checking cattle

[rockridgecattle]

okay so this is sort of a poll without the numbers....not sure how to do it.
A few guys/gals have lost calves. they checked sometime in the evening (not sure when last check was) come out in the morning and there is an unexpected calf, sometimes dead, sometimes alive. I am truely sorry for the ones that are lost.

So here is my question...

How often do you check cattle when calving, particularly at night and when it is below freezing.

I will start

we check every two hours day and night. Mostly we are in the calving area all day so not much of a problem there. After supper it is every two hours like clock work.
Three weeks prior to the start date we do a check before bed and early am. so midnight, 6 am
one week prior there is a middle of the night check at three. After the first calf drops, every two hours.
Here we have sub living temps sometimes it's -30 c and sometimes -2C (zereo c is freezing)

thoughts?

I should add this is in no way a shot at the ranchers on here who have lost animals. Just a curious poster

 

[Frankie]

Since we AI all our cattle, we have a pretty good idea when they'll calve. We bring them to a small pasture just north of the house, heifers two weeks before their "due date" and mature cows about a week early. We see them several times a day as we come and go, check them just before we go to bed and first thing in the morning. We weigh the calf, put a tag in the ear, and turn the pair back out with the rest of the cows. We feed in the evening and most times we'll find the calves first thing in the morning, up and nursing.

We calve mostly in Jan/Feb, generally the worst weather of the year, but I'm sure our "worst" weather doesn't compare with yours.

 

[rockridgecattle]

isn't worst "relative". I mean if i lived in your climate and and got acustomed to it, i might think yours were pretty bad.

.

 

[Frankie]

isn't worst "relative". I mean if i lived in your climate and and got acustomed to it, i might think yours were pretty bad.

.

Probably true. We get pretty hot here in the summer. I seem to deal with heat better than the cold. We have always avoided calving in summertime, even with the commercial cattle. Jan/Feb calving allows us to breed before it gets really hot (most years) and get the bulls off test in February so we can put them in the spring bull sale at the test station. And they'll be a little older to turn out with cows in May which is the time most local breeders turn the bull out.

 

[fourstates]

I check at least at daylight, noon, 4-6pm, 10-11 pm. More often if I am seeing any chage in behavior. I don't leave a cow in active labor for more than a few minutes.

My cows are very used to having my truck out in the pasture and are used to me driving right up to them day or night.

If I fed my cattle, I would do it in the evening, at dark. That way the vast majority will calf during daylight hours.

I keep blankets, flashlights with me at all times.

 

[CWT Angus]

OK, you guys will probably think this is nuts., but here it is....
We AI so I have a good idea of due dates. We put anyone that is close in a small pasture adjacent to the working system & directly below the barn. (just in case) I feed right at dark & check every 2 hours throughout the night. If someone is in labor I just wait in the barn or in my truck with the heater on. The girls don't even get up when I walk through them or spotlight them from the front porch. Last year all the calves were born during the day except 2- and they were starting at dinner time so I knew what it was comming. There is also a small pole barn in that field set up to be 1 large pen or 2 smaller ones if needed. I let them calve outside unless it is storming sideways. Calf gets weighed, BO-SE, B-12 & tagged & it's out with the others. Sometimes if it's really nasty out I will let them have access to the pole barn with straw for a couple of days.

Totally off the subject....

I don't know why it still amazes me that the mamas know how & where to bed down those little ones. Last year one night I was feeding in the dark, raining & cold. All the mamas were there, but no calves. I shined the spotlight around to the barn & see 10 little sets of eye reflecting back at me. All warm & dry.
Pretty cool.

 

[novatech]

When the sun goes down I go down. They are on their own until the sun comes up. Then they are on their own until I can find them. If the buzzards aren't flying I assume I have a live calf.

 

[rockridgecattle]

we have a small small cabin in the calving area with a wood stove and a bed. We have been known to stay all night if it is cold enough.
We do not AI but have a defined season. 85% in about 3 - 3 1/2 weeks.
There are shelters for the calves and a barn (nothing fancy)that can hold 8 pairs.
Pairs are in there until they dry off if it's storming, below freezing, otherwise the are outside.

 

[Maxwell Farms]

Me or the wife will check on the cows several times all through out the day during calving season, once this passes I check once aday usually in the evening unless I'm on my reg. days off from my CASH PAYING JOB (ha ha). Then I'm usually out there quite abit.

 

[rockridgecattle]

up until this year both husband and i worked of farm. Between the two of us 10 hours a day in off farm work. Now it's just me of farm job cause he got laid off. So i kinda understand where you are coming from

 

[Jogeephus]

With the exception of bred heifers, I don't bother them. I'll check on them once a day when I feed. In my situation, I found my live calving rate is inversely proportional to the amount of time I meddle in their business. Since I made this change, my calving rate has averaged 100.3% over the last three years. (Twins - mixed blessing)

 

[bigbull338]

we watch all cows an heifers.we check the heifers 2 times a day.an keep a mentle note of who is close.an check them more if needed.like yesterday we had 2 new calves.1 in the morning an 1 after 5pm.i think weve had 11 calves in the last month.still have a few more that we are watching.

 

[Keren]

Between my own animals and my two places of work, I have some very different systems.

With the limos at work, they get no supervision at all. We calve them all year round, dont preg check or anything. Basically you drive in the driveway and go 'Oh, there's a calf' and thats the first you know about it. Within the first week we usually get that cow and calf up into the yards, tag the calf and put dehorning paste on it, then chuck it back out. It has taken the owner 12+ years to get the herd to this stage, but she has no losses from calving or in young calves.

With the goats at the same property, we draft springers off and they go into a small paddock near the house. They get checked a couple of times a day as we go about our business. When one looks like it will kid within the next day or two, they will get looked at properly two or three times a day, once just before bedtime and then about 6am in the morning. If there is a doe looking like she is starting labour, she gets checked every two to three hours, including during the night. When they kid they are penned for a day or two to mother up, kids are tagged, then they go into another small paddock until the kids are weaned.

With the murray greys, we also calve them all year round. Since they are stud and show stock, they are either AI-ed or we have observed mating, so we know when they are roughly due. They get checked every two hours day and night, starting from two weeks before the due date. We monitor the changes in milk composition to decide how close they are. Most of them are quiet enough we walk up to them in the paddock and milk a little out.

With my own goats, I will bring them into the kidding paddock (which is small and close to the house) roughly a month or so before kidding. They get checked twice a day (its hard to manage more because kidding season is during uni time). When they look like they are a week or two away, I start watching them more closely. When they get to the gonna-pop-in-a-couple-of-days stage I check them 6am, 8am before I leave for uni, 4pm when I get back from uni, 8pm when I feed them, 10pm when I go to bed, 2am in the middle of the night, then 6am again. When they start to kid, if they are not too serious yet I do an hourly check (if I'm home). When things start to get serious I stay there and watch. If I am going off to uni and I think one is kidding, I call a goat friend to come and watch for me. After kidding they are penned for up to a week. I do a two to four hourly check on newly kidded does also. I have a baby monitor in the kidding shed which helps alot. If I'm studying or something I can just check the monitor rather than going out.

For goats, cattle or sheep I go by the 30 X 30 X 30 rule: when the membranes show or burst, give thirty minutes for feet or head to show, then another 30 minutes of hard labour to deliver the kid or make significant progress. Then another 30 minutes for subsequent kids to be delivered. Then I usually like the placenta to be delivered within 2 - 3 hours.

 

[hillsdown]

Well my first calving due date is Jan 15th.Some are AI but most are bred by bull dates that I have seen and wrote down.That is the best system for me as I am used to always doing heat detection.

Two have udders already a heifer and the boss cow (who always calves first every year.)
I will check at first light 7 am and then throughout the day.Before it gets dark and around 7:00pm and then after I have worked out around 11:00.If all looks well then I will call it a night.
The close cows have a big shelter (holds at least 30 at a time) with power and water.
Lots of bedding is a must.
It is the first year with my new system where they stay in a 10 acre area until they are close and then I move them to the 2 acre calving area.I hope it works.

 

[randiliana]

We check every 4 hours in general. Since we start calving in March, that is pretty much a necessity as it can be pretty cold and/or wet then. If it is really cold below -10 C we check more often. Depending on the weather we will either leave the calving cows alone, bring them up into the corrals or into the barn. On really cold nights, we will bring the closest cows up to the corrals, and may put them in the barn if we are really concerned.

One thing, that I would like to do is set up a camera in the barn, and in one of the outside corrals. That way we could observe the calving cows without having to harass them.

In -20 C weather, an newborn calf won't last too long if there are any problems. Whether it is just a little slow, a little on the small side, or if the birth was a little difficult, and mama didn't get right to cleaning that calf up, so it pays to be vigilant.

 

[hillsdown]

One thing, that I would like to do is set up a camera in the barn, and in one of the outside corrals. That way we could observe the calving cows without having to harass them.

randiliana wrote.

That is what we had at the dairy every barn had a camera/s so we could see all that went on, from heat detection to a cow getting close to calving.

It is going in my calving area by next year for sure.Makes life a lot easier especially for one person.

 

[Wewild]

I checked this morning and found 2 new additions to the heifer pasture. 3 for 3 so far. No help required. I love angus bulls on Lim heifers.

 

[Bama]

Heifers are put in a small area behind the house. Cows aren't checked. They learned how to have calves long before we started helping them. I reckon they still know how. If one misses giving me a calf ever year I don't want her. She is replaced by one that knows how to be a cow. If your wandering which calf belongs to which cow, grab it by the leg and pin to the ground. This is also a good time to count all the cows as they will all be standing in a circle around you faster than you can cuss a cat. The one blowing snot in your back pocket is the momma. Look at her ear tag ( it will be easy to read from this distance) and put one like it on the calf.

 

[cfpinz]

During calving season I check the cows once a day, twice if I'm bored. The heifers are on a 20 acre pasture in front of my house, check them twice a day.

cfpinz

 

[Calman]

I check mommas once a day. when calving season begins ,twice a day.All are experienced mommas and proven to be good calfers and know more about their calving than I do.
Although I have 6 reg angus first time heifers AI'd to angus bull in a pasture next to the house that I'm checking about 3 times a day. Calving is in jan and feb and hardly any chance of being to cold in my neck o the woods.

Cal