Best season for calves be born

[coolpop]

?? for everyone - what do you feel is the best time of the year for calves to be born ?? Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter

I personally like mine to drop in the Fall - calves get up in size & health and ready for the winter.

Tell me what cattle men & woman do?

 

[randiliana]

We calve in March and April. By March it is starting to warm up, so the weather is less a factor than it would be in Jan or Feb. As well we sell our calves in October so that gives them enough time to get to about 550-650 lbs which sell pretty well in our area.

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

I usually calve out in March, although next year I'll start Feb 15th. Its cold up here during that time, but there are no sickness problems and no insects. By the time our rainy season hits in May/June, the calves have got plenty of size on them to help resist any kind of pneumonia troubles we may have.

I've also been selling backgrounded calves in March, but would like to move to selling my own fed cattle. I can get my animals fed out in 12 - 14 months, so Feb calves would put me right where I'd like to be.

Rod

 

[backhoeboogie]

Fall calving works best for me personally. With the Texas climate, fall is not bad. Spring is okay too.

 

[Texas Gal]

We are trying a fall calving experiment this year. The "fall" gals will start calving around the 15th of this month.

 

[plbcattle]

we like to calve from feb -end of march. this gives them a chance to eat some green grass when it comes up and they are a couple of months old. It also lets the mom eat fresh, green grass and not rely solely on hay. just my opinion

 

[Saltydawg]

March and April is my goal. I find the calves don't get sick near as much during the spring.

 

[TheBullLady]

Yup, March and April my favorites too. Hopefully new growth green grass, and moderate temperatures. You sure don't want to calve out Brahmans in the winter.

 

[glover36]

all year round usually try not to ai in around now dont want any calving in dead of summer heat

 

[travlnusa]

Feb/March

 

[Dave]

Feb/March is what I do although I have toyed with the idea changing to June.

 

[Susie David]

We calve in March....warming up a bit...isn't below zero at night and we don'thave the bugs yet, though this year was good only sprayed once.
Have thought about fall calving but have still go with March.
DMc

 

[msscamp]

?? for everyone - what do you feel is the best time of the year for calves to be born ?? Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter

We calve in the spring - usually mid March - because the cold helps keep disease from spreading, and the calves are eating when the grass comes in, so no supplementation is usually necessary.

 

[Nowland Farms]

Well, I guess I will buck the trend and say that I like fall calving. There are a few of reasons:

#1 - Since I have enough MaxQ Fescue grass which is a cool seanson growing grass and we have mild winters here in Alabama, my cows are able to eat green growing grass all winter and until I pull them off the field about 4 weeks before greenup. A fall calving season enables the cows to eat green grass while raising the the calves. The summertime heat is not a problem nor are the common pest such as mosquitioes, flies, etc....

#2 - It seems that most of the cattlemen around here have spring calves and sell them in the fall. This sometimes causes a larger volume of claves to "flood" the salebarns at the same time in the fall of the year.

#3 - By the time my fall calves are ready to be weaned or make the trip to the salebarn, the world is greening up and the buyers are the salebarn are feeling good about their pasture growing new grass and they are looking for some new livestock.

Not saying this will work for everyone, but for me this has worked well since I have the winter grass for the fall calving seanson.

 

[badroute]

In the harsh Eastern Montana climate I like to start the first of April and end about the middle of May. Too much danged work calving in Feb. and the early to middle part of March. Although we usually always get a bad storm around the 20th of April, but it never gets real cold. It seems that around here the best calves year in and year out are April calves.

 

[NorCalFarms]

Feb-March. We AI to calve Feb 10 usually, it is generally cold then, maybe a little snow but damn near always dry. If it does rain/snow it freezes solid quick so there is zero disease/pest problems. Nothing I hate seeing more than new calves in mud. A lot of years we get some really nice clear dry days in Feb. so the calves will hopefully be born then, get a start to brave the rest of winter, and be ready to really hit the grass in April/May. I also like the ability change the diet of the cows so they are in good condition before they calve, as in more alfalfa during the last three months and right after they calve. I always like to save some of the best hay for cows we move to a lot right after they calve, helps them, the calves, and them get rebred quick.

 

[Karl]

I calve In Feb. to end of March

 

[ChrisB]

I calve in the fall for a lot of the same reasons Nowland Farms mentioned. I alway finish all my calve out and they are usually ready for market in Feb/Mar which typically is a little better market.

In addition I have to haul some cows to different summer pastures and it is less headache than matching pairs up and making more trips. I feed corn silage in winter and the cows milk very well all winter long so my weaning weights haven't been hit too hard since I changed to fall. The cows are in good calving condition coming off summer pastures and have been breeding back better than I hoped for also.

I used to calve in the early spring (March) and I lost a couple that didn't get up and eat fast enough to the cold. So I moved it back to April and I was dealing with calves getting sick because it was so wet, and I also still had cows that hadn't calved when it was time to go out to pasture.

The only negative for me about fall calving is that I miss out on a few weeks of fall grazing when I bring the cows home for calving. But I make up for it in more live heathly calves and hitting a better market.