calving seasons

[jcissell]

I am will be getting about 35 cows this summer to start a feeder operation (I guess that is what is it called). I will buy cows and sell their calves. Anyway, my dad had done it for about 9 years now but he does not have set calving seasons. He just has calves all year long. Which here the weather never gets very cold in the winter. Very seldom below freezing. But I don't want to run my operation this way. I want to try and have my cows calves within the same period. How do I go about doing this and what time would be the best time to calve? Spring or Fall.

Josh Cissell

 

[dun]

Spring or fall, even winter or summer depends on many factors. Feed availability, when will you be available to do wahtever is needed during calving season. How will you market the calves, the questions go on and on. You'll need to do some research for your area and determine what works the best for you and your particular managment.
A fixed short duration breeding season will give you more consistant calves to market at one time. Generally the larger the lot of calves the better the price. It also makes the weaning/vaccination/worming schedule easierto manage. More people calve spring then fall, but a lot of herds calve only in the fall, and some calve both spring and fall. The time to calve is often a matte of "that's the way it';s always been done", or "that's when everybody else does".

dun

dun

I am will be getting about 35 cows this summer to start a feeder operation (I guess that is what is it called). I will buy cows and sell their calves. Anyway, my dad had done it for about 9 years now but he does not have set calving seasons. He just has calves all year long. Which here the weather never gets very cold in the winter. Very seldom below freezing. But I don't want to run my operation this way. I want to try and have my cows calves within the same period. How do I go about doing this and what time would be the best time to calve? Spring or Fall.

Josh Cissell

 

[A. delaGarza]

I am will be getting about 35 cows this summer to start a feeder operation (I guess that is what is it called). I will buy cows and sell their calves. Anyway, my dad had done it for about 9 years now but he does not have set calving seasons. He just has calves all year long. Which here the weather never gets very cold in the winter. Very seldom below freezing. But I don't want to run my operation this way. I want to try and have my cows calves within the same period. How do I go about doing this and what time would be the best time to calve? Spring or Fall.

Josh Cissell

spring or fall calving? depends on your location, if you have food available year round it won't matter to much

 

[D.R. Cattle]

I do Spring and Fall, but I like them to be 60 day seasons. One good reason is bull power. I can breed a lot more cows with less bulls if the herd is split. Also, every time I bring in new heifers, we have more than one annual window to expose them. If the new heifers don't catch the first go round, they wait six months. If they don't catch then, they hit the road.

 

[hillbilly]

Sounds like you are in a mild climate. Study your market, see when feeders peak. If possible try to have your calves ready to wean at that time of year, if feeding cost arn't prohibitive.
Feeder calves are subject to supply and demand like everything else.