Baby calves will be here soon!

I am getting excited for calving season! January and February are notoriously nasty weather months in Kansas, so we chose to start calving in late February this year. For the past 20 years, we've been beginning calving in early January, but when snow falls then, it stays until spring! Or if it does melt, it freezes into mud and ruts that are hard to negotiate when helping a cow with her calf. Cows are tough--as long as they have plenty of feed to keep up their energy, and they stay dry, they can handle bitter cold weather.

But a calf arrives sopping wet! If the cow can lick him clean immediately and he has enough strength to get up and nurse, he will be fine in nearly any weather. But the cold can make him less energetic and the cow might not lick him completely dry, so if calves arrive in the deep cold, we try to be there to help make sure they will be okay.

This year, the Kansas winter has been very mild, though! This would have been a perfect year to calve in January and early February! I guess I just can't outsmart Mother Nature. So we are approximately 3 weeks away from having our first calf. This weekend we will gather up all the cows and sort them into groups based on their projected calving date. They receive a vaccination that will protect the calf by passing on immunity through the colostrum (or first milk) and then they will be kept closer to the barns so we will be ready when the calves begin to arrive.

In the meantime, if you are interested in seeing pictures of baby calves, check out some of my previous blog posts:

2 comments:

  1. In years past we would have been calving right now, but after the past couple of January's being filled with snow or cold weather we decided to pull the bullls and not start calving till the end of Febuary, but with as nice as it's been here lately I kinda wish we were calving right now. I will say I am ready to start calving cause I can't wait to see all the little ones, cause they are soo cute!!

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  2. So glad to see that I am not the only 1 getting excited about the upcoming calving season. Our heifers are just about 30 days away and the cows start shortly after the heifers. There is something soooo magical about calving season even though I am as crazy and nervous as a wet hen for about 60 days. Look forward to seeing pictures! Winter has been beautiful this year in Central Neb!

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