Spring or Fall Calving Season

[midTN_Brangusman]

I am trying to get my herd on the same calving season. I have heifers old enough to breed in the fall and a few cows having late calves this summer. I don't know if I should not breed them until next spring or hold the rest of my herd after calving next spring and breed for fall calves. As far as the calf crop we usually keep a few replacements and sell the remainder as feeders. What do you cattlemen and women like to do with your herds and what do you recommend? Thank you for your time and opinions! :cboy:

 

[Jake]

I am trying to get my herd on the same calving season. I have heifers old enough to breed in the fall and a few cows having late calves this summer. I don't know if I should not breed them until next spring or hold the rest of my herd after calving next spring and breed for fall calves. As far as the calf crop we usually keep a few replacements and sell the remainder as feeders. What do you cattlemen and women like to do with your herds and what do you recommend? Thank you for your time and opinions! :cboy:

Lot of factors need included into the decision. What are your peak times of year for forage production? When and how long do you have to supplement your grass? Which time period can a cow produce the most pounds of calf at the least cost? What is the labor situation is one time of year better or worse for calving? What is the weather cycle and it's limiting factors?

Personally I despise fall calving in our geography as it's a waste of resources and make for expensive costs of production.

 

[Mat Man]

We Calve 1/2 in fall 1/2 in spring that way the bull stays with cows year around.
If a cow is late she moves to the other calving season.
No one way is perfect.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Not a fan of late summer/fall calving here either. I'd rather deal with snow and mud in the spring then flies and heat now. And I'd rather those calves be a couple months old as the grass is coming on, rather then them just being born as the grass is fading, putting the cows onto hay and the calves having to find scraps. Just wouldn't work for my setup.

 

[Toad]

I have about half of my herd calving in March and the other half in late summer and early fall. Spring calves are sold around Oct or Nov and fall calves are sold in March. So far both have worked well for me although if I had to pick one I would go with fall calving. I have yet to loose a calf in the fall period while every once in awhile a spring snow storm will hurt me in spring calving.

 

[Jessica06]

We calve jan-march and august-october. Right now we are making an effort to increase the size of our fall group. Took the bulls off 2 weeks early this summer for a 75 day season with plans to move most opens over. Our fall cows get nothing but mineral after weaning in March, and are gobby fat by the time they calve and are breeding back really quick. We shortened Their season last year by 2 weeks to 75 days and had one open out of 20, with most calving in the first 30 days. Of course, with all of our Bermuda we have grass from about march until a freeze. We didn't start feeding hay until the first of january this year.

 

[Lucky_P]

Both here.
'Fall' calving has been pushed forward into August - and actually, some calves come in late July - doesn't seem like 'fall' to me... but the farm manager is looking at peak milk production and tail-off of lactation... takes less feed to keep that cow in condition if the calf is 3 months or so when we pull 'em in and start winter feeding - and calves eat hay/DDG alongside their dams - cheaper to feed the calves than to feed the cow to convert it to milk.
'Spring' calving starts March 1... usually past all the really bad weather, but the past two years, we've had major snow/ice storms right on top of the first wave of calves arriving.
Fall herd has historically been about 2X the size of the Spring herd... but we rolled some yearling heifers and first-calvers from the Fall to the Spring group to take some pressure off them and to replace some older cows in the Spring group that aged out.