I remember the day our son said he didn’t want to ride horses. We couldn’t blame him because he is allergic to them, and his allergies weren’t getting any better. Yet it wasn’t just the allergies that made him want to stop.

It was the day after Christmas. We were working on a chore that I would have liked to have finished a month earlier, but the stars never did quite align as I had hoped. So here we were, on Dec. 26, finally running the cows through the chute for preg checking.

The most rewarding time on a ranch is the time of new life – newborn calves hitting the ground. Calves have resiliency and spirit and often thrive even when born in the wrong circumstances or weather. Still, any beef producer will have the occasional calf who was stuck or had some other mishap that requires extra care.

While disease prevention remains the primary purpose of vaccine programs, a well-designed vaccination protocol is now an essential marketing strategy for producers selling calves into value-added and graded feeder sales.

Most calves are born without intervention, typically nursing on their own without significant attention from caretakers. They often adapt to their environment quickly, becoming productive members of the herd.

Sometimes it seems as if beef producers are faced with a million details to attend to in order to make a ranch successful and cattle happy and healthy. Selenium is one of those details.

In 1940, my great-grandfather, Joe Mendel, started the Mendel family farm, located outside of Doland, South Dakota. What started as a diversified farm with beef, hogs and small grains is today an operation focused on corn, soybeans, wheat and sunflowers, as well as a 1,000-head feedlot and 600-head cow-calf operation.

Most calves are born as nature intended, but some are determined to enter the world facing the wrong direction. For these occasional events, it’s critical to understand the anatomical and timing challenges presented.

One of the largest cattle operations in North America, Douglas Lake Cattle Company in British Columbia, has a long history. Founded in 1884, Douglas Lake has been operating continuously for 141 years.