When do you begin calving?

[MTplainsman]

...Or do you calve year around? What time of year for you seasonal folks?

[john in la]

Mid feb to mid mar for beef cattle. Spring grazing.
Mid sept to mid oct for dairy cattle. It is to hot for good milk production in the summer plus dairy cattle really do well on winter rye grass in our area.

But our climate here in zone 8B is a little differant than yours.
Coldest night of the year tonight. Suppose to be in the low 20's.
And yes that is above zero. LOL..........

[furholler]

We have worked to calve in spring. I've read that is the best, reguardless of dairy or beef. I know it can be stressful, but we bred our cow back the first cycle to get a delivery earlier (June), it is best to calve around March, from what I've read. The grass is best for the little ones then.

They say winter calving for dairy is rough on momma and baby. Grass growth is minimal and lacking in protien and energy (sugar or brix). Unless you want to spend a ton on supplimental feed. Through grazing and land management this might be overcome, which is what I'm studying about now. Again, this is just what I've read, but I tend to believe it. It makes sense. IMO.

[agmantoo]

year around here in western NC

[SRobles]

I try to get my cows to calve in Jan and Feb

[Ralph in N.E.Oh]

We aim for late April or early May. The pastures are growing well and the rain has usually let up some. We then can graze mom and baby until December usually weaning in October or November.

We are zone 5 and smack in the middle of the Lake Erie snowbelt.

I run a bull with my females. I put him in with the girls in July or Agust where he stays until spring. I keep him with the steers for his 2 months away from the ladies.

[matt_man]

We would prefer spring but beef cattle owner neighbor of ours breeds his cattle for late Oct/Nov calves. They eat less hay during the winter because they are still small and mostly drinking milk.

Rachel

[francismilker]

I shoot for February-March calving. The calves don't do much grazing until they're a month or so old and it gives the Oklahoma weather time to make up it's mind whether it wants to grow grass or blow snow. Once the calves are on their feet good and eating, the grass is usually starting to break through.

[linn]

Our beef herd calves from Feb. on until they are done. With bulls running with the herd, calving is spred out over a long period.

We calve March/April. Our main pasture is 2 hours away, so they have to be calved out before they head up there. Plus since we market in the fall, that gets the calves to the weight we want by sale time. We have to watch them a bit closer, because it can get pretty cold in March, but it works for us.

[dosthouhavemilk]

Basically year round, except we aim for two thirds in March/April and the other third in Oct/Nov.
Getting them to settle AI in the middle of the summer is not simple....especially with me AIing..lol

We prefer to have as few cows milking in the winter as possible but cannot go to seasonal or we would lose our Grade A license.

[MTplainsman]

Thanks for the reports so far, nice to see how others time it. I start around the first of April. March in this country means frozen ears and tails, and a kick in the wallet.

[wr]

MTplainsman, I'm a bit north of you and I'm a big believer in spring calving. I grew up on a cow/calf operation and had my own till last year and don't feel there is enough rate of gain to offset the mortality rate associated with calving in cold and blizzards. I have also found the calves healthier and more active when calving on grass and being able to calve on grass and out of the sloppy & wet pens seems to reduce/eliminate the problem of scours. If I lived in a warm climate, I'd certainly adjust accordingly but I figure we have enough problems with the cold (frozen waterers, tractors & feed trucks that don't want to start because somebody forgot to plug them in & such).

[travlnusa]

Here in NW Wisconsin, I calve in late Jan or early Feb. I AI so I have a good idea when they are due, and they come into the barn.

I like the cold for a few reasons. First of all, no bugs. They are in pens to calve and manure freezes quickly so pens are easy to clean.

We put a baby moniter in with cow and use that to know when labor is starting. When calf is born, we will check to make sure that cow is drying off calf and after that they are off and running.

[ksfarmer]

I start calving the last week in Feb. Should finish middle of April. Hopefully we won't have any long lasting winter storms after that. Have seen some heavy snows in March but usually doesn't last long. I just hope we get a thaw by then to get rid of this ice and snow we have now.

[Wilhelm]

The dairy I work for calves year round. I am the night guy there, so I am always delivering new calves. I only had two last night, but have had as many as six before.

We have 3 big pens of pregnant cows that need to be watched, so it is never ending. We keep the new borns in a special hopsital area, and I also bottle feed them every night. I had 13 in there last night. They stay about 4 or 5 days, and then the heifers go to the hutches and most of the bull calves get sold off. We do keep a select few for breeding.

We milk about 1600 cows in an 8 hour period, and we go 24/7/365.

[ozark_jewels]

We freshen one set of Jerseys out in September-October, and the other set out in January-March. This way we have milk year-round.

[okie-guy]

We run beef cows /calf operation. I keep my bull with the cows all year because we only own 240 acres. I would like to Spring calve but my cows are bred back and calve in 10 months of when they calved before. Most people would like to have a calf a year. With a 10 month cycle I will get 2 extra calves in the cows lifetime so they keep moving up few months a year, but for the extra $1200.00 per cow during it's lifetime I don't worry about when they calve anymore.

[JulieLou42]

Not till June.

[MTplainsman]

You folks in the colder climates who calve before Spring... Do you calve inside a shed, or do you take your chances and let them drop outside on the frozen ground?