Calving in Cold Weather

[randiliana]

So, the threat by Nezill got me going a bit (not in a po'd way). We calve in cold weather up here and last night was pretty cold (3 F). We had 7 calves born last night after midnight and all but one were born outside. DH found 2 at 4 am and 4 more at 7 am. I put one cow in the barn at midnight, and she calved there. Of the 6 outside calves, all of them made it, and were good except 1 which was up and going but pretty cold, he put it into the truck to warm up when he found it this morning.

I was actually pretty surprised at how tough those new babies are and how good their mamas are. I prefer to have them born in the barn when temps are that low, but sometimes that just doesn't happen. And when we find new ones we deal them on a case by case basis. If they are up and sucked and seem to be good we leave them alone. If they aren't they get a trip to the barn or maybe the house depending on the situation. We try to check every 3-4 hours.

If it is windy we almost always put them in the barn if it is much below freezing, nothing will freeze a baby up quicker than the wind.

[HDRider]

Why are your calves born in the winter?

Glad to hear they did well....

[haypoint]

I think your success is "We try to check every 3-4 hours." (no matter what else you have going on) as opposed to, " We think she was born today, but could have been sometime yesterday".( I think I saw her yesterday morning, and I didn't notice she was gone this morning, I had to work, try to check her tonight).

[haypoint]

Originally Posted by HDRider

Why are your calves born in the winter?

Glad to hear they did well....

By the time they are ready to chow down on pasture, it'll be there for them. Beef calves are often sold in the fall as feeders. They are sold by the pound. Earlier born are likely to be heavier, so higher return. Poor setup, lack of round the clock attention will result in losses, so some prefer to wait for warmer weather than have losses.

[randiliana]

Originally Posted by haypoint

By the time they are ready to chow down on pasture, it'll be there for them. Beef calves are often sold in the fall as feeders. They are sold by the pound. Earlier born are likely to be heavier, so higher return. Poor setup, lack of round the clock attention will result in losses, so some prefer to wait for warmer weather than have losses.

That and our pastures are a long ways from home. We don't have the pasture to keep 180 cows around home for April-June. And sending heavy bred cows 2 hours away to pasture just doesn't work.

It might be more work for us now, but it pays off for us later. There have been numerous years where April has given us a nasty storm and the later calving people have had big losses, and we haven't had any even get sick. Month old calves are pretty hardy if they have a bit of shelter. Heck, week old calves are pretty tough with some shelter.

[randiliana]

Originally Posted by haypoint

I think your success is "We try to check every 3-4 hours." (no matter what else you have going on) as opposed to, " We think she was born today, but could have been sometime yesterday".( I think I saw her yesterday morning, and I didn't notice she was gone this morning, I had to work, try to check her tonight).

That is exactly right. This time of year and for the next 6 weeks our life revolves around the cows. It is a lot of work, but I believe that you get out of them what you put into them. And as much work as it is, this is my absolute favorite time of the year!

[opportunity]

We already have 2/3 of our calfs on the ground and over half in our area are done. Winter is the best time here for sales in the fall it matches the grass growth well. We did loos some in January they were premature and it was windy and cold, they can't take all three and live. You have to check way more in the winter if it's cold it seems easier to loose them

[CIW]

Our youngest calves are more than a month old already. Around here, calves that come this late can end up with respritory problems and viral scours pretty easy.
I like calving out on the snow. We calved 100% this year.
They can stand the cold alot easier than the mud and wet. That mud sticks to them and sucks the warmth right out of them. The willows in the river bottom are a good wind break.

[lonelyfarmgirl]

We almost always calve between Thanksgiving and April. It sucks, but its life. We dont have the facilities to separate our bulls. As long as its not terribly windy and the ground isn't wet and sloppy they generally do fine. Freezing rain or high winds are the killer, not the temperature.

[CIW]

I read a study from the University of Nebraska about getting your cows to calve during the day.
The study determined that feeding them as late in the daylight hours as possible would cause daytime calving. They came up with 76% daytime calving by feeding late. Based on over 680 head in the study that were fed at this time of day. The other control groups were way down in the 30 percents for the daytime calving.
We've been doing it for three seasons now. This year we had 6 of 42 born in the night. Most were born between 5 and 10 am.
The study said that if you seperate your heifers from the cows, be sure and feed your heifers last so that you are more likely to catch the heifers during the daylight hours.

[randiliana]

Yes, well, I've read some of those studies and a lot of them don't show any significant difference. And IMO if there is a chance of one being born at night I still have to get up and check, especially when it is cold out.