Section16cattleco’s Blog

When poeple find out I calve my cows in the fall (Aug-Sept) it seems to be a topic most anyone who has ever calved cows wants to talk about. I decided to write this page in order to give people an overview of my cow operation and highlight the pros and very few cons of fall calving. If after this article you have any additional questions please feel free to email me anytime.

When I first got in the cow business back in high school, we bought 5 spring calving cows from my great uncle. I was so excited and spent hours just watching the cows. I fed them very well and babied them every chance I could. A task that is very easy to do when you only have five cows, LOL!!! At the time I bought these cows I had never even heard of someone not calving in the spring and for sure know one I knew was doing it. So we went along and calved cows in the mud and cold like everyone else keeping back a few heifers to get our herd up to like 12 cows. Not a lot of work but a person still had to fight the mud, cold and snow in March and April. After High School I went to college and sold my share of the cows to my uncle and never really came back to help him or do anything with the cows due to some falling outs we had over the years. He continued with these cows while I was in college and through the first 8 years of me working in retail ag. I spend those 8 years having absolutly zero to do with my grandpas farm and the cows due to some more falling outs I had with “Ol’ Uncle WIerd” (A very long story!!!). Uncle Ward was a very bad farmer and was a worse cowman!!! I had the opprtunity one year to rent my grandpas farm because Ward had lost interest and was unable to motivate himself to do it anymore. I farmed the land for two years while he still had his 12 cows. It wasn’t long and he was unable to do the chores and take care of his cows so I ended up buying the cows from him, getting back into the business and lifestyle I missed so much. I absolutly love cattle and everything about raising cattle. I believe being a cattle man is in my blood. My grandpa, great grandpa and great uncle where all very good cattlemen and I believe for whatever reason this was passed along to me. Even though I have made my living helping people raise crops, corn and beans are boring to me and cattle are what really gets me excited. After purchasing Wards cows I realized that I was for sure not going to be able to have them spring calvers. Ward had just let the bull run with the cows and was having calves all year long with no ryme or reason to his breeding program. The majority of the cows had calved by August. I had not bought his bull so there had not been a bull running with the cows all summer. I was stuck with a decision to make. Turn these cows into fall calvers or just sell the whole lot and start over that winter with some new cows. I had been interested, over the years, in fall calving after reading about it and decided to read about it more. What I found was that a lot of guys in Nebraska were doing it, with most of them running split herds (half the cows calving in the spring and half calving in the fall). I liked what I read about the fall calving deal and decided this would be the route I would take. The first thing I learned was that the country was full of guys willing to let you take their bulls for the fall and winter to breed your cows if you just fed them and got them out of their way. I made a deal with a buddy of mine to take his bulls for the winter, returning them to him in the spring. This was the first advantage of fall calving I found. That arrangement worked well and since then we have purchased 4 very nice Sim/Angus bulls together with each of us keeping them for 6 months. We both have about the same number of cows now and both have use for 4 bulls. We have also bought some equipment together that we use on opposite sides of the year. This works very well!!! If we both were calving in the fall or spring we would both need 4 bulls, a creep feeder, a calf catcher, etc……. This way we share the costs and on the bulls are able to by some very nice bulls becasue we are only paying for 1/2. I believe this alone has improved our herd dramticaly!!! I am a big believer in spending top dollar on bulls. It really improves the quality of your calves. Over the next few years I built my herd buying some late calving spring cows from my neighbors (which you can get for pound price because know else wants them) and I also bought some fall calving pairs in Ft.Pierre one year. I now run 50-60 cows with all of them calving in Aug-Sept. At the time of me deciding to calve in the fall I was working in Ag Retail and the months of April-July were very very busy. Trying to calve cows while I was working 12-14 hrs a day at my job was for sure not going to work, so this also played into my decision to fall calve.

I will start off talking about the art of fall calving by saying there is no art to it!!! It is so easy and works very very well. After doing it now for about 5 years I have zero reason for spring calving, other than I like calving and would do it all year if I could. The sight of a new born calf is something I never get sick of. Since starting the fall calving deal I have enjoyed calving more than any other time in my life. It is so enjoyable to just let the cows out on the calving pasture and let them do it on their own. I no longer pull calves, carry calves out of the mud, lock up cows at night, etc… Fact is, I usually check them once a day when I get home to see how many calves I had that day. This consists of me riding my 4-wheeler out and amongst the cows to check them over. The cows are so calm out on grass during this time and seem much more relaxed than being penned up in a yard full of other cows and mud. Some nights I just sit on the 4-wheeler and watch the cows and their calves for hours. I have no scientific facts for believing this, but I am certain that given a clean, dry, comfortable place, away from the herd, cows calve better and have less trouble than if confined in close qtrs with other cows. I believe that when confined they get nervous and this leads to more calving trouble. The calves also seem to really benefit from warm temps and a nice clean place to be born. Since I have started this fall calving deal I have had no cows not claim their calves and no trouble with calves getting started sucking. The first thing most people will say to me is  “Don’t your calves bake in the hot sun in August when they are born?”. I respond with “I will take my chances with the sun before I would with mud, cold, snow and rain”. I have had one calf die due to heat. It was my first year and I had them in a pasture that had no trees or shade. A calf was born and didnt get to sucking fast enough and died from dehydration. After that I moved the herd to a pasture with some trees and since then have always calved were trees are present. It continues to amaze me how the cows use the shade. If its hot out they just go to the trees to have their calves. Not sure why it suprises me but it does, cows are very smart and have survived on their own for many years before we started screwing with them. Since I have offered them some shade I have had no calves die due to the heat, it just is not a problem. The other question I get is “How do the young calves due in the winter?”. They do just fine!!! They are 3-4 months old by the time any bad weather hits and by this time are very tough. Those who calf in Jan or Feb will agree with this. A calf thats just a few days old is tough and will survive very cold weather as long as they have a place to stay dry during a cold rain or snow storm. I have a cattle shed that has a creep gate on it, only allowing the calves in. During a cold rain or snow the calves go hang out in there and stay dry and warm, coming out after the weather has passed. My calves seem to gain fine as long as the cows are fed well. This is something guys will throw at me also, “You need to feed your cows good in the winter”. Yep, I do!!! So does everyone else!!! I do feed mine a little more but I also save on pasture when the cows do not have a calf on them, so I believe it evens out. I also can’t get over how good of shape the cows are in when calving time comes. This can be a problem with spring calvers. Another big advantage I have found is that when you sell calves there are not many calves being sold so you usually get a premium for them. I have started keeping my calves for awhile and backgrounding them in my feedlot. I really like this and it seems to be going very well.

The only big disadvantage I have found in this whole deal is that there are not many fall calving cows of bred hiefers for sale. It can be very hard to find quality replacement animals especially at the local markets. In a spring calving deal it is no problem to find quality replacements. Other than that I have found no other dis-advantages with calving in the fall. All in all I believe it an awesome thing and would recomend it to anyone!!! If you have any questions please feel free to email me.

Erik