Any calf who is not doing well gets picked up and put in our greenhouse incubator. I had 5 in it last year in a March ice storm. Raining and 31 this morning, not going to be surprised if we fill it again this year.
COLD WEATHER CALVING
- Thread starter Lazy M
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toughntender
Well-known member
One thing we have over you guys down south is that we know our weather is going to be crappy until sometime in April or May. Watching the weather, you don't know if your gonna have rain, sleet, snow, freezing rain, or a beautiful 70 degree day! Lol. Seems like it would be tough to plan.
Dubcharo
Well-known member
Since mid January we have the coldest winter I can remember here in Quebec, Canada. Saw a lot of -20F and below. Very happy to have all our cows in barns. 110 calves on the ground (concrete!) to date and very few sickness, everything is frozen!
shortybreeder
Well-known member
I've been lucky to put all of my cows in our "old" barn with my dad's dry dairy cows/heifers when we calve in February/March. Seems to work out alright regardless of outside temp because it's a small barn with about a dozen dairy animals helping to keep it warm so I'm thinking about A.I.'ing some cows to calve in January. Have you tried calving that early? Or do you still wait til Feb even though you have a barn?Dubcharo":ybogawf2 said:
Dubcharo
Well-known member
Each year we have near 80 calves in January. It's more work then outside but we have more control when A.I. time come. The bulls are older when the breeding season is on. We sell around 20-25 purebred charolais bulls each year.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
a9259,
Biggest problem with a lot of folks down here calving in this sort of weather is...the cows have been toughing it out through the winter on sorry, low-quality hay, and nothing else. Calves born to dams on a protein-deficient diet during the last trimester generate less body heat, take about 3X as long to get up and nurse as calves born to well-nourished dams. If it's single digits or lower with ice/snow/mud, the longer those little fellers lie there after mama dumps 'em out, the less likely they are to get up.
Biggest problem with a lot of folks down here calving in this sort of weather is...the cows have been toughing it out through the winter on sorry, low-quality hay, and nothing else. Calves born to dams on a protein-deficient diet during the last trimester generate less body heat, take about 3X as long to get up and nurse as calves born to well-nourished dams. If it's single digits or lower with ice/snow/mud, the longer those little fellers lie there after mama dumps 'em out, the less likely they are to get up.
