Eps 1619: calving cow care techniques
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Kathy Mitchelle
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Even when a calf is properly situated, help may still be needed if it is weighing too much on the cow. As stated earlier, with a frontal presentation, assistance is usually unnecessary for a cow, except when a cow is first-calving, if a calf is dead, or the calf is too large for the cow. If after 30 minutes you see no progress or 60 minutes then you need to check on the animal to determine whether help is needed.
Stage 1 - usually lasting 2-4 hours If you do not notice any progress toward Stage 2 labor after 4 hours, you should examine the cow/heifer to see if something is wrong. Stage 3 - If fetal membranes are not passed by 12 hours post-calving, interventions may be needed. If your cow has not passed her placenta within 8-12 hours of delivery, please contact your local veterinarian.
If everything goes smoothly, a cow should deliver by herself, drink five to fifteen gallons of water, stand, have passed her placenta in four to six hours, begin eating, and start lactating. After they have calves, cows only have about 80 days in which to become pregnant, if they are going to have another calves in twelve months. A cow or heifer who has just given birth needs extra nutrients for the first months after giving birth.
Underfeeding cows and heifers prior to calving does not decrease the calving difficulty, but may actually reduce calf vigor. Cows may sometimes experience difficulty with calves, and they also need to be observed often. Some cows and heifers are highly protective, with some acting aggressively towards any animal or item that approaches their calves.
Pay particular attention to heifers that are having a new baby, as these are the animals most likely to have difficulty with birthing within the herd. Many calving difficulties can be eliminated through appropriate replacement-heifer development and/or breeding first-calf heifers with bulls who sire calves that have lower-than-average birthweights. Examples of groups include bulls, full-grown average-conditioned cows, older, thinner cows, first-calf heifers, and replacement yearlings.
Separate calving cows and heifers from their non-calving counterparts in order to institute feeding programs tailored to each groups needs. If possible, group lean cows with weaned breeder heifers after weaning and put them on a higher feeding plane than the rest of the herd, so the higher feeding needs of still-growing heifers are met, while lean cows are given an opportunity to put on some weight before the colder parts of the winter kick in, and are therefore better-conditioned to calve. Cows and heifers that are thinned out body-wise when they are weaning are slower to reproduce, have lower colostrum production, and are less likely to wean a live calf.
A higher body condition rating allows for easier calving and better-quality colostrum, leading to a healthier infant calves with better disease resistance. The body condition and ease of calves scores for the cow are also easy to assign when the calves are processed. Adequate vigor would be achieved by caving a cow in Condition Score 3, joining in Condition Score 2.5.
When the quality of the pasture drops below what is required to sustain the calves growth, and/or when quantity drops to a level where calves cannot compete with the cows for the available feed, calves will begin to lose body mass. It is a myth that calves growth will be maintained through milk production; once calves hit 400 pounds, and particularly when feed supply is poor, milk consumption will provide only about ten percent of calves nutritional needs, and some cows will dry out willingly. There is a tendency among cow-calf beef producers to feed cows excessively between weaning and calving, then to feed cows inadequately from late gestation until calves are born and they are reared.
Calving is determined in large part by cow type, amount of milk produced, age, and feeding management prior and post-calving. Three weeks prior to calving, you want to get a cow in where a cow is going to be delivered, so she can produce proper antibodies to its colostrum.
Always keep an animal on the farm where it is going to be calved three weeks prior to actual calving. You might want to give a cow the Covid vaccine at three weeks before she is due so you can protect her from getting Covid mastitis while she is still very fresh, and, secondarily, enrich her colostrum so you can protect your calves from the deadly Covid-scours during their early weeks.
Place cows and heifers that are due for delivery on a pasture that is easy to see and frequently checked. Cows near to calving, or elk, should be checked often; most farms schedule checks of cows near to calving at least every 6 hours, sometimes more, particularly during bad weather.
When helping to calves, make sure you are wearing gloves to avoid spreading bugs between you and the cow, or vice versa. Make sure that the hands and arms of those helping are clean and disinfected, and the vava area and surrounding areas are cleaned and disinfected for the cow.
Record numbers for any cows or heifers that are starting to show signs of caving, or that have calves, and inform your crew so that they can monitor their progress.
One of the most common problems that vets see is delayed decisions about whether or not to seek assistance, which, in turn, leads to poor outcomes for the calves and the cow.