Year Round Calving...

[M-5]

Tell your vet to do what he is paid to do. Year round does not have to be complicated and it can be managed in a way that still gives you a fairly tight group of calves. If everything else is in good shape, BCS, Mineral, Healthy bull you can still get it done in 2 calving seasons for the most part. If you have been doing a tight breeding season it will be easy. because all the cows are already in sync what happens in a year round program is cows that do not breed back on time get longer every year and you have to do some culling of cows that do not stay with the groups. These cows are costing you money anyway. I tightened my cows up with culling on the ones that would go long and kept getting further away from the rest of the groups, My plans were to be all AI this year but the bull has done an exceptional job of giving me heifers and he is LBW so he will finish this yr out on the cows. I have 2 distinct seasons right now. early spring and summer , The cows are tightening themselves up with most only going around 11 months between calves if one gets out of sync she hits the cull list. Unless you are marketing groups of calves its a lot easier. That's my 2cents some will disagree and that's fine, When they send me a check to pay for expenses ill follow their advise until them Ill uses what works for me.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Year around is the most common method practiced in this area.
With our usual mild winters there is no penality. I have actually seen the Benifits of selling winter weaned calves here by order buyers having difficulty filling their orders.

 

[skyhightree1]

I calf all year round in a way but most of my cattle calf in the spring as with the market drop I was in no rush to breed back so I held my cows from the bull till this weekend the bull will go in with them and I will have most calving at one time but will still have 2 seasons. spring and fall calving. I would love to have all calf in the spring because I think calves do best for me when there on good green actively growing grass and the mama vs winter feeding hay and feed and some stock pile. I have a calving season all year round because I bring in bred cows sometimes and there calving can be anytime. I like money all year round so calving all year is ok for me. I agree with m-5 I would told the vet I didn't ask your opinion.

 

[Williamsv]

We have always done year round calving. I have them about all calving in Dec. through Feb and the next group April, May, June. Have two now I am waiting on. Do not like this July calving in 99 degree temps. Hope this doesn't happen again.
This is the way my parents always did it so I continued that way. It is the best that I can do right now. We are getting older and don't know how much longer we will be able to keep cows.

 

[Ky hills]

I agree with M-5, what ever fits your management best. I think most around here calve pretty much year round too. I have tried to have a consolidated calving time, several times over the years, and always end up with stragglers. I now have most calving from mid February through April, some in the fall, and a few in between. I don't really like them calving in the summer but usually only 2-3 calve then.

 

[TCRanch]

Pretty much the same as all the other replies. We started out with a tight spring calving but after an unfortunate "bull incident" followed by 3 years of drought we segued into year 'round. The majority calve in spring, a few stragglers through the summer and the rest in the fall. And we pushed back our spring calving almost month because I was tired of having calves with frostbitten ears & tails. Are we losing or making $$$ or breaking even? Don't know. But it works for us.

 

[inyati13]

I am moving my spring calvers to fall this year. I have 9 cows currently due from mid September to the end of October. Tight!

I will AI my 9 spring cows and replacement heifers with the 9 fall calvers beginning at Thanksgiving and ending the end of January.

In 2017, my 18 cows/heifers will all calve from mid-September to end of October.

I see it as simplification. One tight calving season. One breeding season. Don't have to manage bred cows and nursing cows at the same time. I don't have a bull to manage - all AI. Year around calving is my worst nightmare.

 

[ANAZAZI]

I have most of mine calve the first three weeks of may, it is when we have great new growth. It is more economical and easier to compare production between individuals when they are all treated the same with forage and management. To each his own. In a system like this a late calver or a poor growing calf is very easy to spot.

 

[Lucky_P]

Year-round calving... it's called 'no management'. But, if it works for you, you're the only one you have to please...I did it that way for decades.
Certainly precludes anything approaching a 'uniform' calf crop... but you've almost always got a few calves to sell, any time, if you need some quick cash. In some settings, it's the only way to go.

 

[cowgirl8]

Year-round calving... it's called 'no management'. But, if it works for you, you're the only one you have to please...I did it that way for decades.
Certainly precludes anything approaching a 'uniform' calf crop... but you've almost always got a few calves to sell, any time, if you need some quick cash. In some settings, it's the only way to go.

Exactly. It just seems like too much work to me.

 

[LRTX1]

I have 2 calving seasons, 6 months each.

 

[cowgirl8]

How does one get that all so important uniform herd?

 

[Anonymous]

:lol2: year round now theres where i can relate .started out got semis by late 90s well any time a cheap cow/calf pair cameup for sale . :lol2: lets say it was too hard to walk away yea gota say i tried spring march/aprial first 3 yrs after that wellll kinda got strung out.so did my basic breed ! :lol2: text books will tell you what works on paper and in universities ! heck even had 3 or 4 mean ones and 1 or 2 that were too big of pets to do what you wanted when you wanted.theres nothing like diversity!even tryed fall sept/oct by then yea ....it was when ever :lol2:

 

[Jessica06]

I don't think it's that big of a deal if you have a pretty small herd. Helps not having to worry about keeping the bull separate, also. If cattle are someone's business, however, I think it's a pretty poor way of doing it. Doing the little things are what adds value to your calf crop, and not doing them leaves a lot of money on the table.

 

[cowgirl8]

I don't think it's that big of a deal if you have a pretty small herd. Helps not having to worry about keeping the bull separate, also. If cattle are someone's business, however, I think it's a pretty poor way of doing it. Doing the little things are what adds value to your calf crop, and not doing them leaves a lot of money on the table.

There is a guy out here that leaves bulls out. His herd is pretty big too. Does no record keeping at all. Most cows have no ID...I pass this herd when i check cows. I see so many open cows, he has to be missing some...
I could do without dealing with bulls, but thats just part of it. We herded 14 bulls down our road this spring. Amazingly it went ok with only a few scuffles. We got them to the gate at the house and one just said, "I dont want this guy here!" He picked him up and launched him, came inches from our home gate...I was like, 'great!' get them a mile down the road kind of easily and they wait to fight and demolish the gate..I dont know how they missed that gate but they did....

 

[Muddy]

I don't think it's that big of a deal if you have a pretty small herd. Helps not having to worry about keeping the bull separate, also. If cattle are someone's business, however, I think it's a pretty poor way of doing it. Doing the little things are what adds value to your calf crop, and not doing them leaves a lot of money on the table.

There is a guy out here that leaves bulls out. His herd is pretty big too. Does no record keeping at all. Most cows have no ID...I pass this herd when i check cows. I see so many open cows, he has to be missing some...
I could do without dealing with bulls, but thats just part of it. We herded 14 bulls down our road this spring. Amazingly it went ok with only a few scuffles. We got them to the gate at the house and one just said, "I dont want this guy here!" He picked him up and launched him, came inches from our home gate...I was like, 'great!' get them a mile down the road kind of easily and they wait to fight and demolish the gate..I dont know how they missed that gate but they did....

:shock: :shock: it still amazes me that you always criticize your neighbors without interact with them as if they are less perfect than your cattle management.

 

[cowgirl8]

I don't think it's that big of a deal if you have a pretty small herd. Helps not having to worry about keeping the bull separate, also. If cattle are someone's business, however, I think it's a pretty poor way of doing it. Doing the little things are what adds value to your calf crop, and not doing them leaves a lot of money on the table.

There is a guy out here that leaves bulls out. His herd is pretty big too. Does no record keeping at all. Most cows have no ID...I pass this herd when i check cows. I see so many open cows, he has to be missing some...
I could do without dealing with bulls, but thats just part of it. We herded 14 bulls down our road this spring. Amazingly it went ok with only a few scuffles. We got them to the gate at the house and one just said, "I dont want this guy here!" He picked him up and launched him, came inches from our home gate...I was like, 'great!' get them a mile down the road kind of easily and they wait to fight and demolish the gate..I dont know how they missed that gate but they did....

:shock: :shock: it still amazes me that you always criticize your neighbors without interact with them as if they are less perfect than your cattle management.

Give it up troll. He's actually kind of family, keeps no records, he's told me before. Even says, he has no idea who's calved...Not criticizing here..just stating facts without having to go into much detail on who it is.. And even so, he still makes money off his cattle..lol..but amazingly you like to follow me around on this board and tell me my cattle are no good, bulls are no good, my management sucks...(even though you have no idea yet say this even after seeing pictures????).....I'm beginning to think you're just not happy unless everyone is even or lesser than you...Suck it up buttercup....remember knocking someone down does not make you a bigger person, just makes you the biggest a hole...

 

[Muddy]

There is a guy out here that leaves bulls out. His herd is pretty big too. Does no record keeping at all. Most cows have no ID...I pass this herd when i check cows. I see so many open cows, he has to be missing some...
I could do without dealing with bulls, but thats just part of it. We herded 14 bulls down our road this spring. Amazingly it went ok with only a few scuffles. We got them to the gate at the house and one just said, "I dont want this guy here!" He picked him up and launched him, came inches from our home gate...I was like, 'great!' get them a mile down the road kind of easily and they wait to fight and demolish the gate..I dont know how they missed that gate but they did....

:shock: :shock: it still amazes me that you always criticize your neighbors without interact with them as if they are less perfect than your cattle management.

Give it up troll. He's actually kind of family, keeps no records, he's told me before. Even says, he has no idea who's calved...Not criticizing here..just stating facts without having to go into much detail on who it is.. And even so, he still makes money off his cattle..lol..but amazingly you like to follow me around on this board and tell me my cattle are no good, bulls are no good, my management sucks...(even though you have no idea yet say this even after seeing pictures????).....I'm beginning to think you're just not happy unless everyone is even or lesser than you...Suck it up buttercup....remember knocking someone down does not make you a bigger person, just makes you the biggest a hole...

Says by a hypocrite. Have you ever read your posts?

 

[jcarkie]

We calve spring and fall I do not want summer calves here. I like having a group of calves to sell, but putting up bulls can be a pain the more you have the easier it seem to be for us. We have 8-10 we turn out twice a year. My grandpa's cows would calve every ten to eleven months so they moved thru the year. He had 10 - 15 cows he wrote everything on the calendar. I write down calving dates and bull turn out dates, it is easier to calve in a sixty days window than looking for newborns all year round. Everybody does things different and that is OK whatever works for you.

 

[Air gator]

my concern is leaving cows open for any length of time. I don't have a clean up bull so how long would you leave a heifer open to get her in sync with the rest of the herd? At what age do you worry if your heifer isn't pregnant?