. It's a lot easier for us to keep a February calf warm than an April calf dry in the mud we get that time of year.

3. Early born calves, for us at least, don't have the health problems that April and May calves do. I'm not sure why, but I think it's got something to do with that April and May mud. Having snowstorms in May is not all that unusual here.

4. It makes for quiet cows that don't tend to try and kill you. We're getting too old for that #@#%.

5. A hundred of our cows go 60 miles to pasture, and we do not want them calving out there. They have to take their calves with them. Even our own pastures are three and twelve miles away.

6. We pay pasture rent by the pair, so we'd just as soon have calves that can actually eat the grass themselves.

7. If we get a drought and the pasture and winter feed shortages that come with it, we have the option of early weaning, and still have calves with a worthwhile size to sell.

8. We use most of our corrals in winter to background extra calves, so having big calves of our own to sell in fall makes room for extra income from outside cattle. (in theory :roll: :roll: In a good year :roll: :roll: :wink: )

9. Time is money. The quicker you can raise them and get them gone, the better. Backgrounding those later born calves for the next winter before selling them just doesn't add up for us. I guess this comes from living through the times of having operating loans at 20%. Interest used to be one of the major costs of doing business, and more than a few farms failed due to it. A lesson learned well. And not to be forgotten. :shock:

And number 10...

10. Taking 700 pound calves to market in the fall. It's just plain fun. :)
 
I have to agree that taking 700 lb calves to town must be fun. I can see it in the owners' faces when they look at the weight board and forget how much trouble and cost it took to get them there. :P :D
 
Kato said:
Just to be contrary, we had seven calves yesterday!
Click to expand...

<chuckle> I'm with you Kato. I have fewer health problems with my Feb calves than I ever had with April/May/June or July calves.

I am going to add:

11) A 700 lb calf heading into winter takes much less feed to gain weight than a 500 lb calf heading into winter. At -40, a heavy calf can actually gain weight on forage alone, while a 500 lb calf will just barely maintain weight.

Over the years I've tried spring, summer, and fall calving. I keep going back to good old winter calves, night checks, and blow dryers. :lol:

Rod
 
A few years ago while March calving we had snow up to our knees on the level and was below zero most nights. Frozen ears, frozen feet you name it. Nothing more sad than knocking a few calves in the head because of frozen feet. Anyway, I always dreamed one of my kids would eventually come back to the ranch and take over. After that experience I said never again and slowly over about 5 years made the move to May 1st.

If calving cows had to be that miserable why would any kid want any part of it? Kind of had me asking the same question. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. :wink:
 
It's all dependent on climate, and how you're set up with pasture, facilities and such. Knee deep snow and below zero weather is kind of normal March weather for us. :roll: :roll:

Over the years we've had two calves who were so hypothermic they needed to be brought into the house and put in a bathtub full of warm water to thaw. Both calves were born in April. Cold rainy days can chill a calf quicker sometimes than cold snowy days. We've had snowstorms in May for three or four years now as well. Pretty big ones at that. It doesn't really get dependably warm and dry here until very late May or early June.

It's probably best if everyone had a different calving time any way. That way we spread the calves around and cut down on those big seasonal runs that drive down prices for everybody. :D :D

The trend to late calving has done one very good thing for me. It's fired up the donkey market. :wink: :D :D :D Coyotes have become a big issue in this province, and the demand for good guard donkeys has increased a lot.
 
Big Swede said:
As I was driving home tonight after a long school board meeting in a blizzard in the middle of February my thoughts drifted, no pun intended, to memories of calving in this kind of weather. Back when I was younger and tougher I would start calving heifers about this time of year. The memories that kept reoccuring to me were the stress and dread that the start of calving would bring since I knew that inevitably there would be weather like this to contend with either while calving or keeping the calves healthy during tough weather till green grass which is usually another 3 months.

I know there will be new challenges calving on grass, which I look forward to, but the stress and anxiety of fighting the weather are all but gone. We have all had this discussion before and what ever works for your operation and makes you happy is all that matters. I just never realized the load it would take off my mind, when I made the switch. Just not sure what took so long to realize there was another way to do things.

Happy Calving!!! :D :D
Click to expand...

We're not calving yet, so I got a "get out of jail free" card on this storm. :-) As blizzards go, this was a nice one. Even though the barometer was as low as I've ever seen it during the 22 years it has hung on the wall, the winds weren't even all that bad. We got about an inch and a half of rain during the day yesterday, then a couple inches of snow as frosting on the cake. The ground was already thawed enough that most of this will go right into the soil where it is needed. It was so wet and warm yesterday (about 38 degrees nearly all day) that I didn't feed any cattle except half a feeding of hay to the two-year-old heifers. I figured the cattle would just waste a lot of hay, and they would be better off getting filled up good today after the weather straightened out.

Back to checking cows in a snowstorm--I'd rather do that any night than go to a boring old school board meeting. :wink: I suppose if a person dreaded calving really bad, he could sell all the cows, lease out the place, and sell insurance or vacuum cleaners. :wink: :-)
 
Soapweed said:
Big Swede said:
As I was driving home tonight after a long school board meeting in a blizzard in the middle of February my thoughts drifted, no pun intended, to memories of calving in this kind of weather. Back when I was younger and tougher I would start calving heifers about this time of year. The memories that kept reoccuring to me were the stress and dread that the start of calving would bring since I knew that inevitably there would be weather like this to contend with either while calving or keeping the calves healthy during tough weather till green grass which is usually another 3 months.

I know there will be new challenges calving on grass, which I look forward to, but the stress and anxiety of fighting the weather are all but gone. We have all had this discussion before and what ever works for your operation and makes you happy is all that matters. I just never realized the load it would take off my mind, when I made the switch. Just not sure what took so long to realize there was another way to do things.

Happy Calving!!! :D :D
Click to expand...

We're not calving yet, so I got a "get out of jail free" card on this storm. :-) As blizzards go, this was a nice one. Even though the barometer was as low as I've ever seen it during the 22 years it has hung on the wall, the winds weren't even all that bad. We got about an inch and a half of rain during the day yesterday, then a couple inches of snow as frosting on the cake. The ground was already thawed enough that most of this will go right into the soil where it is needed. It was so wet and warm yesterday (about 38 degrees nearly all day) that I didn't feed any cattle except half a feeding of hay to the two-year-old heifers. I figured the cattle would just waste a lot of hay, and they would be better off getting filled up good today after the weather straightened out.

Back to checking cows in a snowstorm--I'd rather do that any night than go to a boring old school board meeting. :wink: I suppose if a person dreaded calving really bad, he could sell all the cows, lease out the place, and sell insurance or vacuum cleaners. :wink: :-)
Click to expand...

Or just not turn the bulls out, that would eliminate calving problems entirely. :lol: :roll:

We all have to do what works best for our own operation

In most cases we can manage the neighbors outfit better than our own. :wink:
 
I never dreaded calving, I just dreaded the weather that I knew would accompany the Feb and Mar calving. Anyone that says it's enjoyable to wade around in snow or mud to help their calves survive a very natural process needs their head examined. :wink:

Enjoying ranching is why we are here, right?
 
Big Swede said:
I never dreaded calving, I just dreaded the weather that I knew would accompany the Feb and Mar calving. Anyone that says it's enjoyable to wade around in snow or mud to help their calves survive a very natural process needs their head examined. :wink:

Enjoying ranching is why we are here, right?
Click to expand...

The worst two storms we had all of last year came in May. :wink:
 
Big Swede said:
I never dreaded calving, I just dreaded the weather that I knew would accompany the Feb and Mar calving. Anyone that says it's enjoyable to wade around in snow or mud to help their calves survive a very natural process needs their head examined. :wink:

Enjoying ranching is why we are here, right?
Click to expand...

I guess this is where it comes down to environment. Up here, April, May and even June is often accompanied by mud. And you're right, slogging around in mud sucks. Mud and wet also breeds disease like mad. When I calved in April/May/June, I had to have liquimycin, florfenicol and penicillin around all the time, and it got used.

But in Feb and Mar, we get nice cool temperatures that keep the bugs away. We get some snow, but not enough to worry about. And nice clean snow is way preferable to mud and flies. Since I went back to Feb/Mar calving, I throw out anti-biotics because of due date expirations. Its been two years since I injected a calf with anything other than vaccines and five years since I treated a case of pneumonia.

And slogging around in a little snow is wayyyyy preferable to roping and throwing a scouring or pneumonia calf while momma bellars in your ear and blows snot in your face.

You're right, I'm here to enjoy ranching. And part of that enjoyment is watching nice healthy calves frolicking in the snow and being just about 100% positive that I won't have to treat a single one of them for scours or pneumonia.

Rod
 

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