Drought and Lower Than Normal Birthweights

[CUZ]

Is there a connection?

A strong connection?

Opinions, anecdotal evidence, old sayings and even facts are welcome.

I'll start. I think there's a connection, and it may be pretty strong. I know of some Hereford folks who are pretty sharp, do a lot of supplementing of their cattle and even they've begun to have some SMALL calves.

 

[novatech]

We were in drought in Texas last year and before. I saw no effect on calves as long as cows were healthy. If the cows were allowed to be pulled down because of drought and not suplemented, then I could see were it would effect the calf before and after birth. Body condition score and general health will have an effect on the calf drought or not and conception rate on the cow for that matter. As far as drought haveing a direct effect on birth weight the answer would be no.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

Not sure about birth weight and drought but the old timers here say conception is definately affected by the drought. The dought here the last two years I believe had an affect on my cows conception rate. When I culled hard last year I had my gals palpated at the sale barn and 50% were open. Every cow I owned gave me a calf all the years before.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

Conception rate and drought: no doubt in my mind that a drought would influence conception rates. Do you think that if you would have purchased extra feed/hay it would have made an economic difference? I don't know as I have yet to experience that situation.

Couldn't put a pencil to feeding those cows hay for a solid year. Cut my losses and shipped them. I paid $68 a large round bale last year to feed the ones I kept. That was bad enough.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

$68 per bale looks like about $350 per cow for 30 weeks. Hay situation better this year? Down here you can't give hay away there is so much of it.

Can't give it away here either with all the rain this year. Some are on the fourth cutting.

 

[Joy in Texas]

Not sure about birth weight and drought but the old timers here say conception is definately affected by the drought. The dought here the last two years I believe had an affect on my cows conception rate. When I culled hard last year I had my gals palpated at the sale barn and 50% were open. Every cow I owned gave me a calf all the years before.

The same thing happened to us also. We had alot of good crossbred and limo's that never gave us a problem.The second year of the drought caught up with them. Out of 125 head only 63 were expecting. I couldn't tell any diffence in the birth weight.
Before winter we culled everything out except about 25 head and kept 1 bull.
I believe a drought plays a big part in the performance of cattle. It was to hot and dry for a bull to breed . Or it messed up a cows cycle. I know of about 10 of cows had like a false pregnancy. One week they would swell up and bag is full. Few days later ,nothing. I loaded 2 up for the vet to check. Sure enough they were open. When I would see one do this ,we sold them.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

Joy we are 100% this year on the calfs. Grass is plentiful even tho it has been hot this year it hasn't affected the cows. Got one hereford left to calf.

 

[Joy in Texas]

Joy we are 100% this year on the calfs. Grass is plentiful even tho it has been hot this year it hasn't affected the cows. Got one hereford left to calf.

That's great to hear. I know we had it pretty rough there for awhile. All,of cows did just great. Waiting for a few fall calves.

 

[fourstates]

We had 3 years of severe drought. During that time we fed hay and it killed us. The problem we had was Blue Tongue, 2 years of it, affects young cows and heifers, causing early abortions. No cure, no vaccine. It takes about 3-4 months before the cow can rebreed. Older cows build up immunity.

I lost 6 AI breedings at about 3 months. You would think that since this disease is carried by flies, it would be worse in the wet years. If I hadn't had the blood tests run, I think I would have attributed the losses to the drought. Hay might be good enough, but nothing beats good grass.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

We had 3 years of severe drought. During that time we fed hay and it killed us. The problem we had was Blue Tongue, 2 years of it, affects young cows and heifers, causing early abortions. No cure, no vaccine. It takes about 3-4 months before the cow can rebreed. Older cows build up immunity.

I lost 6 AI breedings at about 3 months. You would think that since this disease is carried by flies, it would be worse in the wet years. If I hadn't had the blood tests run, I think I would have attributed the losses to the drought. Hay might be good enough, but nothing beats good grass.

Sorry to hear that.