Winter calving made easier with warm weather

[tweaker101]

I agree with grassfarmer and ASRG we dont have any ropes,dogs nothing I just drive up to them in the pasture that has been set aside for the calving purpose and walk over to the calf and tag and what ever else may need to be done. But it really helps to have quiet cows and yes the first calf heifers take a little more work but they soon get the idea of how this works. We don't grain farm but I do work off the farm so this calving in the may/june works really good for us, less stress for me as it is usually nice outside unlike the nasty weather we can get in Feburary, but every situation is different and as long as it works thats what you do right?

[grassfarmer]

Speaking of contrarian does anyone else run fall
(Aug/Sept) calvers? We usually run a few but are
starting to expand the numbers. Here are the
advantages we see; no cold at calving time issues,
rapid breed back (virtually all first cycle), no scour
issues (less protein in the grass helps), no health
issues when weaning their calves - pneumonia etc,
ability to market a calf over a long period of the
highest prices i.e. Feb-August while completely
avoiding the low price period of the fall run, drought
proofing - can ship the calves early and summer dry
cows versus milking cows, better use of bulls with
two breeding seasons. If you run fall and spring
herds you can breed heifers to calve at 2.5 and run
them with the cows with no special attention. If you
buy in cows as a replacement policy you can often
pick up late (june/july) bred cows at a substantial
discount at dispersals and just slide them back to
August calvers. In our situation it gives us grass fats
to market @2 which is easier than getting them all
fat at 17 months.
Down sides of the system is it wouldn't work for
guys that are usually out of grass by August 1st and
a severe drought could cause problems. Maybe
wouldn't work as well in an area where you get
brutal weather early in the winter either. Other than
that I think it offers a lot of opportunity.

[15444]

Yep, fall calvers are a great bunch too, GF. But I think you would have an even harder time getting people to switch to it due to all the preconceived notions about it.

-Cows eat X-times more feed
-Calves have to be grain fed or they're dinks
-Fall calves are always smaller at weaning than spring calves
-You need to winter them in a barn
-Cows won't catch in winter

I can't remember them all, but I've heard a pile of them.