Even without prior knowledge of bull turn-out time, without even looking at a calendar, one can always tell when calving season is close or just underway.
“How?” you ask?
Simple: the beginning of calving season almost always accompanies the coldest, nastiest, wettest weather of the entire year.
Why is it a portion of herds – regardless of when they’re supposed to start calving – always calves (or slips calves) during these times? I guess when dealing with Mother Nature, some questions just never get a solid answer. Chalk it up to more of that “fun” of being a cattle producer.
Another less weather-related indicator that calving season is here or near is the sudden mass-appearance of IRM pocket calendars. Each year, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) offers cattle producers access to an Integrated Resource Management (IRM) “Red Book”. For those unfamiliar, the “Red Book” (yes, Virginia. It actually is red) is a pocket-sized “cowboy computer” in book-form that keeps vital cowherds records right at your fingertips. Well, more apropos, in your own shirt pocket.
In IRMs, there’s a place to write almost anything down … from calving dates, to when and where you marketed those calves. They also feature some very good educational and reference material in the covers of this book, including a gestation table, a description of how to use the body condition scoring (BCS) system, even an outline on proper vaccine handling and injection site quality control. It’s no wonder these little books are so popular, and why some businesses actually provide them to customers completely free of charge.
I should add, there is a difference between keeping information and using information. Surprisingly enough, I’ve witnessed few producers actually use the information they’ve kept in making management decisions.
Sure, they might look at whether this cow had a calf that year, or – spotting a pretty good calf in the pasture – they might look back to see when it was born and who its mama is. But, as far as accessing this important information to make whole-herd management decisions, very few producers actually utilize it for such.
Look at it this way: everyone knows it’s better to get calves on the ground earlier in the calving season, assuming no inclement weather problems. Let’s presume a Weight per Day of Age (WDA) of 2.0 pounds. Calves born during the first week of the 90-day season will be roughly 160 pounds heavier than those born in the final week.
You might say, “Well! Nothing I can do about that!”
I beg to differ.
If your cowherd is gradually calving later and the cause is discovered to be related to improper plane of nutrition during the previous calving and/or breeding season – while there’s indeed not much you can do about it now – the identification of that problem does allow you to create an alternate plan to implement, if necessary and when appropriate, next season.
Be a forward thinker.
If you don’t already, for the first month of the calving season (or until it just gets too hard to keep up with), write down the date of first calving, then record the number of calves born each week.
Considering year-to-year differences in individual cow gestation cycles, at least a month of recorded information should give you a benchmark on how well you’re doing in maintaining – or hopefully, shortening – your annual calving interval. Even if you don’t pull your bulls, you’ll find this simple practice will provide valuable insight for your subsequent decisions. Once they begin recording this “high-level” information, many producers then want to keep more. Nothing will impact your financial success greater than getting more calves on the ground earlier in your defined calving season, especially if you sell at weaning.
Here’s another phrase I like: “Ya gotta start somewhere.”
These little red books are the perfect place.
In my book.