terrible spring weather for calves

[BettyLandercasper]

Wondering how other folks are doing with the constant rain, no sun, snow etc. in the north central part of the country.

Hard to stay ahead of the mud this spring. :roll:

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Where are you located Betty?

 

[BettyLandercasper]

SE Minnesota.
The sun refuses to shine!

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

We had an exceptionally wet winter and early spring in northern Ky as well.

 

[mncattle]

It has been a rough spring for calving here in MN. If you have buildings to calve in not too big of a deal but guys who are calving on pasture and lots have been loosing more calves than they normally do. We still have snow on the ground with some rain tonight turning over to more snow. Lots are a muddy mess. One cattle guy down the road has lost 20 calves so far this year I heard. We started calving a couple weeks ago. I had the cows out on pasture then brought them back to the lot and shed since it was suppose to rain and snow. The lot around the shed is so muddy I turned them back out on the pasture and least the calves will not be laying in mud. Put out lots of straw for them so that helps alot. I would take 10 degrees over this for calving.

 

[AllForage]

Sorry Betty, but April is not true spring up here in the upper Midwest. Try calving into May and you will never look back. All the self inflicted market deadlines don't mean squat with dead or sick calves. Awfully expensive trying to feed a lactating cow through this late winter.

 

[Galloways1]

The weather has been tough to deal with. I am glad we calved in Feb. when it was -20. Calves are healthy. Happy to have hardy cattle.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v ... =2&theater

 

[MistyMorning]

Pretty chitty weather up in Northern MN too. Yet another snowstorm, yet another calf. I have several run ins, so when one calves, I shuffle them around. Folks are losing calves up here a lot more than normal too. Cross my fingers haven't lost one yet, but almost lost the tracter in the mud trying to get hay out. This sucks!

 

[redcowsrule33]

Oh yes, this weather sucks. We normally calve on pasture, which is currently under snow. Had to empty out the tractor shed and now have two pairs in there, just ran the second pair in this evening. It was snowing, blowing, and down to 20F tonight (our record low for tonight is 19F set in the 1800's). Had small snowdrifts to walk them through. I can relate to nearly sinking the tractor. And more snow and rain predicted for Sunday, with at least 5 more cows due. Really considering May calving next year, might get cooler weather for breeding that way. And I really don't to talk about what I just spent on hay. Had to get another month's worth, as our May grass gets farther and farther away. We installed two packages of bees last weekend and they are huddling in the hives, hope the queens are laying in spite of the cold.

I guess when I was asking for moisture last year I should have been more specific about timing. :help:

 

[randiliana]

Weather here has been awful nasty too. We had a pretty nice winter, quite a bit of snow once January rolled in, but temps were pretty good. Guess we should have started calving then. About Mar 1, we started calving and the temps took a big dip, and stayed there. Add in snow storms and wind and it has been pretty miserable all around. April started out OK, but then changed her mind and went for the cold and nasty too. The barn got well used this year! A lot of guys start calving around the 20th of March here, there have been some pretty big losses, ranch guys that don't have the facilities for this kind of weather. It isn't often this cold this late in the season here. We've done well, but we are prepared to handle the cold as we calve earlier. We've lost only 2 calves to the weather. Have a few that are missing parts of their ears, but they are OK other than that...

 

[herofan]

We had an exceptionally wet winter and early spring in northern Ky as well.

Interesting. I'm in Southern KY, and we all think it's a late spring this year, at least, later than last year. I suppose we just had a really early spring last year. My brother put out some tomato plants near the end of March last year. Yes, silly, but the weather was just so warm for so long it was very tempting. I also remember turning our heifers into a certain pasture last year on April 1 after feeding our last hay roll in late March. The pasture was lush, and they went wild. This year, that same pasture is nothing impressive, and we hope we put out our last hay roll on April 10. Overall, we didn't feed a lot of hay, but we fed longer.

 

[Taurus]

I had to bring the first timers in the barn so the calves won't get freeze to death out in the snowstorm. It sucks that most of the cows are calving....during the snowstorm. But so far no losses from the weather, other than a calf suffered some frostbite on the ears and tail. I had to kicked the steers, yearlings and a cow that lost calf, out of the calving pasture to joining the horses to save the hay for the momma cows. We might have to feed the cows old hay bales if the snow don't melt by May

 

[redcowsrule33]

Well, just got up this morning and watched the news. We had 81F yesterday. We are expecting 3-6" of snow tonight. And here I thought I was done hauling calves into the barn. :cry2: The older ones should handle it just fine, but any new ones will have to come in (sigh). I already lost one calf to the weather, cow had him after the nighttime check during winter storm Zeus and he stumbled (it appears) into a puddle and couldn't get out. This winter just won't go away.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Well, just got up this morning and watched the news. We had 81F yesterday. We are expecting 3-6" of snow tonight. And here I thought I was done hauling calves into the barn. :cry2: The older ones should handle it just fine, but any new ones will have to come in (sigh). I already lost one calf to the weather, cow had him after the nighttime check during winter storm Zeus and he stumbled (it appears) into a puddle and couldn't get out. This winter just won't go away.

Sorry to hear that. We lost 3 calves to buzzards last week so I can relate.