Winter and calving seasons present unique challenges for ranchers, particularly when it comes to keeping calves healthy and comfortable. Newborn calves thrive in temperatures between 55 and 70°F, but when the mercury dips below 50°F, they can suffer from cold stress.
5 Tips for Winter Calving
Preventing hypothermia and safeguarding your calves during winter requires careful planning. Here are five expert tips from Ralco’s ruminant nutritionists and health experts to help you navigate winter calving with success.
1. Maintain Body Condition Scores
Ensuring your cows' health is vital for a successful winter calving season. A key factor is maintaining a healthy body condition score (BCS), which reflects a cow’s energy reserves. A low BCS can result in issues like longer open days, weaker calves, insufficient colostrum, reduced milk production, difficult birth and lower weaning weights. To avoid these challenges, it's crucial for cows to have a BCS of at least 5 when calving during the winter months.
2. Prepare Facilities
During winter, it’s essential to provide cows and their calves with adequate shelter and bedding. Windbreaks offer effective protection against the cold, and it’s best to shelter and bed cows before calving. This encourages the cow to rest and creates a warm, safe space for the newborn calf, away from the frozen ground. Straw is the preferred bedding choice as it reduces the risk of it sticking to the calf and helps prevent frozen ears, tails and feet. Ensure the straw is deep enough to cover the calf’s legs when lying down for optimal warmth and comfort.
3. Develop a Solid Nutrition Plan
Proper nutrition for cows during the pre- and post-winter calving period is essential, especially in the last 1.5 months of gestation. Poor nutrition during this critical time can negatively affect the calf’s vitality, health and performance. Key issues include low-quality colostrum from the cow and the calf’s inability to stand and nurse effectively. Additionally, deficiencies in vital macro and micronutrients can result in inadequate colostrum production. For optimal results, it’s best to consult with a ruminant nutritionist to ensure your cows receive a balanced diet and appropriate mineral supplementation.
4. Gather Supplies
Every rancher’s calving toolbox should include essential items that can make a crucial difference in saving newborn calves during winter..
Some must-haves include:
Disinfectant
Gloves
OB lubricant and calving chains for difficult births
Pail for warm water, paper towels, calf jackets or other calf warmers
Colostrum with bottles, nipples or feeding tubes
Basics like tags, a notebook and a pencil for recording calf information
In addition, using oral drenches like Start Strong for Calves can provide weak calves with the energy needed to stand and nurse by stimulating their appetite. Keep in mind that calves lose 50% of their ability to absorb colostrum by 12 hours old, so getting them to stand quickly is critical for their survival.
5. Prepare Treatments
Scours, or diarrhea, is the leading cause of death among calves in their first month of life. When confronted with this serious threat, it’s vital to have the essential tools on hand to protect and save the lives of newborn calves. The top priority for a calf suffering from scours is to replenish the lost fluids and electrolytes. This can be achieved by administering fluids either orally or intravenously, always under the guidance of a veterinarian.
Additionally, providing electrolytes and ensuring the calf has access to a warm, sheltered location—preferably isolated from other cows and calves—can help mitigate the added stress of cold temperatures. In these critical moments, always consult with a veterinarian for the best course of action.
To further safeguard your calves this winter, consider adding oral supplements like Start Strong for Calves and Rapid Strike to your calving toolbox.
Start Strong is a natural oral drench that helps prevent scours by boosting newborn appetite and energy, ensuring calves stand and nurse quickly for maximum colostrum intake. If scours do occur, Rapid Strike provides quick rehydration with electrolytes and and manages pathogens with its natural, effective formula, helping calves recover fast and get back to eating and drinking.
Start Strong for Calves - Maximize Colostrum Intake
Start Strong for Calves is a natural oral drench that supports appetite, digestive health and provides newborns with the energy they require.
Rapid Strike - When Digestive Challenges Threaten
Rapid Strike is a natural oral drench that reduces pathogen load, enhances gut health and promotes a quick return to normal eating and drinking after digestive stress with scours.
Rumatec Cow/Calf - Get a Calf Every Year
The Rumatec line of cow/calf mineral supplements provides the needed nutrients commonly deficient in forages to help ensure optimum performance and reproductive efficiency.