Ah, May! The grass is green, the weather is moderate, and the cows are in low-maintenance mode. Life is good.

I talked to a beef producer recently, and he said he was “relieved” that it was finally May. I asked what he meant, and he said, “This calving season was horrible. I had to pull about half the calves out of my heifers. I had a few that wouldn’t claim their calves, and a few calves from my cows that didn’t seem to know how to nurse. It seemed like I had to almost live with the cows this calving season. Plus, I calve in January and February, and the last week of January was brutally cold with lots of snow. My barns were overcrowded, and I ended up treating calves for scours, pneumonia, and navel ill. I lost more calves that week than I do most years.”

After he gave me the laundry list of problems, I asked if he was looking for a way to make calving season less problematic. He responded, “Absolutely.” 

My first question was: why does he calve in the middle of the winter when he lives in the Midwest, where we know the weather can be difficult? His answer was one I have heard numerous times before. “We farm a lot of ground, and it gets crazy busy here from about April 15 to the first of June. I want to be done calving well before we start in the fields.” 

My response was, “What if you developed a cow herd that was much lower-maintenance, and calving season became enjoyable?” I had his attention.

I have had the fortune to work with beef producers from many environments, and one of the keys to success is not to fight nature. If beef cows were wild animals, they would not be calving in the winter, as most of the calves would die from exposure. Let’s try to work with nature instead of against it.

I have a friend who lives in the northern Midwest and has about 120 beef cows and calves heifers starting April 20 and cows May 1. He and his brother also farm almost a thousand acres of row crops. He called me one day to ask about adding some new genetics to his herd, and he purchased semen from a few bulls I suggested. 

I called him in mid-May the following year and asked how the calving season was going with the new genetics. His answer was quite unexpected. He said simply, “I haven’t noticed.” After a few seconds’ pause, I asked what that meant. He explained that he and his brother were very busy in the fields, and he didn’t have time to closely examine the calves. 

The fact was that he calved at a time that was more in synch with nature – the end of April to the end of June – so weather was not a concern. He bred all his heifers via artificial insemination (the original AI) and used a clean-up bull with a high calving-ease direct Expected Progeny Difference (EPD), so he almost never had to help a heifer at calving. Heifers were bred for only 42 days, so only those high in fertility became pregnant, and he selected cattle breeds that complemented his low-maintenance approach in his planned crossbreeding program.

This was a herd that, many years ago, calved in February and March and grew tired of the myriad of problems they encountered each year. The brother who was more involved in the cattle business read an article showing that herd owners in Nebraska who had switched to late spring/early summer calving had very few problems after switching from late winter/early spring calving. And they were much more profitable.

This article compared herds that switched to later calving with those that stayed with the late winter/early spring calving because the concern was that breeding later in the year would decrease conception rate and calving later would significantly decrease weaning weights. Conception rates were similar between the 2 groups, whereas weaning weights were slightly lower in the late-spring/early-summer born calves.

To make up for the decrease in weaning weight, the recommendation was to precondition the calves for at least 60 days. This not only added value via the very efficient weight gain of these calves, but also the price/cwt. for feeder calves generally increases from November to March/April.

I mentioned that moving the calving season improved revenue. Some of this was due to a decrease in calf sickness and death loss, mostly because of fewer cases of diarrhea and pneumonia. There was also less calving difficulty since calves born in warmer weather tend to be lighter at birth. 

The biggest driver of the profit increase was a decline in feed costs. Cows calving on green grass hit peak milk when feed costs are lowest, during the grazing season. In the Nebraska studies, later-calving cows consumed 1.8-2 tons less hay per cow than earlier-calving cows. The later-calving cows relied more on corn crop residue grazing and stockpiled forage, and much less on hay. Hay is expensive to produce, and every producer needs to assess how much hay they feed to determine whether it can be reduced without causing a nutritional challenge for the cows. I am not saying to starve your cows to increase profit. I have seen that tried and it never works.

If you were just about ready to turn out your bulls, maybe think hard about calving later, more in synch with nature.