By Glenn Selk
Only 1 to 2 months ago the spring
calving cows were calving, the temperature was cold and the calving
pastures were muddy. Experience would say that you do not want to ask
cow calf operators how calving is then, because the response would be
less than objective, reflecting bone-chilling cold and not enough sleep.
If you wait too long, perhaps until
this fall, time will have mellowed most of the events and one soon has
difficulty matching a calving season with particular problems. Now is
perhaps the best time to make a few notes on what to change for next
year.
The first step is to list the dead
calves. Hopefully, your cattle are in a record system that will provide
that information. If not, grab a piece of paper and pencil and list
the calves.
Your calving notebook should have the dead calves checked off and a
brief notation on what happened to each. Until all the calves are listed,
the shock of lost opportunities has not had its full impact.
Can you identify a pattern of problems?
Was most of the death loss right at
delivery and involved two-year old heifers? This could indicate
that sire selection needs to be done more carefully, with attention
being paid to low birth weight EPD sires for heifers. Perhaps
the heifers were underdeveloped. This could contribute to more
calving difficulty than necessary. Do you provide assistance to
heifers after they have been in stage II of labor for one hour?
Was the death loss more prevalent
after the calves had reached 5 days to 2 weeks of age? This of
course often means that calf diarrhea (or scours) is a major concern.
Calf scours will be more likely to occur to calves from first calf heifers.
Calves that receive inadequate amounts of colostrum
within the first 6 hours of life are 5 to 6 times more likely to die
from calf scours. Calves that are born to thin heifers are weakened
at birth and receive less colostrum which compounds their likelihood of scours.
Often, these same calves were born via a difficult
delivery and adds to the chances of getting sick and dying.
All of this means that we need to reassess the bred heifer growing program
to assure that the heifers were in a body condition score of 6 (moderate
flesh) at calving time.
Do you use the same trap or pasture
each year for calving? There may be a buildup of bacteria or viruses
that contribute to calf diarrhea in that pasture. This particular
calving pasture may need a rest for the upcoming calving season.
Plus it is always a good idea to get new calves and their mothers out
of the calving pasture as soon as they can be moved comfortably to a
new pasture to get them away from other potential calf scour organisms.
An excellent discussion of a method used to reduce calf diarrhea is
available from the University of Nebraska
website. Go to this link: http://vbms.unl.edu/extension/ext_beef.shtml online and learn more about
the Nebraska Sandhill method of reducing calf
scours.
Thanks to Dr. Kris Ringwall of North Dakota State
University for
this excellent suggestion to study the calf records
now and start to make adjustments.
