Bovine OB

I had to assist a heifer in delivering her calf today. The clinical definition for calving difficulty is dystocia. In today's case the dystocia was caused by an abnormal presentation of the calf (so it probably had nothing to do with her). You want to see two front feet and a nose, in this situation I saw a nose and one foot. Indicating that the calf had a leg back.

I will usually decide to assist a cow for two reasons. The first is that for some reason she has not made any progress in delivery within two hours of her water breaking. The second is I see signs of an obvious abnormal presentation. These signs include,seeing hind feet, seeing a nose and no feet, a nose and one foot (like today), or just a tail, when these signs are present its time to go to work. The decision to call a vet should be made as well. This is a decision based on your experience. However, experience has taught me it's best to error on the side of caution in these situations.

I'm going to cover the process of delivering the calf next, then at the end I'll share more about the causes of dystocia.

Here I have brought the heifer into the barn. You can see the single hoof which can be a sign of dystocia.

The next step is to confine her in a calving pen. The calving pen is a wonderful invention designed to secure the cow and protect the cowboy from injury during delivery. As a secondary precaution I always place a halter on the cow so if she does lie down while trying to deliver she is not at risk of choking. Pink seemed like an appropriate halter color for bovine maternity

After successfully pulling the leg that was back into place it's time to attach the OB chains. The chains should be placed above the hoof but below the pastern (this is the first joint above the hoof, like your ankle). Improper placement of the chains can result in a broken leg.



Next attach the calf jack. Common sense is required with this tool. Just because you can apply tremendous torque does not mean you have to. As dramatic as this whole process seems it is important to not hurry the process and stay as calm as possible for the sake of all involved, cow, calf, and human. You may notice that the calf's tongue is out and swollen. This is a sign of dystocia, but its not as bad as it looks.

 Delivery is almost complete. Once again work steady, not fast so the cow can help with the process and the calf does not receive any internal injury.

 Minutes later Mom is up claiming her calf.

Here they are about an hour after delivery.

There are many factors that affect calving ease. The calf's sire has a lot to do with it (always the mans fault). The bull has the primary genetic influence on both birth weight of the calf and phenotype. Big headed, broad shouldered, heavy calves have a tougher time coming into this world. I shoot for a 70# to 80# birth weight on my calves. It has been my experience that anything over 90# will start to cause problems.

On the cow side factors that can cause dystocia include the size of her pelvis, her adrenal function, and her disposition. If any of these traits are out of whack she may cause problems.

From the management side, improper nutrition, lack of exercise, an unpleasant environment, and exposure to extreme elements without adequate shelter can cause problems with calving.

Calving season is one of my favorite times of the year. However, constant planning and management are essential to it staying that way.

Tricks of The Trade

The photo shows the evening meal at Pinhook farm. One of the unique and labor saving traits of cows is that if you feed them at dusk the majority of them will calve in the daytime. Through natural selection many wild creatures adapt strategies that improve the odds for their young. Bison will not calve in a blizzard and llama's, at least in the Andes, only give birth in the daytime because there tongues are too small to lick off their babies. The baby llamas can survive with the warmth of the sun but would perish if born in the cold of night. Cows, however, have been domesticated and they need our help. There is no known reason why feeding cows at night makes them calve in the daytime, but it works and is backed by an ISU study of 1,331 cows on 15 Iowa farms. Fed one time daily at dusk, 85% of the calves were born between 6 am and 6 pm, verses control groups that were fed at 9 am and 3 pm. Only 38.4% of the control group calved in the daytime. We only use this practice with the first calf heifers. I do still get up and check them at night (it's the cowboys code). This simple management trick has been a great benifit to man and beast alike.

Fertilizing Hay Fields

We finished harrowing pastures last night, W80 and her calf are happily together, and the calves continue to arrive. Spring is our busiest time of the year and you don’t dare let up for even a minute. Today we started putting fertilizer on the hay fields.

The machine below is called a floater. This is because of the huge low pressure flotation tires that are designed to minimize compaction on the soft spring land. Compaction hurts the land and reduces yields. The hopper of the floater is being loaded with a blend of dry nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. The precise amounts of these soil nutrients along with lime were determined from grid mapped soil tests that I took last fall. Thanks to GPS technology I am able to put exactly the right amount of nutrients in exactly the right place.

The guys on the floater are going over the coordinates, once they load the data into the floaters onboard computer the satellite will take over.

Loading data into the computer.

The floater is equipped with auto steer and GPS is much more accurate in placement so this is literally a “hands off” operation.  

I think some people have the perception that farmers are wasteful with our fertilization practices. I imagine this perception comes from a few bad apples in our industry and a general lack of understanding of what’s happening on the farm. The reality is that fertilizers expensive and I want it to go 100% to the plant it is supposed to nourish, not in our streams, ground water, or anywhere else it’s not supposed to be.  GPS technology, science, and hard work allow us to do this and protect and preserve our natural resources. More importantly this land has been a part of my family before Iowa was a state. I would never do anything to hurt it, my objective is to leave it better than I found it so that it continues to be our states most valuable resource, for generations to come.

Claiming Her Calf

Today on the farm I had a heifer who did not want to claim (accept) her calf after he was born. For some reason, the mama of the little guy in the back of my four wheeler was not interested in her baby.  This does not happen very often but it does happen. Today’s post is simply going to cover the process of getting them back together. (I’ve tried to keep these short but I could not keep this one to the usual one page).

The best way to get a cow to accept her calf is by first getting the pair into a calm, clean, quiet environment. The photo below shows the calf in a stall in the barn with “calf claim” sprinkled on his back.

Calf claim was invented by a couple of vets from Mt. Ayer, Iowa. The ingredients are “top secret” but smell a lot like dried molasses and brown sugar. (I haven’t tasted it so I don’t know). The product works by getting the cow to lick her baby. Anything that will get a cow to lick and imprint the scent of her calf will work. It’s just Calf Claim works better than anything I’ve ever used.

The next step in the process is to put the mama cow in the stall with the calf, stop taking pictures, and come back in an hour. To find a happy contented pair.

The cows at Pinhook Farm have one job and that is to deliver, raise, and wean a calf every year without assistance. Because of this a cow not claiming a calf can be grounds for culling (termination) from the herd in my operation. W80 is going to get a second chance. This was her first calf and she did come around quickly, so for today everything turned out all right.

Cover Crops

Today on the farm we started harrowing pastures where we fed the cows last winter. A harrow is a very simple implement with steel tines designed to break up dirt clods and manure. This photo was taken on a rye pasture. On the farm I use Rye, Winter wheat, and sometimes turnips as a cover crop on land that I raised corn for corn silage. Cover crops are very beneficial and serve 3 primary purposes in my operation. Most importantly they cover the bare ground (henceforth the name) left from chopping corn silage for the winter.

By doing this I: 1.)prevent wind erosion of the soil (think dust bowl), 2.) Preserve soil nutrients by preventing them from leaching into the ground water, and 3.) Provide the cows with a very nutritious winter feed source that they can harvest them selves.

Because I had taken the crop of silage off of this field I intentionally fed as many cows as possible on it last winter to put the nutrients back on the field. The golden rule of soil fertility is “If you take something off you have to put something back on” By managing this way I am able to save significantly on commercial fertilizer. As long as I can have a high enough stocking rate in the winter and I harrow the ground to break up and spread out the manure the only inputs I need is usually lime to balance the PH in the soil.

Rye is a wonderful grass hat is very high in protein and produced excellent gains. More than likely I will be able to graze this in about 30 days and then put this field back to corn for a second year. After this I will rotate this field back to alfalfa for 4 to 5 years and repeat the process again.

Calving Season - Day 1

3-14-10 1^st calf heifers started calving at Pinhook Farm, this means I will be going without sleep for the next 2 weeks. To pass the time in the wee hours of the morning I thought it would be interesting to share a daily photo diary of what happens during calving season on an Iowa cow farm. With each photo I’ll do my best to explain some aspect of production on my farm. If it does not bore everyone to death I’ll continue this project until our April session and you will all feel like seasoned farmers.

Heifer, this is a young female bovine that has not had her first calf. Both cows in this picture were still heifers at  7:30 this morning. Now they are first calf heifers.

The tags in their ears are for identification. The calves are tagged as soon as they are born. This is for my production records and your safety. This tag will stay with the calf all the way through slaughter. If there is any concern for the publics safety from animal born disease the National Animal Health Vets are able to trace back to the exact farm of concern if a good record keeping system is maintained.

The calves tags match their mothers ID. Red for boys, green for girls. The letter represents the year the cow was born. W is for 2008, the next numbers are simply serial numbers. Two years old and she has had her first baby. This is something I hope she continues to do for the next 10 to 12 years or longer.

Calving Season Has Started

Calving started today at the farm. To help prepare all of us for the april session I would like to share a daily photo journal of whats happening on the farm. I plan to keep it brief so just text me if you have questions.

Happy Trails,

Seth