5 Items To Have For Calving
I absolutely love calving season. We calve in late winter/early spring when everything is starting to warm up. The sun shines more and the snow starts to melt. In Montana, it is normal to get spring storms. This can sometimes make calving more of a chore, because we have to be more attentive in making sure our new babies get everything they need to get going.
Calves are overall pretty hardy and can thrive in cooler calving temperatures, with some necessities. I like to think of these requirements as a basic checklist to make sure calves have all the necessities for living. Through process of elimination, it's easier to determine if there is something else wrong. After being born a calf's most basic needs are to be dry, nurse, and have a bowel movement. If all these things don't happen rather soon after a calf is born, they will struggle. In the event one of these main needs is not met, we have a few simple and inexpensive items on hand that we use to help.
A Towel
This is a very cheap way to help a calf. If the calf's mom is a first time mom, she may not totally understand how to dry off her calf. We carry a towel in our feed pickup so
that if we come across a cold wet calf we can help. Getting that hair dried out does wonders for helping a calf get warm and stay warm.
A Calf Sled
Not all calves are created equal. This year we have seen this in our own herd a few times. For various reasons, calves respond differently as newborns. We've had a couple larger calves born this year, that jumped right up and nursed, all while still being wet from birth. They were happy and healthy. On the flip side, we have had one or two who have been born, and didn't have the same vigor. There are a host of things that can cause this, sometimes it's too cold and they are a little lethargic. We have this really handy dandy homemade calf sled, (not everything needs to be bought from the highest rated brands) that we use when a calf needs more help than we can give it in the pasture. We take the baby into the barn on the sled and in a ideal world, the mom follows along behind. This allows us to give the baby and mom more specific attention, while keeping it warm and dry in the barn.
A Calf Tube
If a calf hasn't nursed, or if it has scours (diarrhea), a calf tube can mean life or death. New calves rely on getting their systems working. Sometimes when a calf is too big and lethargic, they won't nurse on their own in the time they need to. We've had very good luck with tubing these calves as soon as we see this. A $15.50 bag of Colostrix, or some form of IgG replacer is worth the return of having a live calf. If you have frozen colostrum on hand that is an even better and an even cheaper option. Disclaimer, not all calf tubes are created equally either, make sure to do some research on how to use them prior to use, or have someone who knows, teach you.
Sustain Bolus and Bolus Gun
Spring means moisture (hopefully). Sometimes, depending on pastures and cow numbers, this can foster an environment for sickness. Commonly, scours occurs easily in these conditions. There are different pathogens that cause scours. An interesting note is that, if scours is bacteria caused, antibiotics will not work for a remedy, so its good to watch if your doctoring is having the desired effect. Scours is caused primarily, but not totally caused by rotavirus, coronavirus or cryptosporidium. We carry sustain bolus's and a bolus gun, both when we feed and check cows. If we see any calf looking down/depressed, and with runny yellow or bloody diarrhea, we give them a bolus. Often, if we catch it early enough, within 24 hours they are happy and bouncing again. Sometimes a repeat dosage in 48 hours is necessary if they are still struggling, and sometimes electrolytes are necessary if they aren't nursing. In fact, if you don't have the medication you need for scours on hand, giving the calf electrolytes/fluids is the way to go until you can get some. Some quick tips to avoiding scours are, if you can, moving your calving cows to clean pastures periodically, leaving behind the ones who have calved. It gives brand new babies a cleaner space. This isn't always an option people have, but it does help. Second, removing sick calves from the healthy ones. In really contagious cases this is important in order to hopefully stop or slow the spread. As a whole, scours can sometimes just be a big pain that takes a lot of work to maintain.
Colostrix or Frozen Colostrum
I mentioned this product earlier, but it is on our list of favorites also. When we have a calf who hasn't nursed, Colostrix or frozen colostrum is the way we like to give the babies a jump start. Ideally, after they get enough of either product in their tummy, they will really start to make progress on their own. Sometimes a cow has enough colostrum for its baby and then some. You might be able to milk out the extra colostrum, which is full of antibodies and nutrients a calf needs to get a healthy start and live. This is handy because it is most ideal for a calf to have fresh colostrum. However, we
still use Colostrix, and are very grateful for it. Basically, Colostrix is a colostrum replacer made from real colostrum. I personally prefer not using it as a sole replacer because the calf still benefits from fresh colostrum. Colostrix is mixed with water and warmed up to give the calf a warm dose which, in what we have found, gives it enough energy to get up and going on its own. While I can't guarantee this will work one hundred percent of the time, in our experience, it works well for normal calves that just need a little extra help.
The title of this blog is 5 Items To Have For Calving so that is where I will stop. But here is a quick list of other things we like that would be worth doing research on.
Nursemate
Electrolytes
Oxytocin
Uterine Bolus
In our modern day, people have come up with a lot of ways to help make calving a little less stressful. There will always be things to learn and new problems that make you scratch your head in total confusion. There are good years and bad years, it's the way things are. But, the more we are willing to learn, the more we will be able to understand our animals and what they need. If It's a feeding program change, or a herd genetics change, sometimes little adjustments make all the difference, and sometimes big adjustments are necessary for success.
Citations
Armstrong, A. J. (2023). Causes and prevention of dairy calf scours. UMN Extension. https://extension.umn.edu/dairy-youngstock/dairy-calf-scours
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