Year Round Calving...

[JMJ Farms]

I'll do it for the practice. Bob will come out in the afternoon after work and do it very reasonable. He's a good vet just a little ruff around the edges, but I like that. No sugar coating with him.

I like him too. A lot. And your assessment of him is dead on. Only thing that I could say negative is that he doesn't really act like he takes it as serious as I do. One day when we are face to face I will tell you some funny stories. If I had a dollar for every time he has said to me "give her this shot and these other two shots and it'll either fix her or kill her". I nicknamed him Dr. Death. I may take you up on your offer to practice. Might even feed you. We will wait till it cools off though. Too hot to do anything with cows right now unless it's an emergency.

 

[Rafter S]

I mostly follow a 90- day calving season, starting about November 1. There are a number of reasons why. I've stated them here before, but I'm just relaxing in my recliner watching the Astros, so I don't mind doing it again. First, I have the defined season mostly because I only want to vaccinate, castrate, and wean once a year. There are many reasons for me choosing late fall / early winter.

1. Winters here are mild, so weather isn't the same issue for me that it would be for folks up north.
2. I have a dependable supply of inexpensive hay, so I don't mind the extra hay needed versus feeding dry cows.
3. My bulls aren't working in the summer heat like they would be if I calved in spring.
4. While I'd never say it's true every year, quite often the prices will start to drop in September, so I catch the top of the market in late July or early August.
5. It's often dry and always hot in July and August, so if the pastures are starting to suffer then the calves are ready to sell anyway, and I'm not having to sell them younger than I'd like to take the pressure off the grass.
6. While I do have a defined calving season, I don't pull my bulls. If a cow gets a few months behind then she'll likely work for someone else. They're usually worth quite a bit more bred than open. (I did pull my bulls when calving started for a year or two trying to prevent early calves, but then had trouble with neighbor bulls "helping out" so I gave up on that.

Someone mentioned record keeping earlier in this discussion. My father was an exceptional cattleman in many ways, but calved year round and didn't keep records until his last few years. I remember a number of times when we'd be riding through the pasture and he'd point out a good-sized calf, asking me "What do you think? Should I sell that calf?" I'd reply "How old is he?" Dad would reply that he didn't know. Then I'd say "Then I don't know if you should sell him yet." I wasn't being disrespectful when I gave that answer; I just didn't know what else to tell him.

 

[Rniemann]

We have 2 different 3 month calving seasons... I wonder how you handle vaccinations and other calf working when they can vary so much in age. Doing 2 large groups instead of several small groups seems like a nightmare. Am I missing something? Maybe the plan is no vaccinations or castration etc? I'm a true believer in to each his own, but curious how much extra work can come from all year calving.

 

[Banjo]

I would like to hear thoughts on year around calving...good and bad. I am thinking about doing it as with work, and my facilities it would be the easiest I think. However, my vet basically said people who calve year round are the poorest of the poor cattlemen...bad management. Anyway, with a herd of 15 to 20 it may be good for me. Can I hear what everyone's thoughts are on the subject?

Thanks all!

I don't think this can be boiled down to an exact science. If he has 15 to 20 cows then I would assume they are all pretty good cows. Having every cow to calf in a 45 day window is very hard to do, unless your willing to sell the late calvers without prejudice.
Having a few late calving cows, if they consistently raise a good calf, is still making you money over a heifer...most of the time.
I calve mostly in the early spring, but I have several that have gotten late but still raise a good calf. I can't afford to get rid of all them just to have a uniform calf crop.
There are many factors to making a profit in the cattle business, having all your calves born and ready to sell at the same time is low down on the totem pole IMO.

 

[backhoeboogie]

(I did pull my bulls when calving started for a year or two trying to prevent early calves, but then had trouble with neighbor bulls "helping out" so I gave up on that.

That is it exactly. Biggest reason. Some of these people obviously don't had 8 neighbors adjoining their fences. I have had heifers bred to young by a neighbor's bull etc.

We've had this discussion over and over through the years. Year round calving worked for me for all kinds of reasons. They've been stated.

 

[riquezada]

I've always done year round calving up to a few years ago. I have had calves born all the time...almost always something ready to sell. I now have most calves dropping in March and then some in October or so. Sometimes I thought about going back to it but as others have said with this method some cows can get further and further behind calving on time. This year with Spring calving most were 3-6 weeks earlier than last year's which put them right in March where I wanted them. Then there always a few scattered ones which I really don't mind as long as they ar good calves. I take vaccines, etc out with me most of the time. It seems like I'm always running something in the headgate. I make them come into a corral to the salt/mineral box so they'll usually be pretty easy to catch.

 

[HDRider]

I have a question, especially for you year-rounders.

How do you keep the wrong bull off your young heifers? I assume you move the heifers away?

I guess it is not really all that different than those that want a certain bull on heifers.

 

[TCRanch]

I have a question, especially for you year-rounders.

How do you keep the wrong bull off your young heifers? I assume you move the heifers away?

I guess it is not really all that different than those that want a certain bull on heifers.

We keep our retained/replacement heifers in a separate pasture, don't move them to the main herd until a month or so prior to calving.

 

[kickinbull]

I haven't read the whole link. I wonder with YRC if anyone keeps track of days to settle or length to next calving?

 

[Williamsv]

I have another pasture where I keep the heifers that I save for replacements. They are kept here until they are old enough to be moved back to pasture with bulls.

 

[TCRanch]

I haven't read the whole link. I wonder with YRC if anyone keeps track of days to settle or length to next calving?

We don't AI so I have to rely on bull/cow observation. I do use the gestation calculator to get a general idea when they'll calve & compare to previous years. NOT an exact science by any means; recently had one calf out of 39 (so far) that was born on the exact day the calculator predicted (named her Bingo ).