Tips for a Successful Calving Season
- Dallas Duncan
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Many of Georgia’s beef cattle producers calve seasonally, with babies born at the start of the year or toward the end of it. Dairy farmers calve year-round, and a growing number of year-round beef producers are considering a transition to seasonal calving. No matter when your calves hit the ground, the Custom Livestock Solutions large animal veterinary team wants you to be both prepared and successful — and reduce the risk of emergencies like this dystocia case from last summer that resulted in a chute-side C-section!
The CLS vets put together their top tips for establishing a fruitful calving season:
From Dr. Strickland ...
Prepare now. Keep cattle in an area where they are easy to check multiple times per day and easy to move to a chute if they require assistance.
Stock calcium gel in case it is needed for the dam around the time of calving, and call us if you suspect milk fever in your cows.
From Dr. Pusbach ...
Make sure you have a calving kit together before the first calf hits the ground, and have your calf-jack or wench operational and accessible. Preparation pays off!
Create an OB kit:
* Chains and handles
* Bucket
* Towels
* OB lube
* OB sleeves or gloves
* Flashlight or headlamp
* Colostrum replacer
* Bottle or a calf tube feeder
* Oral calcium supplement
From Dr. Quinn ...
Pull your bulls September to November, at minimum, to avoid summer calves. Heat stress is hard on everyone, but especially heavy-bred cows and young calves!
When in doubt, supplement colostrum. Calves lose 80 percent of their absorptive capacity for colostrum uptake in the first three hours of life. Sooner is always better, and waiting ‘til the next morning to intervene may be too late!
Consider udder confirmation in your keep/cull decisions and your recips for embryo calves. A calf that can’t nurse a large teat early on isn’t going to thrive.
From Dr. Ridings ...
Check cows frequently for labor signs, and know the stages of labor:
Stage 1: Beginning of uterine contractions and dilation of cervix
Stage 2: Appearance of a water bag and/or fetus.
Stage 3: Delivery of the placenta.
Maintain an adequate body condition score of five to six to ensure the cow is in a good plane of nutrition to support a calf, and to allow the cow to recover quicker. This will help her breed back faster.
From Dr. Josey ...
Keep good records, including identification of dam and calf; calving date; delivery or lactation issues and interventions; whether a calf was born alive or deceased; calf gender; and birthweight, if possible — this can be estimated with a weight tape around the calf’s coronary band. Calving records not only help track reproductive efficiency and calf growth within a particular calving crop, but also helps build a larger picture over the years of cow productivity and longevity. This data informs sound culling decisions, replacement heifer opportunities, and bull performance.
Make a plan for at-birth calf processing and have supplies ready. Once a newborn calf is up and has consumed colostrum, the first 24 hours of life can serve as a great opportunity for value-added practices. We recommend spraying or dipping the navel with a dilute antiseptic such as iodine or chlorhexidine to prevent naval infections. Tagging newborn calves provides accurate identification from the start, which is the foundation of good recordkeeping. Castration of newborn calves is highly recommended in commercial herds, whether performed via band or cutting. This is the best time for this procedure, as it exponentially limits pain, decreased performance and growth, risk of infection, and potential for unwanted matings.
From Dr. Brown ...
Have a good vaccination plan in place to improve colostral immunity and set calves up for success.
Inspect your calving facilities and tools to make sure everything is in working order before calves start being delivered. Minimize environmental stress. For later-born calves, even though we don’t usually get extreme cold temperatures in Georgia, wet and cold can be just as dangerous for calves. Make sure calves have a warm, dry place and you have a plan to warm them up if necessary.
Urgent and Emergency Situations
If a cow or heifer is in labor and has not progressed within a 30-minute period, or has not delivered her calf within an hour, call us immediately. Veterinary intervention may be needed sooner depending on what’s known as a “clinical picture”, including fetal positioning in the birth canal, and size discrepancy between dam and fetus.
Custom Livestock Solutions is Georgia’s proven source for premiere herd health and management services. Our vets serve large animal herds, show barns and stables in the Peach State and nearby neighbors in South Carolina. Visit us in Comer Monday through Friday from 9 to 5, or call 706-783-8128 to learn more.
