How often do your cows need help calving?

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highgrit

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We haven't had to assist or pull a calf in 10 years. We had 1 heifer that had problems and lost her and the calf. Seems like a lot of folks have trouble with their cows and heifers calving on their own. It also seems like, that the colder the climate the more calving problems. Just curious how y'all feel about climate and calving?
 
Extremely cold winters or mild winters, the only time we've had to assist is with a malpresentation. And that is only rarely.
 
Looking back at the records for several years, it is a fairly consistent 3-4% per year, largely malpresentations. But I am referring to 90-115 lb birthweights, not 70-80 lbers. Those size should never need assisting.
 
Aaron":2yz9n0xe said:
Looking back at the records for several years, it is a fairly consistent 3-4% per year, largely malpresentations. But I am referring to 90-115 lb birthweights, not 70-80 lbers. Those size should never need assisting.

Do you shoot for such high birth weights Aaron?
 
Aaron":227f415r said:
Looking back at the records for several years, it is a fairly consistent 3-4% per year, largely malpresentations. But I am referring to 90-115 lb birthweights, not 70-80 lbers. Those size should never need assisting.

I agree with this # Aaron. On heifers, it would be a little higher, but I have heifers dropping 75-90 lb calves for the most part.

Colder weather usually results in more assists, but I think most of that is usually because you are watching them a lot closer so you don't end up with hypothermic calves or frozen ears.
 
TennesseeTuxedo":xbsffr7k said:
Aaron":xbsffr7k said:
Looking back at the records for several years, it is a fairly consistent 3-4% per year, largely malpresentations. But I am referring to 90-115 lb birthweights, not 70-80 lbers. Those size should never need assisting.

Do you shoot for such high birth weights Aaron?

If the calves are put together right (smooth and long), and the cows have some pelvic size, no reason that they can't easily handle 100 lb calf. Heifers I don't really want over 90 lbs, but they can do 100 lbs if they have to. I don't want small 60-70 lb calves because they are more easily stressed in adverse weather conditions and eventually you will (some say it's BS) breed a herd of cows that will only be able to calve unassisted to that range of birthweights - seen a lot of good herds screwed up that way. My birthweights are much lower in the May-June calving season than 15 years ago in Feb-March calving , where less than 100 lbs was like 10% of the calves. Lots of 105-114lbs. Didn't have an extraordinary amount of pulls back then either - cows were built right.

randiliana":xbsffr7k said:
Aaron":xbsffr7k said:
Looking back at the records for several years, it is a fairly consistent 3-4% per year, largely malpresentations. But I am referring to 90-115 lb birthweights, not 70-80 lbers. Those size should never need assisting.

I agree with this # Aaron. On heifers, it would be a little higher, but I have heifers dropping 75-90 lb calves for the most part.

Colder weather usually results in more assists, but I think most of that is usually because you are watching them a lot closer so you don't end up with hypothermic calves or frozen ears.

I was including both cows and heifers in that original number, but if I split them up, problems occur with between 0-2% of cows and about 0-4% of heifers, with most years being around 2-3% on the heifers with 80-90 lb calves.
 
I was just wondering if maybe the cold could contract their muscles or pelvic somehow? I know when it's cold my body doesn't function as well as it should.
 
highgrit":188x5vwc said:
I was just wondering if maybe the cold could contract their muscles or pelvic somehow? I know when it's cold my body doesn't function as well as it should.
There have been studies that show that the concentration of blood flow to the inner parts of the body during cold weather causes the calf to grow larger but I don't pay much attention as my calves aren't that big so I don't need to read up on it. :)
 
highgrit":32sr8088 said:
We haven't had to assist or pull a calf in 10 years. We had 1 heifer that had problems and lost her and the calf. Seems like a lot of folks have trouble with their cows and heifers calving on their own. It also seems like, that the colder the climate the more calving problems. Just curious how y'all feel about climate and calving?

I don't want to jinx myself but I do prefer they not calf in either extreme hot or cold.
 
If you keep a good free choice mineral for your cows out year round and a good protein supplement out during the winter with the mineral then you shouldn't have much if any calving problems. We don't put out salt blocks for our cows we make them get their salt from the mineral so that way they will be sure to get it in their system. If you have a big operation your going to always have the here and there calving problem but we have noticed since we started doing this that we haven't had many problems. Protein is big during the winter for calving. We put the 37% protein blocks out during the winter months and they work great. We had 6 dead calves in a row last winter and an older farmer told us to do this and it has worked great. Just my opinion on the matter.
 
Big Cheese":39ne8218 said:
-but we have noticed since we started doing this that we haven't had many problems.
-We had 6 dead calves in a row last winter and an older farmer told us to do this and it has worked great.
-Just my opinion on the matter.

Doesn't sound like very much history to base that off of.
 
The older farmer that told us this has been doing it for over 20 years or more and is the biggest cattle operation around us down here. He has over 600 momma cows so I would say he has a lot of history to base it off of.
 
Only thing needing help here is backwards calves. If cold was a problem then all mine would be dead :)

Most of you will call me a weirdo, but I have seen calving with NATURE (as in when the deer fawn) makes a lot of problems go away. Makes life more enjoyable too. Keep those babies in utero through the mud and muck. Green grass heals.
 
AllForage":3f08w1ml said:
Only thing needing help here is backwards calves. If cold was a problem then all mine would be dead :)

Most of you will call me a weirdo, but I have seen calving with NATURE (as in when the deer fawn) makes a lot of problems go away. Makes life more enjoyable too. Keep those babies in utero through the mud and muck. Green grass heals.
:nod: :nod: :nod:
 

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