New advancements and the imminent value of these calves make this discussion even more critical.

When calves are born and the pairs are mothered up, it is a wise investment to carry out certain procedures and, in some cases, lump them together for when the calves are older.

Producers have become very receptive to anything that will promote health, disease prevention and/or growth in these newborn calves.

Vaccines and vitamins

One of the biggest additions has been the implementation of intranasal vaccines as an aid to pneumonia prevention.

They are easy to give and provide quick immunity that lasts the first couple of months or so until parental shots are given.

Most calves are given vitamins and selenium at birth.

The biggest change here has been a very unreliable supply of injectable vitamins A and D.

They are being replaced by an oral product that contains vitamins A, D and E and selenium.

Their advantage is that they replace two needles and the supply seems consistent in Canada. It has become a great improvement.

We once saw some calves get nerve damage when injections were administered too close to the sciatic nerve.

Castration pain control

For those who castrate their bull calves using the little cheerios, they can now come impregnated with lidocaine, which means essentially a painless castration.

They are more costly than the old bands, but you need to be the one to decide whether to try them on your calves at birth.

It definitely reduces stress, and the lidocaine (freezing) works until the bands fall off.

Best possible colostrum

With all these procedures, it is still really important to let the pairs mother up and get a good sucking reflex from a vigorous calf.

Make sure to have a good supply of the colostrum substitutes, such as Headstart, and don’t hesitate to supplement early if there is any indication of a slow calf or difficult birth with twins or if the milk production of the cow is in question.

Producers can ensure the best possible colostrum from their cows by focusing on good nutrition and vaccinating for scours at the best time possible before calving.

If the calf doesn’t suck in time or does not take the required volume, then extra supplementation is imperative. Use an esophageal feeder dedicated to just colostrum so that it is kept clean.

Lock out disease

Most producers in Western Canada are using the toltrazuril pills or liquid, which is prescribed by their veterinarians. It also has become commonplace over the last decade or so.

This product prevents the protozoal diseases cryptosporidiosis and coccidiosis most times.

There is even an oral liquid toltrazuril that comes straight or with meloxicam. You get the pain killer anti-inflammatory effect along with the treatment.

Spending more time on colostrum management and taking these preventive measures can hopefully keep scour cases and antibiotic reliance to a minimum.

There are other products such as intranasal corona vaccines, and an oral vaccine given during the same time frame as colostrum to prevent rota and corona virus.

Other products are given orally as a paste, such as First Defense, within the first 12 hours of birth.

They are great in a scours outbreak situation or if you are wanting to boost the calf’s protection.

The First Defense product is upward of $30 a dose. Only you and your veterinarian know if these products will increase calf survivability, depending on past years’ experience and what may have been diagnosed on your farm.

Another key ingredient is biosecurity practices that reduce exposure to infectious organisms.

Overwhelming exposure to clinical cases can overwhelm any protective protection that a farm may have put in place.

When looking at producers with more scours problems than average, veterinarians can often easily identify breaks in biosecurity.

It may take a visit to your farm or ranch to visualize first hand and provide a list of best practices to make things better.

Prevention is the key to all diseases and always has been. There is very often no magic bullet.

It is always good to review biosecurity practices at calving time, such as cleaning the cow well during calving, good bedding, creep areas for calves and keeping your clothing clean and dry. These can go a long way to preventing bad organisms from building up on the farm.

I like a boot dip or disinfection mat as a reminder to minimize visitors, especially during calving season. Don’t be the one spreading disease.

Newborn calf health

Navel treatment requires cleanliness, plenty of dry bedding and adequate colostrum consumption.

If any of these areas are neglected, navel infection may start. The calves born in unsanitary surroundings are the susceptible ones.

Wincing in pain while the navel area is palpated is a telltale sign that infection is present.

Some producers use alcohol or diluted iodine to dry up the navel, although I don’t know many who actively do this.

Infection may require several treatments of antimicrobials and NSAIDs, but ways to prevent the next case should be paramount in your mind.

Navel infection may indicate failure of passive transfer, so again, colostrum quality and quantity need to be examined.

Calves born backward have their navels broken off short, making them more susceptible.

One twin is often born backward, which increases the need to take extra care with colostrum.

If both twins survive, one is often grafted to another cow, creating an additional stress in their lives.

Pay extra care and attention to twins for all these reasons.

Ear tags

Calves also get their ear tags early in life, and the newer taggers have better leverage and are made for smaller hands. They have breakaway pins, so ears are not split.

For any of those still needing to dehorn, remember that it is a painful procedure, so NSAIDs are in order.

As well, follow the beef code of practice, which is to dehorn before horn bud attachment occurs, so preferably before two months of age.

The new beef code of practice is almost ready to be released.

The last one came out in 2016, so everyone should give it an informative read, especially for the changes that have happened in this new version.

The code is what sets us apart from other cattle-producing nations, along with the national identification system.

Here’s to a great calving season and healthy calves.

The market is expected to remain high, so let’s give each and every calf that is born the care they deserve it. 

The post CALVING 2026: Keep those newborn beef calves healthy appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

It’s a wise choice because gestating cows need more dietary vitamin A as they move throughout the winter and onto the last few months before calving. In this way, we ensure that no beef cow gets caught short on providing such an essential nutrient to their beef cows.

Calculating optimal supplementation rates

To ensure enough supplemental vitamin A is formulated into a mineral-vitamin premix, I calculate the total amount of vitamin A supplied to each cow, which is based upon the premix’s dietary vitamin A concentration (iu/kg) and its daily feeding rate (grams/head/day).

For example, a feed label of a commercial cow premix might list its vitamin A level as 700,000 iu/kg and it is to be fed at 112 grams (4oz or 0.25 lb.) to each gestating beef cow.

As a result, it provides 78,400 iu per head of vitamin A per day.

In this case, this final amount exceeds the cow herd’s specific NRC requirement for vitamin A.

Injection vs. dietary supplementation strategies

Some producers forgo feeding highly fortified mineral and instead give vitamin A shots directly to their beef cows.

The objective is to either build them up for a few winter months or reverse a suspected vitamin A deficiency.

In either case, the general recommendation is to inject one to 1.5 million iu per head of vitamin A with the option of periodic injections where warranted.

Regardless of which practice is taken, vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin in which cattle build vitamin A status by storing large amounts in their liver. This happens when daily intake is three to five times greater than the average cow’s daily requirement.

The risk of rapid liver reserve depletion

An average gestating beef cow can store up to four months’ worth of vitamin A requirements in its liver, yet its rate of depletion varies tremendously when the cow needs it.

For example, university field trials demonstrate that cows grazing lush green pastures (more than 50,000 iu/kg, dim) throughout the summer store tremendous amounts of vitamin A in their livers. Yet, these reserves can be quickly used up due to high rates of depletion during the winter.

This happens especially when the cow herd is not consuming enough vitamin A, as well as needing more vitamin A as they move closer to the calving season.

Recognizing the signs of deficiency

Consequently, vitamin A deficient cows may suffer from permanent internal damage due to failure to metabolize dietary vitamin A as well as reduced liver storage capacity.

In these situations, it may still make cows continue to exhibit common deficiency signs of vitamin A, such as reduced feed intake, high incidence of disease, edema, diarrhea, poor quality colostrum (for newborn calves), a high incidence of stillborn/weak calves and reproductive and post-calving problems.

Most producers may not realize that essential vitamin A, which is contained in their stored forages and purchased cattle mineral-vitamin premix, is really a generic term.

Science uses the name to cover a number of compounds with similar chemical structures and biological activities to a compound called retinol to prevent vitamin A deficiencies in cattle.

Managing nutrient degradation in stored forages

Most forages contain yellow beta-carotene, which is converted by enzymes on the animals’ small intestine wall to retinol and absorbed and metabolized.

Commercial feeds use highly bioavailable retinyl acetate or palmitate forms as their source of vitamin A.

It is easy to envision that lush alfalfa grass that is harvested and without issue contains a lot of vitamin A.

Sometimes it should be enough vitamin A to technically meet all the overwintering cows’ metabolic requirements.

However, a lot of hay is not harvested in such a perfect way.

It is common to have some cut-down fields with one or two rains on it before it is made into round bales.

In addition, vitamin A degrades as hay is stored over winter. That is why I rely only on adding commercial vitamin A in a commercial mineral-vitamin premix at recommended rates.

The result: maximizing your spring calf crop

A few years ago, I worked with a beef cow operation in which its 250 early-gestation cows were brought home after their calves were sold in late October.

These cows spent most of the summer grazing alfalfa-grass pasture touched by drought. Therefore, I recommended a well-balanced winter mineral to be mixed into a nearly all-forage TMR.

Its vitamin A level was fortified to supply 100,000 iu per head daily to ensure that all of their essential vitamin A requirements for gestation and well into lactation were easily met.

To the best of my knowledge, it contributed to a 96 per cent calf crop in the spring.

Peter Vitti is an independent livestock nutritionist and consultant based in Winnipeg. Reach him via email at vitti@mymts.net.

The post Don’t let winter deplete your cows vital vitamin A reserves appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Health Canada issued a temporary stop sale order for all Deccox products in Canada due to a regulatory compliance issue with an ingredient supplier said animal nutrition company Philbro Animal Health Corporation.

Deccox, the trade name for decoquinate products sold by Philbro, is a non-antibiotic medication for preventing coccidiosis in calves. It’s administered through feed, milk or milk replacers, according to Philbro’s site.

There are no safety or efficacy concerns with Deccox, the company said in a fact sheet posted to the Ontario Sheep Farmers website. It said the issues are with the manufacturer of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), not Philbro and are procedural in nature. Products are not being recalled.

No other products in the company’s portfolio are affected.

Health Canada hasn’t provided a timeline for the stoppage, Philbro said.

“Philbro is working closely with the API manufacturer to obtain clarification and will communicate updates as soon as additional information becomes available,” it added.

Coccidiosis is a disease affecting calves which is caused by protozoan parasites according to an article from Ohio State University. Infection can cause symptoms ranging from depressed appetite and poor weight gain to bloody diarrhea and death.

Coccidiosis can affect calves as young as three weeks of age but is most frequently diagnosed at stressful times like weaning or entry to a backgrounding operation or feedlot, the Ohio State University article said. Calves usually develop immunity by one year of age.

The post Health Canada stops sales of coccidiosis medication Deccox on procedural issue appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

A well-designed biosecurity plan is essential for managing and reducing risks to your livestock. Start by breaking the plan into clear categories with specific on-farm actions. For example, establish protocols for outside visitors to minimize potential disease introduction.

Next, determine the level of risk you are comfortable accepting and managing. This will vary depending on your operation type and can be categorized as high, medium or low.

Accurate, up-to-date records of animal health, data and transportation movements are critical. These records give you the information needed to make informed decisions quickly and effectively.

Finally, make sure your plan is practical and cost-effective. A plan that looks good on paper but cannot be implemented will not provide real benefits.

For more information, refer to the biosecurity resources available on the Beef Cattle Research Council, Government of Canada and Verified Beef Production Plus websites.

Animal movement

Controlling animal movement is one of the most effective ways to prevent the introduction and spread of disease. Proper management reduces pathogen exposure, protects vulnerable animals and helps maintain overall herd health. Implementing the following strategies during calving season can significantly lower biosecurity risks:

• When doing chores, consider starting in the low-risk areas first and working your way up to the higher-risk areas to prevent any pathogens from spreading.
• Segregate high-risk or sick animals from the main herd to prevent disease transmission. Sick animals should have their own segregated area where commingling is reduced.
• Group cattle according to risk level. For example, the Sandhills calving system can reduce pathogen exposure in calving areas by separating freshly calved pairs and pregnant cows.
• Quarantine new animals for 21-30 days before introducing them to the herd to protect both the new animals and the existing herd. This reduces the risk of disease exposure and spread.
• Manage contaminants such as manure, soil piles and deadstock carefully. These areas should be positioned to avoid draining into water sources.

Cleaning, disinfecting and PPE

Maintaining a clean environment using the right tools and proper personal protective equipment (PPE) are essential to any biosecurity plan. Effective cleaning and disinfecting helps eliminate pathogens before they spread, while PPE protects both you and your livestock from disease risks. These practices should be consistent and thorough to ensure maximum protection:

• Cleaning and drying of a surface is required prior to disinfecting. Disinfecting uses chemicals to break down pathogens. When using disinfecting products, it is important to know which pathogens you are trying to eliminate, the mixing instructions and the recommended contact time for the pathogen to be destroyed. More information on this can be found on the Beef Cattle Research Council website.
• Clean and disinfect equipment, tools, trailers and transport vehicles regularly, especially after handling sick animals. Don’t forget items like bottles or stomach tubes, as cross-contamination can be a serious threat to newborn calves.
• Wearing proper PPE is imperative for protecting yourself from zoonotic pathogens and disease. Zoonotic diseases are infectious pathogens that are naturally spread from animals to humans. Salmonella is a common zoonotic disease that may be transmitted from sick calves during calving season. Some items to wear when appropriate for specific tasks include coveralls, boots and gloves.
• Practise proper hygiene by washing your hands. Hand-washing is a critical step to prevent the spread of pathogens between animals and people.

Work with your veterinarian

Calving season is busy for veterinarians, too. Establishing a vet-client relationship ahead of time ensures the veterinarian knows your operation and can assist with animal health, medications and vaccinations when needed.

Calving season brings unique challenges, but implementing a practical biosecurity plan helps protect both your herd and your operation. By focusing on creating a biosecurity plan involving animal movement, sanitation and veterinary support strategies, you can reduce disease risks and set your operation up for a successful calving season.

Corissa Wilcox is passionate about supporting livestock producers and helping grow the industry. As a livestock and feed extension specialist, she is a resource for information on livestock nutrition, production, management and water quality.

The post Biosecurity during calving: What’s your farm’s risk? appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

1. Alberta doubles down on rat strategy

Alberta has maintained its rat-free status for 70 years and the province wants to keep that streak alive.
The Alberta Invasive Species Council has launched a new campaign, “Rat on rats”, that encourages Albertans to report rats if they see them.

2. A ‘miracle’ in calving season

Calving season can be a stressful and dramatic time on the ranch. There’s a lot of new life but there is often death as well.

Every once in a while, however, something happens that seems like a miracle. Just ask Chris Paulencu with Green Acres Cattle Company, a seedstock operation in central Alberta’s Lamont County. Thanks to a rare feat of science and a little faith, he and his wife, Amber, witnessed an apparently doomed first-calf heifer and her newborn survive in spite of overwhelming odds.

3. Alberta ranch to be largest Canadian conservation project ever

A historic southern Alberta ranch is now the largest-ever conservation project in Canada.
The McIntyre Ranch, south of Lethbridge, is a 54,000-acre (22,000-hectare) ranch started in 1894 and is one of the largest private landholdings in Canada.

The owners partnered up with Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) to protect it from future development, while remaining a working ranch.

4. Massive new feedlot working out as planned, says owner

The last two years have produced many hair-raising situations for Alberta’s cattle producers and that’s been the case for feedlot owner Kevin Serfas, who has undertaken a massive feedyard expansion.
Based in Turin, about 50 kilometres north of Lethbridge, he runs Serfas Farms, a sizeable grain farm and feeder cattle business across multiple sites. It’s the cattle side, though, that has seen the most recent and drastic change at the farm.

5. New central Alberta wheat milling facility announced

Alberta’s milling sector got a boost to its capacity by 750 tonnes of wheat per day.

P&H Milling Group — a division of Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited — is building $241 million facility in the Red Deer County hamlet of Springbrook. The new facility will complement P&H’s wheat and durum milling operation in Lethbridge.

The post Top 5 Alberta Farmer Express stories of 2024 appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Producers will often ship these cows, but any veterinarian will tell you this isn’t a heritable trait and should not reoccur. If the cow rebreeds, there is no greater likelihood it will prolapse again.

Uterine prolapses seem to increase in harder calvings and when cows get positioned with their back ends pointing downhill. The pull of gravity may help the uterus push out the back. If the animal is left quiet or caught ever so gently in a maternity pen, treatment results are usually favourable.

However, it is sometimes a much more serious situation, with severe tearing, ripping and bleeding. Sometimes cows continue to push and rip the prolapse stitches.

Sometimes the veterinarian faces the choice of saving the cow and calf, but eliminating the cow’s reproductive ability. We still lose some animals, but the success rate has risen by doing complete uterine amputations.

Most amputations are done when the uterus is badly ripped or abraded and we are concerned about external or internal blood loss. Most deaths occur when the large uterine arteries rupture internally, causing a huge amount of blood to accumulate in the abdomen.

That is why many uterine amputations are done as a life-saving procedure. Veterinarians will first check to see if any small intestines have gotten inside the uterus before starting the amputation. Various procedures can be used. Some go in internally through an incision and ligate vessels close to the ovaries. Others use elastic rubber i.v. tubing or umbilical tape or huge zap straps to basically tourniquet the uterine stump.

It is then amputated and the stump automatically falls inside the vagina so there is no need for a purse string suture on the outside. As long as there has not been too much blood loss and the tourniquet holds, the cow should recover, although it cannot be kept for breeding.

On one occasion I was called to preg check a cow that a client had bought as a cow-calf pair, and it took some head-scratching to determine its uterus had been amputated. We often see freemartin heifers without a uterus when preg checking but I was not expecting it in this cow. But, she raised the calf and there was a healthy live cow in the fall to sell as well.

The only time I will amputate a healthy uterus is in a cow that continues to push and rip sutures despite having a long-acting epidural (spinal block).

The local veterinarian who mentored me often spoke of a crazy cow that caught her uterus in a bush, ripped it off, kept running and never looked back. This is possible, but rare. I’ve worked on one uterus that was holding on by a thread. I amputated the rest and that cow survived.

If you see a prolapse that appears smooth, without the many red cotyledons, it is likely the uterus presented right side out, not inside out. It is coming out most likely from a tear in the vagina and is a much more serious situation.

This will involve careful examination by the veterinarian to make sure other vital structures like the bladder are not involved. The uterus may be replaced and the tear sutured or in some cases a uterine amputation will be performed.

Each case is unique and needs assessment. Uterine amputations are rare but should your veterinarian advise one, don’t think all is lost. A common treatment would be NSAIDs or steroids prescribed by your veterinarian to counteract shock.

Uterine amputation is a lifesaving procedure that could probably be explained over the phone to an experienced producer if veterinary care was inaccessable. If no treatment can be given, emergency slaughter may be contemplated, but again, a discussion with a veterinarian is needed.

A prolapsed uterus will occur once every several hundred calvings and a badly damaged and torn uterus is a low percentage of that. It is not a situation we run into every day, but be prepared.

Here’s to a trouble free calving season for everyone.

The post Uterine amputations a routine occurrence in calving season appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Every once in a while, however, something happens that seems like a miracle.

Just ask Chris Paulencu with Green Acres Cattle Company, a seedstock operation in central Alberta’s Lamont County. Thanks to a rare feat of science and a little faith, he and his wife, Amber, witnessed an apparently doomed first-calf heifer and her newborn survive in spite of overwhelming odds.

In mid-March, Chris was regularly checking the first-calf heifers.

“At the midnight check, there were two heifers that were really close. One had her tail up so she was in active labour.”

Paulencu put one of the heifers in the barn, but the other one ran back to the herd.

When he checked again at 4 a.m., the heifer in active labour had not made any progress while in the barn. Meanwhile, the other one was in a perilous state.

“I found her calving on a hillside with her spine parallel to the downhill slope so she couldn’t get up. The calf was already out and born with a sac on his face.

“I noticed she was prolapsing. I ran there and I grabbed the sac, which was frozen on its face. The calf was pretty well dead, but I rammed my fingers in his nose and kind of hit him in the chest and boom, he took a breath and I grabbed him, ran him to the barn and stuck him in the calf warmer box.”

Then Paulencu headed back to the heifer, which by then was showing a foot-long prolapse. He pushed her into a sitting position and attempted to push in the prolapse, but the second he touched it, the heifer sprang to her feet and ran away.

“I said ‘OK, great.’ I got her going towards the barn; all I had to do was swing one gate. But I was too slow and she beat me and ran back to the cows.

“By this time, (the prolapse) is no longer hanging a foot. It’s hanging down by her feet. And I’m going, ‘Oh boy. I gotta call my wife’.”

By the time Amber arrived, the prolapse was dragging. They improvised a way to keep it off the ground using Chris’ jacket and the heifer’s tail.

“We tied the prolapse up and tied her tail through it to hold it up to keep the pressure off of her vaginal walls,” he said. 

They got her moving toward the barn when Amber had what some might consider an unconventional idea.

“She said ‘stop, let’s just say a prayer here’ so we’re like ‘Father, just please look after this animal in her time of need’.”

Then things took a dark turn. The cow’s uterus literally sheared off.

“She took two steps after that and plop! Everything is on the ground. And that’s certain death. I walked up to the cow and I patted her on her back and said ‘Sorry, mama, I failed you.’

“I went to fire the tractor up because I had to butcher her. I’m not going to waste her.”

Once he returned to Amber and the cow, however, he got a pleasant but mysterious surprise.

“She’s still up. She still looks normal. And I said, ‘well, her eyes aren’t sinking, her ears are up, so this is weird. It’s been probably 10 minutes. She should be dead’.” 

The couple walked the heifer to the barn, where they witnessed a heartwarming moment.

“She’s mooing and mooing, so we take the calf out of the box. She takes the calf right away and starts licking it off. That calf gets up and it starts sucking.”

Paulencu spared no time calling a vet.

“I talked to two different vets. They’re like, this is unheard of. I said, ‘I know, this is crazy. No one will believe me.’ 

“And so they’re like, ‘Are you sure you know what you’re looking at?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know exactly what I’m looking at. I’m holding a full-length uterus in my hand right now. And they’re like, ‘That’s unreal’.” 

He later decided to call a teacher he studied under at Lakeland College.

“She specializes in the reproductive tracts of female cattle and she’s the one that trained me how to artificially inseminate cattle.”

To his surprise, the instructor had seen such a thing before.

“She said what happens is when they run, if the uterus is twisting over on itself it’ll twist off the artery feeding it blood. And then it just falls off and they live. 

“It was just crazy how it happened.”

Every rancher knows the future of that cow once the calf is raised. But her memory will live on through that lucky calf, now registered with a name of its own.

“We run purebred cattle, so everything gets put into a registry and they get named. Our herd prefix is GAC for Green Acres Cattle. So now that calf’s name is GAC Mr. Miracle.”

The post A ‘miracle’ in calving season appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“Some of that preparedness starts well before calving season, if you think about herd health programs or nutrition, or making sure cows are in good shape coming into calving. That’s important,” said Karin Schmid, beef production and extension lead with Alberta Beef Producers.

Cows that are too fat or too skinny are more likely to have calving problems.

“The next piece, of course, when you get a little closer to your calving season, is thinking a little bit about your equipment being in good shape,” she said. “The worst thing in the world is to be running around in the morning unable to find your calving chains.”

Producers should ensure the calving area is clean and in good shape. Doug Roxburgh, a first-generation cow-calf backgrounder near Rimbey who farms with his wife, agrees that preparation is key.

“That’s the big one, being prepared for everything and anything, even if it is something that you think could be off, that you wouldn’t expect to be the norm. I think it’s important to have all your bases covered for sure.

“Having all these things in place right off the get go makes the calving season go better for producers if they have their ducks in a row before they get started.”

Roxburgh recommends using a checklist of needed calving supplies, such as needles, gloves, milk replacer, colostrum, and vaccines.

“The big one for me prior to calving is having a proper nutrition program set up for your cows,” he said. “Make sure they’ve got all the adequate minerals and things, and they’ve got a good solid foundation coming into calving.”

Schmid agrees. Healthy calving depends a lot on herd health and nutrition, making sure animals are up to date with their vaccinations and following the label on vaccinations.

She recommends that producers source colostrum from their own herd and avoid dairy colostrum. Commercial colostrum is also an option. Using a bottle to deliver it is better than using a tube because calves absorb it more readly. Knowing when to get involved in the birthing process is important too.

“Thinking about knowing or brushing up on when to intervene during difficult calving. Too late is usually a bad scenario. Too early can cause damage to the cow’s reproductive system,” she said.

Schmid recommends building a calving kit with cleaning materials, disinfectant, lubricant, chains, gloves, syringes, a bucket and whatever else might be needed. All these things should be in one place and easy to access.

It’s a good idea to have two tube feeders; one for sick calves and the other to deliver colostrum to healthy calves that can’t nurse for some reason. Schmid said the Beef Cattle Research Council has good online resources called the Calf 911 series.

“If you expect calving to start March 1, you want to make sure you have everything ready by the middle of February. That way you can deal with the one that calves a little early, and you’re not caught off guard, scrambling around.”

Healthy calving starts a long time in advance, said Roxburgh. He encourages producers to get feed tested to ensure proper herd nutrition. That goes hand in hand with a good vaccination program.

“The better your cows are fed, the better those vaccines are going to work.”

Roxburgh also recommends forming a solid vet/client relationship long before calving season starts.

It’s important to calve in a clean area, and the Sandhills method can be used for that. It involves separation between newborn calves and those more than two weeks old, to reduce the risk of disease development.

Self care

Producers should also take precautions to protect their own health during calving season.

“A number of pathogens that we come into contact with as producers can also make us sick,” said Schmid.

”A good example of that is crypto. You want to make sure you’re thinking about making sure you’re washing your hands. Make sure you’re wearing gloves as appropriate. If you’re coming into contact with fecal material or birthing fluids, make sure you try to clean that up, so you don’t make yourself sick as well.

“There’s a mental component to calving season too. I think it’s important that we’re taking care of ourselves. You can’t take care of your calves or your cows if you’re not taking care of yourself as well.”

Roxburgh said that doesn’t have to be difficult.

“It can be simple things like just meal preparation. As producers, we get busy when we’re calving. It’s a busy time of year. In a lot of cases, our own personal health gets put on the back burner. Just having a good mindset really helps you set up for success.”

Sleep when you can and use technology, added Schmid.

“I think this is where technology has made a big difference for some of those folks with remote camera systems. You can monitor your calving area instead of getting all bundled up and going out every two hours to check. You can just walk to the monitor and there’s a little less disruption on your sleep patterns.

“Don’t forget to eat and drink a lot of fluids. I think it can be easy to get wrapped up in the hectic nature and forget some of the things,” said Schmid.

The post Preparation is key to smoother calving season appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

For the spring calver, great observation skills combined with the ability to go the extra mile will generally be rewarded. It pays to check for bad feet, eye problems, lame cattle and teats that aren’t sucked out or could have mastitis.

I hope everyone is entering the new season having preg checked and removed open and very late cows. This eliminates a lot of unnecessary spring labour in checking open cows and getting cycling animals away from soon-to-be mothers. Cycling cows can raise havoc by fighting, pushing and stepping on newborns. Late cows need to be in a separate pen and sold.

There is no question in my mind that cow-calf pairs should be removed to their own separate, quiet area as soon as calving has occurred. It makes checking easier and keeps the calving ground cleaner.

I wish experienced producers could share or teach the little things they do when checking cattle. Does blood from the vagina indicate a problem? What about meconium in the water bag? Does that indicate the calf is stressed and must be extracted? Has one animal been “nesting” with no progress? How many in the herd will try to steal a newborn?

The latter question becomes easier to answer if there are cameras monitoring the calving herd, and its critical information for the purebred operation. Cross adoption or abandonment (in the case of heifers that are not closely watched) is another issue.

A cow entering the first stage of labour may claim a newborn, driving the true mother off. In this case, good producers will let both cows follow the calf into the barn, knowing one is the mother and the other should calve soon.

If it’s unclear which is which, a good maternity chute will allow an internal exam of the one that likely hasn’t yet calved. If the producer can’t feel a full-term calf, it’s time to check the other cow. The presence of the placenta can also help determine which one is the actual mother.

Without intervention, you might have a situation where the calf gets claimed, only to have that cow deliver a stillborn calf later in the day.

Proper pairing

Extra effort to ensure proper mothering will pay off. The more we pair cows up with their calves directly after birth, the greater chance calves will get up to properly nurse and pass meconium.

I have not seen hard data, but I believe that keeping a newborn calf and its mother in a separate pen for the first 24 hours will reap huge benefits.

Cold weather makes it essential to get the cow and calf into a pen, dried off and warmed up. Once warmed, it’s amazing how quickly most calves will suck on their own.

A good suck of colostrum will make the calf less susceptible to pneumonia or scours. Producers should not hesitate to give a colostrum replacement to newborns that are slow to rise, lack vigour, have trouble finding the teat or don’t have a good suckle reflex within 10 minutes of birth.

You usually get what you pay for when it comes to these products, so check the quality of the colostrum supplement you use. If using a feed tube, use a new feeder separate from any that are used for sick or scouring calves.

Sick calves should be put in a separate area isolated from others. This is critical to prevent spread of illness in the herd.

I like to insist on boot dips by the maternity pen to keep producers aware of biosecurity. It is most critical at calving time. All supplies should be stocked and ready and the calving area kept as clean as possible.

The post The importance of pairing up at calving appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Careful planning becomes important, not only to help calves hit the ground healthy but also to benefit producers physically and mentally when dealing with the stresses of the calving season.

Mental health professionals says taking time to prepare before the busy season is well worth it, to protect ranchers’ health. Self-maintenance may not be at the forefront of many producers’ minds but it’s important to protect the operation’s greatest asset: its people.

The post Keeping your cool in calving season requires planning appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.