What is Spring Like For You

[farmers_son]

I saw this item on CTV:

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090402/CGY_Farmers_Winter_090402/20090402/?hub=CalgaryHome

How is spring going for you? Although I was very glad I was not calving in March due to a lot of cold windy days, April has been pretty good and calves are coming all by themselves. We have no run off at all and snow is almost completely gone. It looks dry here but we have never been droughted out in April. Still it is pretty good calving weather.

[grassfarmer]

Wow, what a difference a few miles makes F_S. We have still almost complete snow cover, only a few tiny breaks appearing in the last few days. Out on undisturbed pasture we have a minimum of a foot but way more than that in places/drifts. Having a tough time ploughing tracks to feed the cows still and the snow is so hard you could tip the tractor on the drifts. We have banked grass for the cows and could be off feed now but reckon it will take at least a week to move the snow - if it warms up significantly. These 1 and 3 days won't cut it.
Just started calving heifers - cows will start closer to April 20th. I think next year we will start the heifers then too.

[smcgrath76]

cows just went onto bale grazing (from swaths. they will go back onto the remaining swaths when the foot of snow drops a bit. 3 calves so far from the breach in our defences. Our own bulls won't have calves on the ground for 2 more weeks at the earliest. Sold some steers. bought some bulls. Ordered some semen. waiting for summer.

[per]

I live 4 miles from that story. Just started calving. 60 on the ground and going well. I have a pasture on a knoll that is now a calving pasture. Pens are mucky but don't need them too much. Still have a good winter calving facility that is coming in handy. Could use some sunshine. lol

[kato]

Wet. The yards are getting muddy, and we can hardly wait to let the cows out. We put 120 calves on the ground without incident up to the end of March. April comes along, and we've got one navel infection, one that was dumb enough to calf in the wet mud and get the calf chilled, and one that was just plain hypothermic from the wet conditions. When it's not cold outside, the cows don't really feel the need to stay on the nice clean straw by the sheds, and wander off to calve. Our yard is set up for cold, not wet, and as soon as the weather gets just a little warmer and the frost starts to come out the cattle will go to the small pasture to wait for real pasture time.

Then all will be well again. It's just these several transition weeks that we hate. We don't want to let them out too soon, in case of a storm, but we can't leave them in the yard too long either. It would be nice to skip April calves completely, in our situation. We'd much rather have cold than this mud.

It does look like there's going to be good pasture this year anyway, with all the snow we got this winter. I can hardly wait!