The calves are coming!

[Sugar Creek]

I have nine registered Red Poll heifers ranging from 2 to almost 3 years old coming with thier first calf. They are good size and in good condition and making bags. They are due to calve any day now. They are running in a 60 acre field with woods, hollows, and ridges. I have started calling them in every day for a bite of grain. We are very muddy here this late winter.

Should I move them to a smaller back pasture with access to a small lot and large tobacco barn easily reached on an all surface road or leave them here by our house where they have been all winter?

Any other suggestions?

 

[shorty]

I always like to have a barn with good dry bedding available , escepially with 1st calf heifers, in wet cold muddy conditions it's a lot better for the calf to be born in a nice dry place. It,s also a lot easier on you if have them in a smaller pasture instead of having to hunt all over the place for them.

 

[1848]

They are running in a 60 acre field with woods, hollows, and ridges.

Should I move them to a smaller back pasture with access to a small lot and large tobacco barn easily reached on an all surface road or leave them here by our house where they have been all winter?

Any other suggestions?

I like to keep the heifers out of the woods and wilds during calving. Coyotes will get them around here if they get to far out, and/or tangled in some briars. Not to mention, by the time you find them they are so strong you can't catch them to tag them... As far as shelter, mine always calve to the elements. Snow, rain, etc. , but you may have harder winters up there and at leat need wind breaks to prevent frostebite. Helps you watch there progress from a distance too!

 

[Farmhand]

By all means, move them. Ours run on 160 acres until they get close to calving. Then we move them to a small lot with a barn. You never know when you will have problems and what the weather will be when it happens. We keep them in until their calf is a good week old or better so we can make sure they won't come down with something after they are born. If all looks good then we turn them back out. Coyotes have been howling real close here lately so we decided to leave them in a little longer.

 

[CattleAnnie]

It's a lot easier for you to travel over to the other lot and check them than it would be for you to chase a heifer with one foot sticking out her back end from the field by your house to that lot.

If you ever need to assist one of them during a birth or get a calf sucking, you'll be thankful that you moved them before they started calving. As the previous posters mentioned, you might be needing that barn if the weather turns ugly.

Good luck with them. Hope you get lots of healthy calves.

Take care.

 

[jerry27150]

sure is nice to have them where you can get ahold of them, if need be

 

[shorty]

Let us know how you do with them

 

[Sugar Creek]

Thanks for your replies. I forgot to mention that besides the Red Polls we have a registered Boyd's New Day/ Thomas Lucy 2 yr old Angus heifer my daughter won in an essay contest (Dustin Worthington Foundation). Shortly after making the post we went out to find her with a new bull calf just standing and nursing for the first time. It was a good day!

 

[jerry27150]

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