How long is the calving pattern on your farm? Will your spring-calving cows be finished calving before the breeding season starts?
The calving period is the most important part of the year in terms of herd management. Getting live calves on the ground is essential if you want to have more cattle for sale.
Compact calving is by far the most efficient way to operate a suckler herd. Having one concentrated block of cows calving within a 10- to 12-week period simplifies herd management.
Of course it increases the workload during the calving period, but this extra workload is over a short period when attention is focused on calving cows and little else.
In contrast, in a spread-out calving period, it is difficult to give cows your full attention when other tasks such as field work start in late spring and early summer.
Advantages of compact calving
There are many advantages of compact calving in terms of stock management, such as:
Cows with similar feed requirements can be grouped together over winter.Housing management is much easier during winter.Calves can be dehorned, wormed and vaccinated in bigger groups on set dates.Calves can be weaned at a similar stage, easing management.Fewer grazing groups.Cattle are similar in size and sale weight and can be sold in larger groups.Tighter calving
Shortening the calving period starts with the breeding season. How you manage cows before and during the breeding season will influence conception rates and this will be reflected in the following calving period.
Following these steps will help to tighten your calving period for next year.
1 Health
Herd fertility is a heritable trait and is affected by underlying disease problems. So if cows are slipping in terms of calving date, what is the reason?
Is there an underlying health problem due to BVD, lepto or salmonella? Is there a mineral deficiency affecting herd fertility? If you are vaccinating cows, are you giving the vaccine at the right time and administering it correctly?
Cows can also have ovarian cysts which inhibit fertility. Taking a few blood samples will give a good overview of disease status in the herd, as will getting a pre-breeding scan to detect problem breeders.
2 Nutrition
Freshly calved cows have an increasing demand for energy. Therefore, moving them to fresh spring grazing as soon as possible after calving will have a positive effect on fertility. Provided there were no calving or health issues, cows will be quick to come back into heat. If cows cannot get to grass within two weeks of calving, make sure they are being properly supplemented with concentrates.
Feeding high-quality silage of 70 DMD or better, plus 1kg to 2kg of concentrate, is advised to prevent cows losing body condition. Excessive condition loss will delay cows coming back into heat.
3 Calving ease
Selecting easy-calving bulls will help to reduce calving spread, as the cow recovers from the physical demands of calving much faster. This means she will come back into heat earlier than a cow that has had major calving difficulty.
But the bull is only one part of the calving ease equation. Having fit cows in good body condition also helps to reduce calving difficulty. Over-fat and thin cows often experience calving problems and more often than not, the blame is put on the bull and not the cow.
4 Gestation length
Herd sires with gestation periods of 300 days will make it very difficult to achieve a 365-day calving interval. For later-calving cows, using bulls with shorter gestations of 280 to 285 days will tighten the calving spread.
5 Heat detection
This is obviously important if you use AI. There are plenty of aids to help heat detection. But remember they are only aids; you still have to be vigilant when observing cows. Observe cows four time daily, spending 20 minutes monitoring cows on each occasion.
Even if you are using a stock bull, pay attention to which cows are coming into heat. Note the number and date and watch for repeat breeding three weeks later. A high number of repeats can indicate a fertility issue with the bull and you can act early to take action.
6 Rotate stock bulls
Rotating bulls after the first or second cycle can safeguard against an infertile or sub-fertile bull. It is also a good way to discourage you from keeping heifers from later-calving cows that may have a fertility problem.
Later-born calves can be easily identified based on colour and breed if you are using different breeds of stock bulls.
7 Mix early and late-calving cows
The stock bull can only cover so many cows at the one time. Putting all the early calving cows in one group means that there will be days when multiple cows are on heat at the same time. This can be difficult for the bull to cover them all.
Instead, mix the group so that you have some cows that calved at the start and middle part of the calving pattern. This spreads the cows coming into heat, making it easier for the bull to cover them.
8 Smaller breeding groups
Do not overwork the bull by giving him too many cows to cover. A group of 30 to 35 cows is plenty for a mature bull if you are looking to keep a compact calving pattern. For a young bull in his first season, limit him to 15 to 20 cows for breeding. A good rule of thumb for a bull in his first year is give him one cow for every month of age, eg an 18-month-old bull serves 18 cows.
9 Take the bull out
The simplest way to shorten the calving spread is to take the bull away on a set date.
To start tightening the calving pattern, aim to remove the bull two weeks earlier every year until you are down to a 10- to 12-week period. This will reduce the number of empty cows you have to remove from the herd.
10 Sell late cows
Another way to tighten the calving pattern is to sell off persistently late-calving cows with their calf at foot.
This removes the temptation of running repeat offenders with the bull for another year, hoping that they will pull forward in calving date.
The sale price should cover the cost of bringing in a replacement heifer to calve at the start of the calving period instead.
Once you have removed the stock bull, scan your cows around 40 days later. This can be tied in with a routine management task such as worming calves before weaning.
Cows that are not in-calf should be weaned and sold at this point. If cows are thin, they will benefit from a short 50- to 60-day finishing period to improve condition.
How long is the calving pattern on your farm? Will your spring-calving cows be finished calving before the breeding season starts?
The calving period is the most important part of the year in terms of herd management. Getting live calves on the ground is essential if you want to have more cattle for sale.
Compact calving is by far the most efficient way to operate a suckler herd. Having one concentrated block of cows calving within a 10- to 12-week period simplifies herd management.
Of course it increases the workload during the calving period, but this extra workload is over a short period when attention is focused on calving cows and little else.
In contrast, in a spread-out calving period, it is difficult to give cows your full attention when other tasks such as field work start in late spring and early summer.
Advantages of compact calving
There are many advantages of compact calving in terms of stock management, such as:
Cows with similar feed requirements can be grouped together over winter.Housing management is much easier during winter.Calves can be dehorned, wormed and vaccinated in bigger groups on set dates.Calves can be weaned at a similar stage, easing management.Fewer grazing groups.Cattle are similar in size and sale weight and can be sold in larger groups.Tighter calving
Shortening the calving period starts with the breeding season. How you manage cows before and during the breeding season will influence conception rates and this will be reflected in the following calving period.
Following these steps will help to tighten your calving period for next year.
1 Health
Herd fertility is a heritable trait and is affected by underlying disease problems. So if cows are slipping in terms of calving date, what is the reason?
Is there an underlying health problem due to BVD, lepto or salmonella? Is there a mineral deficiency affecting herd fertility? If you are vaccinating cows, are you giving the vaccine at the right time and administering it correctly?
Cows can also have ovarian cysts which inhibit fertility. Taking a few blood samples will give a good overview of disease status in the herd, as will getting a pre-breeding scan to detect problem breeders.
2 Nutrition
Freshly calved cows have an increasing demand for energy. Therefore, moving them to fresh spring grazing as soon as possible after calving will have a positive effect on fertility. Provided there were no calving or health issues, cows will be quick to come back into heat. If cows cannot get to grass within two weeks of calving, make sure they are being properly supplemented with concentrates.
Feeding high-quality silage of 70 DMD or better, plus 1kg to 2kg of concentrate, is advised to prevent cows losing body condition. Excessive condition loss will delay cows coming back into heat.
3 Calving ease
Selecting easy-calving bulls will help to reduce calving spread, as the cow recovers from the physical demands of calving much faster. This means she will come back into heat earlier than a cow that has had major calving difficulty.
But the bull is only one part of the calving ease equation. Having fit cows in good body condition also helps to reduce calving difficulty. Over-fat and thin cows often experience calving problems and more often than not, the blame is put on the bull and not the cow.
4 Gestation length
Herd sires with gestation periods of 300 days will make it very difficult to achieve a 365-day calving interval. For later-calving cows, using bulls with shorter gestations of 280 to 285 days will tighten the calving spread.
5 Heat detection
This is obviously important if you use AI. There are plenty of aids to help heat detection. But remember they are only aids; you still have to be vigilant when observing cows. Observe cows four time daily, spending 20 minutes monitoring cows on each occasion.
Even if you are using a stock bull, pay attention to which cows are coming into heat. Note the number and date and watch for repeat breeding three weeks later. A high number of repeats can indicate a fertility issue with the bull and you can act early to take action.
6 Rotate stock bulls
Rotating bulls after the first or second cycle can safeguard against an infertile or sub-fertile bull. It is also a good way to discourage you from keeping heifers from later-calving cows that may have a fertility problem.
Later-born calves can be easily identified based on colour and breed if you are using different breeds of stock bulls.
7 Mix early and late-calving cows
The stock bull can only cover so many cows at the one time. Putting all the early calving cows in one group means that there will be days when multiple cows are on heat at the same time. This can be difficult for the bull to cover them all.
Instead, mix the group so that you have some cows that calved at the start and middle part of the calving pattern. This spreads the cows coming into heat, making it easier for the bull to cover them.
8 Smaller breeding groups
Do not overwork the bull by giving him too many cows to cover. A group of 30 to 35 cows is plenty for a mature bull if you are looking to keep a compact calving pattern. For a young bull in his first season, limit him to 15 to 20 cows for breeding. A good rule of thumb for a bull in his first year is give him one cow for every month of age, eg an 18-month-old bull serves 18 cows.
9 Take the bull out
The simplest way to shorten the calving spread is to take the bull away on a set date.
To start tightening the calving pattern, aim to remove the bull two weeks earlier every year until you are down to a 10- to 12-week period. This will reduce the number of empty cows you have to remove from the herd.
10 Sell late cows
Another way to tighten the calving pattern is to sell off persistently late-calving cows with their calf at foot.
This removes the temptation of running repeat offenders with the bull for another year, hoping that they will pull forward in calving date.
The sale price should cover the cost of bringing in a replacement heifer to calve at the start of the calving period instead.
Once you have removed the stock bull, scan your cows around 40 days later. This can be tied in with a routine management task such as worming calves before weaning.
Cows that are not in-calf should be weaned and sold at this point. If cows are thin, they will benefit from a short 50- to 60-day finishing period to improve condition.
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