calving season?

[Reed77]

What month do cattle producers want their calves born and why? whether it be for fair/show or for commercial use

[mozarkian]

Beef cattle best to calve in early spring as green grass helps calves grow fast and more economically than winter hay and feed. Dairy cows are year round as the dairyman needs constant milk in the tank. There may be a better answer out there, so hopefully someone will chime in.

[G. Seddon]

The answer to this will vary according to the region of the country. Basically, you want to avoid calving in severe cold or high heat. Where I am (central VA), we try to avoid calving in June-August or Dec-February.

[MDKatie]

I worked on a cattle farm in MD and we calved mid Jan to April. There would be snow on the ground and as long as the calves got up and nursed they'd be fine. Rarely did we ever have to bring any in to a barn. If we were due for a big storm we'd bring the cows that looked ready to calve in the next couple days, and put them up under the "barn" (just a roof) just in case they had any problems calving.

[ksfarmer]

We always calved from the end of Feb till May 1st. Tried to miss the worst of winter and be done by pasture time. Fall calves use a lot of energy just staying warm and didn't seem to grow as fast.

[Karin L]

Originally Posted by Reed77

What month do cattle producers want their calves born and why? whether it be for fair/show or for commercial use

There's a lot of factors at play here. Best calving season depends on what market a producer wants to target, whether the herd is purebred or commercial and to time when the best time to sell yearling bulls are, how much time, money, capital and labour you're willing to put in the calving season, how much feed you're willing to spend on or use, etc. Purebred producers aim to calve around February to March to coincide with when the best time is to sell their yearling bulls and heifers. Commercial producers will calve Feb to March to hit the autumn calf markets. Producers following a more natural calving season in order to coincide the cows' lactation cycle to the the grass cycle to when cows calve depends on where you live. Here in Alberta, the best time to calve if you want to coincide highest lactation with the most nutritious grass would be March to April or April to May. Of course winter snow storms in April are not uncommon, so best time to calve in this part of the country is end of April to the start of June. It may be a little bit earlier for producers that are a few hundred miles more south of the border.

The arguments about spring calving versus fall or early spring calving is that calves are born smaller and are smaller at market than those calves born in February or in November/December. However with fall or early spring/late winter calving, most producers need calving barns, extra feed and more time spent outside assisting and checking cows than what is needed for mid to late spring to early summer calving. Calves born in spring can be weaned when the ground is already frozen, minimizing dust and thus risk of respiratory disease, and can be kept over winter to winter graze until they can be sold in the spring.

Around here, most commercial/conventional cow-calf operations have calves are born between January and April. The few grass-fed operations have calves born a month or two later.

[myersfarm]

Commercial producers will calve Feb to March to hit the winter wheat graving market here