Keys to a Better Calving Season
By Nicole Lane Erceg
Timothy Parks, DVM, shares pre-calving preparation tips to make calving season easier.
Calving season is the time when success is crucial. To ensure a healthy calf crop and less stress during this season Timothy Parks, technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health, says a little planning and proper preparation are critical.
Laying the groundwork for a smooth calving season begins long before the calf is born. Parks says it all starts with adequate nutrition. To be well prepared for calving, he recommends that ranchers make sure they are meeting energy demands for the third stage of gestation and any environmental challenges the cows may face. This, he says, is the foundational management tool.
Calf scours prevention begins now
One of the biggest threats to a successful calving season is neonatal calf diarrhea. Parks says this issue is one that’s easy to prepare for but it can be difficult to treat. The key to getting calves started well begins with colostrum.
To provide the best protection for the calf, the cow should be producing high levels of antibodies when colostrum begins to be produced, about 6 weeks prior to calving. This requires planning for pre-calving vaccinations to hit this optimal window for ideal colostrum production. Parks advises ranchers to carefully read the labels on pre-calving vaccines because timing is vital to capturing the value of these products and protecting the calf.
When selecting pre-calving vaccines, Parks recommends choosing a broad-spectrum product. For ranchers who have struggled with calf scours issues in the past, he says a diagnosis is vital to prevent the issue from re-occurring. Because products vary in formulation and protection levels of different antigens, understanding the cause of the calf scours problem will help the rancher select a vaccine that has the right formula to prevent it.
“Pre-calving vaccines are a tool to help with neonatal calf diarrhea,” says Parks. “Management of the cow herd as well as weather conditions, climate and pasture conditions can also make or break a calving season.”
As the calving season wears on, the challenge level for calves grows because the bacteria and contamination levels rise with the number of animals. Parks says that in most years, he sees the calf diarrhea issues rise during the second half of calving season. To avoid this spike in disease, he recommends scattering the cattle and moving cows to new, clean pastures to avoid the pathogens.
“Scours is truly a management disease,” says Parks. “We have to make sure we are doing everything possible to reduce the amount of challenge that those animals come in contact with and allow our vaccines and the colostrum to get the calves through those crucial timeframes.”
In addition to building proper immunity through pre-calving vaccines and colostrum, pen and pasture management prior to calving season, and planning for open pastures to move cattle to after it begins, can help ranchers avoid the negative effects of calf scours.
“Management is so critical when it comes to calf diarrhea,” says Parks. “It’s vital to make sure we set ourselves up for the best success we can. We have to address the environmental side of it, then we can address the animal side of things.”
The mistake most calving season veterans make
It doesn’t matter how many calving seasons ranchers have been through, Parks says he hears the same thing every year — calving started sooner than expected. Being caught unprepared can cause a variety of issues which is why he recommends preparations begin long before the first calf is expected to hit the ground. He also advises ranchers to begin checking cows and heifers about 2 weeks before the first anticipated calving date.
“Make sure you are checking early and have the calving areas ready ahead of time,” says Parks. “You don’t want to be caught unprepared.”
Calving season must-haves
In building a “calving kit” Parks says there are a few basics cattlemen should never leave home without. First on his list is colostrum. He recommends always having some form of supplemental colostrum on hand before calving season begins. Although mom’s milk is best, there are times where colostrum will need to be supplemented. Parks recommends keeping packaged colostrum on hand just in case.
His other go-to supply to stock up on before calving starts is iodine. Although it might sound simple, Parks says many experienced cattlemen sometimes forget the power adding iodine on navels can have in preventing disease.
“One important thing to remember is that the navel is a tube, so when we spray the outside of it, we might not be getting all the protection we want,” says Parks. “Get iodine right on the end, on the inside of the navel, to help seal over where pathogens will enter the animal.”
His No. 1 tip? Have a good understanding with a veterinarian on the expectations for calving season. He says to discuss the plan for dealing with dystocia and exactly how long to wait before getting involved if a heifer or cow begins to struggle.
“As a veterinarian, it’s always more enjoyable when we deliver a live, healthy calf,” says Parks. “Have a good understanding with your veterinarian so you know at what point to intervene and when to call for help.”
Parks’ rule of thumb after seeing the first sign of a calf and no progression is waiting 45 minutes for a heifer and 2 hours for a cow before getting involved or calling for help.
The to-do list can easily grow long in the weeks before calves are born, but putting the time in to prepare for the busy season pays off in a multitude of ways.
“The end result of a live calf is what we’re all after,” says Parks. “Those are the ones that pay our bills and move us forward so we need to make sure we are getting that live, healthy calf.”
“Better Calving Season” is excerpted from the December 2017 issue of The Cattleman magazine. Join today to start your subscription.