Calving Facts

Calving Facts 1

Calving Guidelines #1: as everyone runs their own program, unlike a Townie I won't dictate how to run ur operation. Dealing with calving cows is dangerous, steel fence>wood rails>hard stick>yelling>nothing. Play it safe & don't assume mild Bossy won't roll u if ur by her newborn.

Calving Facts 2

Calving Guidelines #2: If u have livestock, u have deadstock. For a variety of reasons, a cow will lose their calf. Then u play switch-a-roo with an extra twin. Cover it in the skin of the dead one, give it a good blood bath, & if needed, ACE the 2. Monitor for rejection.

Calving Facts 3

Calving Guidelines #3: If a cow has a dud calf, send her down the road. Chances are she'll keep having issues & no cow is worth all that extra work. This one gets an extra twin to raise over the summer, and then she's off to market.

Calving Facts 4

Calving Guidelines #4: This is a magic box that the calf disappears into. Cows don't find their babies by sight unless they wiggle. We try getting her to smell the calf & it's good if it'll bawl a bit, so she will lock on & follow. At the unload, it's poof, 'OH, there u are!'.

Calving Facts 5

Calving Guidelines #5: Cattle seem to put calving on Op Pause during storms. This is dangerous as at least one, if not 10, ends up in the far corner to drop her calf in a snowbank in the middle of the night. It could be a long nite, maybe they'll just calve in the barns. 🤞

Calving Facts 6

Calving Guidelines #6: Do not be afraid to tune an ornery cow in with a stout stick or a baseball bat if handy. A young cow will be good for life. You're doing everyone a favor & the last thing u need is a cow taking runs at u or rolling a kid.

Calving Facts 7

Calving Guidelines #7: New calves can freeze to death in <30 min. It's vital to know when a cow is calving.
Signs:
Pacing
Kicking stomach
Stealing
All by herself
Lying flat
Classic tail kink
Water bag out
U see feet (that's a dead giveaway)
Large bag/sloppy twat
Licking the calf

Calving Facts 8

Calving Guidelines #8: unless the new calf is in immediate danger, RESIST the urge to do anything with it until it has had a first suck. All you do is piss off the cow, the calf & me because it creates the extra work of feeding a weak calf later.

Don't meddle!

Calving Facts 9

Calving Guidelines #9: No one likes losing calves, but it's part of the deal & Nature's way of weeding out the weak. Make sure carcasses & leftover cleanings get moved offsite so scavengers, coyotes, wolves, skunks, aren't wandering the pens & freaking out the herd.

Calving Facts 10

Calving Guidelines #10: To feed a calf that's having difficulty sucking the cow is put in a headgate & we tie a rope around her just ahead of the udder/hip bones. Don't cinch too tight or u will drop the cow. This helps to prevent kicking & excess mvmt. Good time to milk her too.

Calving Facts 11

Calving Guidelines #11: Be ruthless when culling cattle. Carrot teats, poor bags, meaness, produces duds, bad feet, age, send every one of them down the road to save headaches later. This cow was an easy choice to cull.

Calving Facts 12

Calving Guidelines #12: Be extremely careful operating in pens with calves. Do you see the spot of red in the ring? We've run over calves hiding in the bedding & dumped bales on ones in the rings. Use a spotter & operate slow with your head on a swivel.

Calving Facts 13

Calving Guidelines #13: @HushtonBlock spoke about how many head would be needed to have an income & maybe u could just go small with 20 hd/1 bull on a small plot of land. Did some back of the napkin calcs, SPOILER - the smart people just burn their money.

Calving Facts 14

Calving Guidelines #14: Many times when a calf has its first dump, the mom sniffs and eats it. Is it because:
A. It looks & smells like a Tootsie Roll
B. The cow is bonding with her calf
C. The cow is hiding traces of her calf fm predators
D. She just wants to gross us out

Calving Facts 15

Calving Guidelines #15: Cattle will chow down on their after-birth while the calf gets their legs under them. Are they:
A: It tastes like jelly & goes down smooth
B: They're getting a jolt of energy
C: They're removing material to keep away predators
D: They like being gross

Calving Facts 16a

Calving Guidelines 16a: Our cattle have their fav spots picked out in the pens, 90% pick the same area. But don't forget the rest of the pen for surprises. The dark spot in the cnr is a heifer calving. Heifers need extra care, 50% of ours need help but try to let them do it.

Calving Facts 16b

Calving Guidelines 16b: if a calf is coming, u watch for progression. Stay bk so the cow doesn't get spooked & thrown off the process. But hang close if the calf ends up twisted on itself, or the cow needs flipping, or the sac is over its head. We lose 1-2 yrly to suffocation.

Calving Facts 16c

Calving Guidelines 16c: bk to heifer calf wasn't backwards but 30 min of pushing, no progression. Gotta pull. Very dangerous for calf cuz heifer will probably get up & if she goes down on her haunches kills the calf. Move slow, keep her calm, get chains on, pull. Voila, live calf

Calving Facts 17

Calving Guidelines 17: Each rancher comes up against the decision of plunk/not plunk the calf who is having a rough time. This one was a hard pull, tube fed for 2 days b4 it stood up & has been fed by hand on the cow twice daily. For the ranchers, how long would u keep it alive?

Calving Facts 17.2

Calving Guidelines 17 Update: (To Plunk or not To Plunk) Smtg finally clicked in the little fellow's brain & he's sucking on his own after near a wk. Last nt, we let him go hungry to see if that got him going & it worked. Not out of the woods cuz mom has low milk but we'll see.

Calving Facts 18

Calving Guidelines 18: Calf drops, hops up & starts sucking is the ideal. Signs they are good:

Milk Nose
Teats are clean/bag looks sucked
Calf's belly feels full
Not bawling
You actually see a teat being sucked
Calf is wagging tail while at the right end
Jumping like a goofball

Calving Facts 19

Calving Guidelines 19: Signs calf is not sucking:

Looks sad/humped up
Lethargic/no interest
Empty stomach
Even if bag down another calf could have stolen
Calf licks & doesn't latch on
Scared cuz mom is mean/kicks
Keeps sucking wrong end

Not sucking until u see it sucking

Calving Facts 20

Calving Guidelines 20: Twins/5-10% for our #'s
Good
2 kids/1 can be a spare
Can sell 1 off
Bad
Probably have to hand feed
Mom short on milk
Hard on cow/bag
Hard when she's gestating
Good chance 1 or both die
Calves won't grow well

Took 1 twin to give to this cow cuz she has milk

Calving Facts 21

Calving Guidelines 21:
Tubing a calf +/-'s
With a weak calf due to birthing stress/cold/too dumb to live, tubing is a life-saver. If the 1st suck doesn't go, they will just lie down to die. They won't suck to save themselves. Danger is aspirating the calf by missing the stomach

Calving Facts 22

Calving Guidelines 22: Milk is acidic, so calves will lick dirt to coat their stomachs. To prevent them ingesting bugs, we put out Diatomaceous Earth. It's like TUMS for their tummies. But it looks like some of them are doing lines of Coke...😄

Calving Facts 23

Calving Guidelines 23: 3 wks in & closing on 1/2 way. Now to keep what we got healthy & alive. We vax for scours, pill for Coccidiosis, nasal spray for respiratory illness & have Resflor on hand for the sick. Our big issues will be navel infections, scours & wx related illness.

Calving Facts 23 Update

Calving Guidelines 23 Update: Here's a good example of a navel infection, looks like obvious swelling & when squeezed, there was a solid root. Shot of antibiotics & follow-up.

Calving Facts 24

Calving Guidelines 24: 2 1/2 mths of calving is a long haul. Keep on top of your health, eat well, hydrate, rest when you can. We get a lot of slip & fall injuries from the cow marbles out on the straw pad. No fun walking on these, especially at night.

Calving Facts 25

Calving Guidelines 25:
Signs calf is sick
Sad/lethargic
Mom not sucked
Hiding in bk of shelter
For infected navels:
Wet where mom has licked
Solid root
Tender when squeezed
Looks swollen

Bedding, bedding, bedding

Keep them separated, clean & dry, keeps them alive.

Calving Facts 26

Calving Guidelines 26:
When u have Livestock, u have deadstock!
Twins, 1 fine, other weak, handfed but sucked. It decided to give up on life, tubefed for 2 days cuz it wouldn't suck. Then the good one up & went straight downhill.
Autopsy & cameras would maybe tell the full story.

Calving Facts 27

Calving Guidelines 27: Scenario-it's oh dark early, -35 windchill, gotta get this calf in the barn so it doesn't freeze to death.
Ranchers:
A. Wade in with a bat with the attitude 'THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!' or,
B. Wake up someone cuz u need bait
Townies:
A. Oh, I'm the bait.

Calving Facts 28

Calving Guidelines 28: At night, when the barns are packed, move slow & quiet. If you spooked these cows, there's a good chance a calf will be trampled. Keep things calm if calves need shuffling. It's so much nicer when all the animals don't need locked up for the night.

Calving Facts 29

Calving Guidelines 29: Unlike humans who come out head 1st, calves dive out like u were diving into water. We look for orientation of the feet in case it's backwards. Sometimes u need to go arm deep to sort out the mess before pulling the calf/calves.

Calving Facts 30

Calving Guidelines 30: Early, b4 the farm gets going, we check all the calves. We get them up for a once over to check for sickness, malnourishment, broken legs, etc. Do it slow & quiet. A big stretch is what we're looking for, then out to see mom for breakfast.

Calving Facts 31

Calving Guidelines 31: Now we're moving into a freeze/thaw cycle & the death puddles are growing. Calves can Bambi themselves & spend the nite on the ice. Then, thawed out as water, the cows drink the dirty stuff & give the calves scours. Always smtg trying to kill the youglings.

Calving Facts 32

Calving Guidelines 32: Introduce visitors quietly & usually one at a time. Cows don't like strangers and can spook easy. They really don't seem to like little kids.

Calving Facts 32b

Calving Guidelines 32b: If there is a quantity of blood that's been expelled from the cow's uterus, time to sniff a rat. There's a good chance the calf is already dead. If there is zip for progression, you'll have to put a glove up the animal to pull a dead calf out.

Calving Facts 33

Calving Guidelines 33: Calf having a 1st suck. IMHO, mom licking his butt:
Stimulates the calf & has him in the rt direction
Calms calf so they can concentrate on sucking
Bonds them thru smell
Removes poop traces to deter predators

Just more reasons to let the 1st suck happen.

Calving Facts 34

Calving Guidelines 34: Portable metal shelters work great with a few exceptions. A new calf can hide & be forgotten & needs to be pushed out. During blizzards, they can fill with snow & suffocate calves. Out in the open, I've seen them flipped right over with a strong wind.

Calving Facts 35

Calving Guidelines 35: We start introducing oats to the calves at 3 weeks. We creep feed in the summer & if u give them a bit to get used to, there is a lesser chance of them bloating & death. The bottom fell out of the oat market, so it's going to pay fattening them up.

Calving Facts 36

Calving Guidelines 36: Make sure mom & calf can find each other when shifting them to other pens. Although, calf can be under mom's nose in a shelter & she'll be bawling to high heaven. If calf is bawling, they are lost and/or hungry. In general, if it's noisy, check it out.

Calving Facts 36b

Calving Guidelines 36b: After the calves wake up with the dawn, they're hungry for breakfast. It's a good time to check if mom has any udder/feeding issues that need addressing.

Calving Facts 37

Calving Guidelines 37: Be diligent with cleaning up twine/net wrap. Calves will ingest it, bung up their stomachs & die. The net wrap seems to be harder for them to gobble down, but don't trust them. Cattle find dumb ways to kill themselves.

Calving Facts 38

Calving Guidelines 38: 1 of these cows legit wanted to kill a couple of kids, good thing the one didn't trip getting chased 100yds. Can u guess which cow? If u aren't around the cows all the time, every one of these animals can snap. Cows hate little kids & strangers, be careful!

Calving Facts 39

Calving Guidelines 39: 2 days since the storm, time to check for colds/pneumonia, move slow/quiet, looking/listening for:

Wheezing
Coughing
Hump backs
Lethargy/sad
Head shaking
Confusion

Damp, windy, chilly wx can be quick death for the calves. Gotta stay on top of it.

Calving Facts 40

Calving Guidelines 40: Thankfully, this is a 1 day storm, they can just stay hunkered down & ride it out. Multi day storms are bad cuz the calves can't get thru the crush of cows to feed. Then u have to stir things up & get some bedding down. Of course, 2 days later, sick ones

Calving Facts 41

Calving Guidelines 41: Thankfully, this was just a 1 day blizzard. That snowbank wasn't there b4. We've had shelters fill right in with snow & just about lose calves due to suffocating. Spring storms are the worst, plus dealing with sickness afterward.

Calving Facts 42

Calving Guidelines 42: Even when the lil buggers are sucking they might not even 'be away'. She was all good then got all mopey. Calves get a favorite teat & if it's dry cuz mom's milk isn't in, they'll eventually give up. Of course, they don't want help feeding. Slowly resolves.

Calving Facts 43

Calving Guidelines 43: Always be on the lookout for weirdness with the calves. New one for us, doesn't look like a kick to the head, no breathing issues, older calf, sucking fine, just a big swollen face. Looks like an allergic reaction if anything.

Calving Facts 44

Calving Guidelines 44: He lives or he dies, we'll see come morning. Bad navel infection, 2 doses of antibiotics, 2 litres of electrolytes, mom knows where he is, not much more we can do for him. If infection is up in his guts, he's done for.

Calving Facts 45

April showers bring May scours! Young calves can easily dehydrate & die fm scours/diarrhea. We treat the cattle 3 wks b4 calving with ScourGuard. Then use Calfspan & a shot for the bad ones. Keep up with bedding, don't track/transfer the bug pen to pen.

Calving Facts 46

Calving Guidelines 46: Contrary to the anti-dairy types tripe, species other than humans enjoy milk after adolescence. These 3yr olds have nose flaps to prevent them fm suckling other cattle. Seems to be more common in Red Simmentals & when the cow's milk comes in after birth.

Calving Facts 47

Calving Guidelines 47: During times of volatile spring wx, it's important to stay ahead of where & when to pen calves depending on age & general health. Env CAN is generally useless because they rely too much on models/auto stns instead of humans & observations, so keep prepared.

Calving Facts 48

Calving Guidelines 48: When u have an animal going downhill, u need the guts to put it down. This guy was iffy for a while. We figure the infection got into his guts thru his navel & antibiotics didn't do the trick. Good mom, she gets a twin. Part & parcel with raising animals.

Calving Facts 49

Calving Guidelines 49: This is a tough time for the calves. Scours will start, pneumonia will be passed around & it can be tough to find mom to feed. Keep on top of the bedding as best as possible & make sure the young ones can find shelter.