Focus on calving first, then prep for spring – High Plains Journal

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While cows graze on milo stalks during calving season Feb. 10, Saline County farmer-rancher Ralph Johnson supplement-feeds nutritious range cubes in a field south of Brookville, Kansas. (Journal photo by Tim Unruh.)
Jaymelynn Farney (Courtesy photo by Dan Donnert.)
Sam Hands, farmer-rancher in southwest Kansas, poses with some of his herd. (Courtesy photo.)
With assistance from his loyal cow dog, Rusty, farmer-rancher Ralph Johnson closes a barb-wire gate Feb. 10 after checking his cow herd for newborns near Brookville, Kansas. In the foreground, another canine helper, Ivey, observes. (Journal photo by Tim Unruh.)
A newborn calf stands near its suspicious mother after giving birth Feb.10 in a milo stalk field south of Brookville, Kansas. (Journal photo photo by Tim Unruh.)

Many thoughts race through the brains of cattle producers and their advisers as winter weather begins to wane.
While cows graze on milo stalks during calving season Feb. 10, Saline County farmer-rancher Ralph Johnson supplement-feeds nutritious range cubes in a field south of Brookville, Kansas. (Journal photo by Tim Unruh.)
Spring brings new mindsets as the critters enter another crescendo. A complete and opposite set of extremes await.
Ranchers and specialists alike know what’s coming, and they gear up for the spring thaw, edging toward summer’s searing heat.
Prepping for summer isn’t overly complicated, said Jaymelynn Farney, Ph.D., livestock specialist at the Southeast Area Research and Extension Center in Parsons, Kansas.
Jaymelynn Farney (Courtesy photo by Dan Donnert.)
“For a cow-calf guy, it’s almost inconsequential, as long as you’re not in a drought,” she said. “If you’ve got summer grass and you’re calved out, most of the work has happened two to three months before you go to grass.”
That’s when ranchers these days are going through calving season, said Justine Henderson, livestock production agent for the Central Kansas Extension District in Saline and Ottawa counties.
“Calving is probably one of the most important things on their minds this time of year,” she said in a telephone interview in early February.
“You want to make sure cattle are already meeting their nutritional requirements before going into calving season,” Henderson said. “It’s important to ensure the cows and heifers are in ideal body condition before, during, and post calving season.”
Winter challenge
A newborn calf stands near its suspicious mother after giving birth Feb.10 in a milo stalk field south of Brookville, Kansas. (Journal photo photo by Tim Unruh.)
Calving commands most of Ralph Johnson’s attention through February. Before the Brookville, Kansas, rancher can delve into dealing with warmer conditions, he’s contending with baby bovines hitting the frozen landscape in western Saline County.
“This arctic stuff is hard on them,” Johnson said, referring to windchill factors feeling like 20 below zero.
“If the calves are born in the right place, out of the wind, and the mother works with them, they can survive.”
But if all of the above isn’t sufficient, alternatives include taking them indoors.
“You’ve got to get them warmed up, maybe put them under a heat lamp, and give them some colostrum,” he said.
An “ideal diet” is essential to the pregnant cows during winter months, said Sam Hands, of Triangle H, a farm and ranch primarily in southern Finney County. That includes adding vitamins A and E, and proteins to the diet during gestation, which lasts about 283 days.
“You’re trying to feed the fetus internally so it grows and is prepared to meet the world,” he said.
Before calving, Johnson feeds his cows prairie hay and sedan grass, plus a couple of pounds daily of range cubes containing 20% protein, each day.
As calving begins, he ups the range cubes to 5 or 6 pounds a day. If the herd is running on milo stalks, free-choice protein lick tubs are included.
“After the grass starts, I just feed mineral and salt until fall. Then I start feeding pellets,” Johnson said. “Everybody has a little bit different program. I think extra feed pays off, for cows and calves both.”
Seasonal needs
Hands divides his year in half—winter and summer months—and relates first to the cattle’s environment, whether they’re pasture cattle or in cow-calf or stocker operations.
Sam Hands, farmer-rancher in southwest Kansas, poses with some of his herd. (Courtesy photo.)
“In the winter months, if possible, you’ve provided shelter and windbreaks because of the cold north winds and snow,” he said. “Whereas, in the summer, you would provide shade, make it more comfortable for the cattle.”
And out in semi-arid southwest Kansas with few trees and other natural barriers to the elements, Hands added, “In pastures, you don’t get much shade or wind protection from a one-wire electric fence.”
Justin Waggoner, Ph.D., Kansas State University Research and Extension beef cattle specialist, trains his spotlight on momma cows as he gears producers for the change in seasons.
“It’s always a good idea for us to make ourselves aware of cow body conditions,” said Waggoner, whose base is in the Southwest Area Extension Office in Garden City, Kansas.
He typically evaluates cows on a scale of 1 to 9, but the highest number isn’t necessarily best.
“Ideal is around 5 or 6,” Waggoner said. “A thin cow is at 1 or 2 and extremely fat or obese is 8 or 9.”
The typical target is 5, he said.
“That’s kind of our minimum for reproductive success in the next breeding season,” Waggoner said. “For a lot of producers, if we’ve done a good job of managing through the fall and winter months, in many cases, we’re on target.”
This time of year brings cold stress on cattle, he said, which increases demand for energy but not necessarily protein.
“Take the energy up. A lot of times, we target making sure cows have plenty of available forages, growing crop residues—corn or milo stalks—or native grass with supplements that will bring both proteins and energy into the profile,” Waggoner said.
Typically, it involves feeding 2 to 6 pounds of commercial range cubes, or byproduct distillers grains from ethanol plants or corn gluten feed, he said, and some producers supplement with alfalfa hay.
Rations key
Confined feeding will include ensilage, hay and byproducts as a protein source.
“That’s maybe more common in north central Kansas and Nebraska; not so much in Garden City,” Waggoner said. “In southwest Kansas, a large number of producers are utilizing some form of crop residues, like corn stalks or dormant native grass.”
Similar goals exist with fall calving August into October, with breeding during December and January.
With assistance from his loyal cow dog, Rusty, farmer-rancher Ralph Johnson closes a barb-wire gate Feb. 10 after checking his cow herd for newborns near Brookville, Kansas. In the foreground, another canine helper, Ivey, observes. (Journal photo by Tim Unruh.)
“Our goal with fall calving cows is somewhat the same as spring calving,” he said. “Make sure you’re going into the winter months with cows having a good body condition score. In some situations, you may need to begin supplementation on fall calving cows prior to calving in the August and September time frame.”
Then it’s really just the same—monitoring cow conditions through the winter months, Waggoner said, by making sure the animals have adequate forage available.
“That’s going to be the prime driver of the amount of energy they can consume to meet their requirements,” he said. “We utilize protein supplementation on those animals as well, enhancing the digestion for forages, making sure cows get the most out the forage they’re consuming.”
Before weaning, Waggoner may consider giving calves supplemental feed, although most of their nutrients come from milk.
“They will begin to graze some forage up to weaning times. Some may choose creep feeding (an apparatus that keeps the cow from the feed),” he said. “It is still a common practice for many, but there can be an additional cost to consider.”
Another focus that varies by season, Hands said, is updating vaccines and tackling parasites—for example, lice and grubs during winter and flies in summer.
Feedlots may opt for a natural attack by distributing wasp larvae that are predators to the flies, also spraying and pouring insecticides to control the pests.
“Using natural means is good, also in feed,” Hands said. “You’ve still got to have Mother Nature to make the world go around, but you have to make it more comfortable for the cattle, particularly in more concentrated environments.”
There are advantages to feeding ruminant critters like cattle, with four stomachs.
“They’re like a tremendous processing unit,” Hands said. “Their digesting system is geared toward dry matter (feed).”
In the warm season, supplements include a range of minerals when the herd is grazing on green grass, and he recommends supplementing dry forage.
“Make that process a little more smooth and (the transition to green forage) not so drastic,” Hands said. “Ruminant animals can digest a great variety of products. They can take what might be considered not useable from a human standpoint, to being able to produce high quality red meat for humans.”
Tim Unruh can be reached at [email protected].
In the process of producing a herd, summer isn’t all that critical for mother cows in waiting.
After giving birth and weaning their calves roughly six months after birth, it’s chill time for the bovine mom.
“The easiest cow to take care of is the one not lactating,” said Jaymelynn Farney, Ph.D., Kansas State University Research and Extension livestock specialist in Parsons.
“But if you short the cow of some necessities, you’re setting up their offspring to see some problems,” she said.
She pointed to University of Nebraska data showing that specific problems arise with pregnant cows at certain points in their gestation, when they are lacking key elements.
A lack of nutritional needs mid-pregnancy will impact marbling and meat quality in their offspring, Farney said.
“(Nutritional neglect) in the last trimester impacts fertility in their heifer calves,” she said. “There are increased sick calves and medicine costs. If you botch it in that last trimester, you’re setting yourself up for a world of hurt.”
Major focuses are in vitamins A and E.
“You provide vitamin A supplements to the dam, the mother, at least 45 days before you begin calving,” Farney said.
One big reason is to improve the quality of the colostrum, she said, and it takes 30 days for the cow to make it.
“Quality colostrum helps reduce scours. That’s the No. 1 cause of death for calves,” Farney said.
The quality of the mother’s colostrum is vital.
Vitamin A is only minimally shared to the fetus through the placenta, she said.
“Colostrum consumption and absorption is necessary for the calves. That’s how they get their vitamin A,” Farney said. “By feeding it to the dam, you get the vitamin to both animals. (Newborns) need at least a couple good meals of the colostrum within six hours of birth. The older they get, the more the gut lining closes, so they don’t absorb as much colostrum.”
Vitamin A and other essential nutrients can be supplied through formulated minerals fed to the cow, she said, that will provide 100 to 150% of her daily requirement of vitamins.
But the costs of some base minerals rose from $400 a ton last year to $700 now.
“That’s going to be sticker shock to everybody,” Farney said.
Good alternatives for vitamin A are “lush, leafy green forage or pasture, any plant that is essentially in the growing phase, that isn’t mature yet,” Farney said.
Other examples are cover crops, and also legumes such as alfalfa.
Cattle can store vitamin A to a degree, she said, “but you can’t really count on liver-stored vitamins to meet requirements during times when those plants are dormant.”
Current year alfalfa that’s put up during early bloom, Farney said, “can have pretty good sources of vitamin A, but as soon as it’s mature alfalfa hay, it drastically drops the amount of vitamin A.
“For any form of fermentation, like haylage or silage, even if you put it up perfectly, over time, vitamins A and E become degraded. There is less of it for the animal,” she said. “Deeper into the fall or winter, you may have to supplement it; 45 days to 2 months before calving, you really need it.”
One of the most common maladies is “weak calf syndrome, where they just don’t get up and nurse,” Farney said. “They can’t get the colostrum, and if you don’t have injectable vitamin A, it’s sometimes tough.”
The main benefit of vitamin E is with the health side, she said, or the immune system, absorbing minerals such as selenium.
“That helps with general metabolism, weight gain, hoof health, normal growth and fertility, calf scours, mastitis in the cow’s udders and selenium deficiency in baby calves,” she said. “Most common disease associated with low selenium and vitamin E is white muscle disease that can hurt all the muscles—the heart diaphragm, legs, tongue. It’s a tough battle to keep them alive.”
Compared to vitamin A, Farney said, the requirement for vitamin E is 100-fold lower.
“For a dry pregnant cow, you need 1,270 international units per pound of dry matter intake, whereas a stressed newly received long haul calf to a feedlot, only needs 20 units of vitamin E a day,” she said. “You have to feed a lot more A than E getting within 45 days of calving, but make sure you supplement some extra E.”
“Colostrum is a breast fluid produced by humans, cows and other mammals before breast milk is released. It’s very nutritious and contains high levels of antibodies, which are proteins that fight infections and bacteria.
Colostrum promotes growth and health in infants and newborn animals. Research (also) shows that taking bovine colostrum supplements may promote immunity, help fight infections and improve gut health throughout life.”
Source: healthline.com
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