Here in Kansas, it’s right in the middle of spring calving season. There are adorable baby bovines popping up right and left, even though there’s been snow on the ground on and off for months.
My brother-in-law has a cow herd and recently I got to take a quick peek at all of the new calves. One of the reason he chose to have his herd calve in the spring as opposed to the fall is because the family’s farm is less busy right now (focusing more on maintence as opposed to field work) and he can pay more attention to the cows and calves.
In the herd, there are all black Angus cows and a majority of black calves. Because of the bull being a purebred, red Angus, some of the calves have a reddish-brown tint, with one little guy, in particular, being all red. His name is Wyatt.
You might wonder what determines what color a calf is, especially when the parents are two different colors. It’s the dominant gene. If a black cow has the dominant gene as opposed to a red bull, the calf will be black, and vice versus.
So, how do you know when to have your cows bred or when a calf will be born? The gestation time of cows is the same as humans – Nine months. Thus, if you turn the bull in with the cows at the end of April, you should plan to start calving at the beginning of January.
One challenge a lot of people face with their cow herds is finding enough grass or pasture for them, especially during the winter and when they are “wintering” them out. Ideally, you’ll want to be able to move the cows/calves every two weeks so they can have a fresh, clean pasture. A clean pasture would be one without lots of manure, which is full of worms and can make calves sick.
Another thing that ranchers fight during this time of the year are the diseases that are spread when the ground is covered in snow. A couple of ways they combat this include: 1) When feeding round bales, they feed them in different spots each time, and 2) If feeding using a feeder, they move the feeder every week or so to avoid a huge pile-up of manure from the cows eating there.
So, what about first-calf heifers? How is calving different for them than cows?
To start with, some people believe that “heifers” aren’t considered to be cows until after they’ve had their second calf. (There are some different opinions out there though.) Even though they might be bred and pregnant (for the first time), they’re still called bred heifers or first-calf heifers. When they are bred and pregnant for the second time, they’re second-calf heifers. After the calf is born, they’re cows.
When you have heifers in the mix, you’ll want to breed them 30 days earlier than you would the cows. A couple of reasons behind this include: 1) They will later need an extra 30 days before they can be bred again, and 2) A heifer’s milk doesn’t have as many antibodies in it as a cow’s milk does. When their calf is born, it will be more susceptible to disease without those antibodies. This is one of the reasons that calves needs a clean pasture to be born in.
So, what do you do when you first find a cow that is calving? As anyone’s first instinct might be, you may consider staying around to watch. However, depending on the cow or heifer, you’ll want to leave and come back in 30 minutes to an hour. Someone hovering around watching them can make cattle nervous and cause them not to go ahead and give birth right away. Each birth can be different and something you should consult your vet for if you have questions.
Ideally, a perfect calf-entrance into the world would look like two little feet and a nose coming out first, before the rest of the body quickly following. If only the feet or a nose come out instead of all three of those together, you might have to push the calf back in and grab whatever you’re missing before helping pull it out.
What you hope to find when you come to the pasture is a cow with a new calf lying on the ground. If it’s really cold out, the calf needs to get up and nurse as quickly as possible so that it can warm up inside. Hopefully, this will happen within 5 minutes.
Soon, the mama will lick it dry. At times, they will get pretty vigorous licking the calf clean. If not, something might be wrong. Throughout all of this process, at some point, she will eat the afterbirth. Some say it has nutrition in it, but one of the biggest reasons for a cow to eat it is so that predators (mainly coyotes around here) don’t smell it and come searching for a snack!
Once the calf stands up on its feet, the cow will knock it over. This isn’t to be mean, but to help the calf get the circulation going through its body by getting back up again!
Within an hour or two of the calf being born, it should be nursed, dry, and ready to be tagged. Sometimes, this will be a two-person job: One person to tag and one to distract the cow!
Before we know it, calving season will be over and the focus will be turned to more field work and longer days. The calves will be grown and it’ll be time to get ready for the next season of babies. I’m looking forward to them already!
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