Before the start of calving season, you want everything on hand that might beneeded, and all facilities and equipment functional and ready for use. If you have a fertile herd with short breeding/calving season, it’s been at least 10 months since last year’s calving; your mind and efforts have been on other tasks.
A few calves may arrive a week or 10 days early, so don’t wait till the last minute to get machinery out of the calving barn or maternity pen if that’s where you stored it over summer/fall or winter, or try to find the new box of OB gloves you bought last year.
If you haven’t used your calf puller for a few years, or a halter, or some other item that might be needed, it pays to remember where you left these. It’s frustrating to be rummaging around in the middle of the night trying to find what you need when a heifer decides to calve 3 weeks ahead of schedule and needs help or a cow is having a backward calf, or you discover the item you need is broken and needs to be repaired or replaced.
THINGS TO HAVE ON HAND FOR THE COWS
Dr. Mark Hilton, formerly at Purdue University and now at Elanco as a Farm Animal Health Advisor, says you should have all the important things handy and easy to grab—whether it’s OB chains or medications you might need. “Keep oxytocin on hand, and epinephrine. If you are dealing with a malpresentation and the head is back, or a foot is back, or it’s breech—and you think you can correct it–giving the cow an injection of 10 cc epinephrine in the neck will relax her uterus and you can push the calf back in for straightening. This makes it a lot easier to get the job done and get the calf out,” he says.
Dr. Robert Callan, Professor, Livestock Services, Colorado State University, says you’ll need disinfectant for cleaning up a cow before you check her or assist a birth, or for dipping a calf’s navel. “Povidone iodine (Betadine) or chlorhexadine (Nolvasan) both work. Nolvasan is more expensive than Betadine, but not necessarily better,” says Callan.
It’s nice to have both the scrub product and the solution. The scrub contains a detergent and can be used when cleaning the perineal area of the cow. A small squirt bottle is handy to apply the scrub. “The disinfectant solution is something you’d use diluted with water as a rinse,” he says.
Have a bucket on hand for wash water (water mixed with disinfectant solution), a scoop for pouring the water/disinfectant over the back end of the cow to clean her up, or squeeze bottles (like empty dish soap bottles) for squirting warm water/disinfectant solution onto the cow. “Roll cotton works well for scrubbing and cleaning. It holds a lot of fluid when you pull it out of the bucket. It works better than paper towels or clean rags,” Callan says.
You need a good OB lubricant when assisting a dystocia. “There are two kinds. One is carboxy methylcellulose and costs about $15 per gallon. It works best if you add half a gallon of hot water to the gallon of lube. You can use a stomach pump and a stomach tube to put the lube directly into the vaginal canal and uterus. Diluting it with hot water makes it easier to pump in, and warms it to body temperature,” says Callan.
“The other type of lube (polyethylene polymer), J-lube, is inexpensive and comes as a powder. You just add warm water, which is very convenient. But one of the lesser known things about this lube is that it can be fatal if it gets into the cow’s abdomen. If there’s any chance that she’ll need a C-section, don’t use J-Lube,” he says.
FOR THE CALVES
Other things to have on hand include a disinfectant for a calf’s navel stump. “Most herds don’t need this if they are calving out on pasture,” says Hilton. “But if you are calving inside, in a barn or pen—or had to get a cow or heifer in for help and the pair ends up staying in the barn or pen awhile—this is more important. Herds that calve inside a barn are more at risk for many problems, including respiratory disease, navel ill and scours in baby calves.”
You can’t assume you won’t have problems just because the herd is calving out on grass. Some people with a minimum-management herd, calving a bit later in the spring when weather is nice and there’s green grass, become complacent and don’t have the things on hand that they might need in an emergency.
Make sure you have everything you’ll need for newborn calves—elastrator rings if you band baby bulls at birth, injectable products like vitamins A, D & E, selenium, vaccines, ear tags for calf identification, etc. The ear tags may be nylon/plastic write-on tags for in-herd identification, or you may want official USDA AIN (Animal Identification Number) tags. “The AIN tags make it easier if the calf needs a health certificate for interstate transport or other regulatory functions later in life,” says Callan.
If you don’t have tags purchased and ready, those calves may be harder to catch and tag when they are several days old!
Callan recommends giving newborn calves vitamins A, D & E if the cows were on dry forage before calving, or if pasture quality is poor due to drought. “Have it ready,
and don’t use last year’s bottle that has been sitting there with dust on top, and already had multiple needles going into it. If the product was contaminated with bacteria, this could result in injection-site infections. Vitamin E preparations have a short expiration date. Injectable vitamins are inexpensive, and it’s best to start with new bottles each calving season.”
It’s a good idea to have colostrum replacer on hand, frozen colostrum from last year, or plan to obtain colostrum to freeze from some of the earliest calving cows. “If you buy a colostrum product, make sure it’s a replacer and not a supplement,” he says. There’s a wide variety in quality.
A colostrum product should have a minimum of 100 g of IgG per dose. “Ask your veterinarian what to buy,” says Hilton. Some products are much better than others; there is a huge variation in quality and effectiveness. Make sure you have something with research data behind it,” he says.
“Frozen colostrum from one of your own cows is far better than any commercial product,” says Callan. “For freezing colostrum, use 1-gallon Ziploc bags. Collect 1 to 2 quarts of colostrum from a mature cow after her calf has nursed. It’s best to collect this within 6 hours of birth. Place 1 quart of colostrum in the gallon bag to freeze. The gallon bag works better than a smaller one because it has a greater surface area when frozen flat, and can be thawed quickly in warm water,” he says.
Plan your BVDV control program. “Are you going to collect and test ear notches on calves? The best time to do it is when tagging them soon after they’re born. You can store the ear notches in separate tubes in the refrigerator or freezer, and then give them to your veterinarian to send in, at whatever intervals work for you,” Callan says.
Depending on your situation and herd health program, you may also be giving newborn calves Clostridial vaccines like perfringens type C & D, or maybe an oral E. coli vaccine. Work with your herd health veterinarian to know if you need to vaccinate the cows pre-calving or the calves at birth, in your situation.
A few packages of electrolytes are also good to have, in case a few calves get scours. There are some good products on the market but check with your veterinarian on
what to buy, because there are some that are not so good. If you get caught without anything on hand, you can use a homemade recipe (½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon “lite” salt, ¼ teaspoon baking soda) dissolved in 2 quarts of warm water.
In case of emergencies, have your veterinarian’s phone number memorized, or posted on the wall, or in your cell phone.
CALVING FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT
Do a walk-through of your calving set-up before calving, if you have a barn or pens for assisting problem births, or for shelter during inclement weather. “Make sure you have proper restraint (a head catch, or place to tie a cow, and a halter and rope) and good lighting,” says Callan. If it’s the middle of the night you don’t want to have to depend on flashlights.
CHECKLIST (Things to have on hand)
• Halter and rope
• Disposable long-sleeve OB gloves
• Obstetrical lubricant in a squeeze bottle
• Plastic bucket for wash water and/or plastic squeeze bottles for wash water
• Rags for washing the cow
• Clean OB chains and handles
• Calf-puller
• Oxytocin and epinephrine
• Suction bulb for suctioning fluid from nostrils of newborn calf that’s not breathing
• Iodine or chlorhexadine for disinfecting navel stump of newborn calves
• Flashlight (with batteries that work!)
• Injectable antibiotics for cows/calves, prescribed by your vet
• Sterile syringes and needles
• Bottle and lamb nipple for feeding a calf
• Stomach tube (nasogastric tube) or esophageal feeder for feeding a calf that can’t nurse
• Frozen colostrum from last year, or a package of commercial colostrum replacer
• Electrolytes
• Tool box to hold/carry needed items in one handy place
• Calf sled or cart to bring newborn calf in from the field to the barn
• Two thermometers—one for sick calves and one for checking newborn or young calves that get hypothermic
All too often we don’t clean things up or put them away when calving is over; maybe we left some equipment out and handy but didn’t need it for those last calves and we didn’t go back and put everything away for next year.
“It’s wise to pressure-wash or steam clean every hard surface, strip out the base of the barn or stalls and throw in some new dirt or some lime,” he says. Have fresh bedding on hand in a convenient location.
Make sure your calf chains or straps are clean and in a handy location. The calf puller should be cleaned up, and in the barn/calving stall within easy reach. Check for any rust or damage, and address those problems before you need it. A halter and rope may also be useful. A long soft cotton rope for laying down (casting) a cow for easier calf delivery (after correcting a malpresentation) is good to have on hand.
A calf or lamb nipple and bottle is handy if you need to feed a newborn calf colostrum. A nasogastric tube and funnel, or an esophageal probe feeder should also be part of your equipment for any calves that are unable to suck a bottle. “Check the tubes you used last year. If they are old, stiff or dirty, get a new one. An old one may crack/break/leak if the plastic goes bad over summer. When you suddenly need it, you don’t want to discover you need a new one, especially if it’s the middle of the night!”
If you use an esophageal tube, it’s best to have two of them—one for colostrum for newborn calves and a different one for getting fluid into sick calves. Don’t use the same one. Mark them, perhaps one with a C and one with an S, or something like that, so that you always know you are not using the same tube on a newborn that you’ve used for scouring calves.
Always wash the tube feeders between uses and keep them in a clean place. It’s also wise to have a new one on hand in case one of the older ones breaks or starts leaking, or the bulb on the end of the tube gets roughened. Using an old cracked tube might introduce E. coli into every new calf you tube. If you are calving during cold weather, have a plan for how you will warm up any calves that get too cold. This could be a heater/warming box, or a tub you can put them into with warm water.
PASTURE MANAGEMENT FOR COW-CALF PAIRS
Another important planning aspect is where you’ll put calving cows, and cow-calf pairs. “It’s been proven that the Sandhills Calving System will decrease scours and other infectious diseases,”nsays Callan. “This system takes advantage of multiple calving pasture areas to reduce buildup and transmission of pathogens from older calves to younger calves. One pasture area is used for calving at the start of calving season. After that, the animals that have not yet calved are moved to a new pasture area every 1 to 2 weeks depending on herd size
and pasture availability. The cow-calf pairs that are already on the ground stay in the
pasture they calved in. This system requires 4 to 8 pastures,” he says.
“If you don’t have the pasture set-up, you can put up temporary electric fencing to divide some pastures for when the cows start calving. Don’t wait until the ground freezes if you are going to build new fences,” Callan says.
Dr. Claire Windeyer, Assistant Professor, University of Calgary, says preparation for calving starts with feeding and pasture management of the cows. “It always helps if
you can have the cows calve in a different pasture than where they over-wintered. Pasture management is huge, for scours prevention—having a clean area for cows to calve. It is also important to move pairs out of that calving pasture as quickly as possible,” she says.
“It helps to put them into a separate pasture, and if possible, group the pairs according to age of the calves.” Then you are not putting new babies in with older calves
that may already be shedding scours pathogens. The pathogens in the environment can increase exponentially as calving season progresses; calves born later in the season may be exposed to much greater concentrations if they are kept in the same environment as the early-born calves.
“In every situation, it helps to keep calving season short. Most people think in terms of reproduction and a short breeding season, but it’s also crucial in terms of pathogen load in the environment. The longer the calving season, the more pathogen buildup there will be.”
BEDDING AND WINDBREAKS
“For people calving in early spring when weather might be bad, there is value in having piles of straw the calves can nestle into. If a calf can lie in bedding, so that the legs are buried, this is equivalent to the ambient temperature being about 10 degrees warmer,” says Windeyer. The bedding serves as cushion (between the calf and frozen ground), helps keep calves dry, acts like a windbreak, and traps warm air around the calf.
“Before calving, putting up wind fences and providing calf shelters will have huge benefits. March can be unpredictable here, and sometimes brutal. Most people consider January and February the toughest months to calve, but you know what you are getting into and can plan accordingly. By contrast, March is so unpredictable you never really know what you will get,” she says. A person can plan to calve in the cold, or in the warm weather of summer, but March-April can be difficult to plan for, so it’s best to be prepared for the worst case scenario.
