Preparation is critical to having a successful calving season. Step 1 of preparation begins by establishing a controlled breeding and calving season that works best with your operation, and is vital to the profitability and sustainability of your cattle business.

As we gear up for calving season, now is a good time to consider what information we should be collecting to help us make informed decisions about the future of the cow herd.

The most stressful period of a calf’s life are its first 14 days and, in the West, those first two weeks can be especially stressful during the bitterly cold winter.

Strong work procedures and routines are vitally important when calving time arrives at the farm or ranch. To help assist with the birthing process, most cow-calf producers are equipped with a calving pen.

Calving season is an exciting and nerve-wracking time of year. While we hope each cow will calve on their own, with a live, healthy calf, any beef producer knows that often life goes awry and we find ourselves with a prolonged or difficult calving, known as dystocia.

A newborn calf instinctively wants to suckle. The cow’s first feeding is colostrum, and it is vital to his survival. Calves that obtain adequate colostrum soon after birth stay healthier than calves that are slow to suckle or don’t get enough.

As the cold weather sets in, so does the realization that calving season is right around the corner. Now is the time to start preparing your calving kit, and one of the most essential items to include is a colostrum supplement or replacer.

Evaluating how management decisions the year prior have affected performance at specific production time points can yield valuable information for producers.