Well, I haven't posted in a little while thanks to the beginning of our calving season. It's so exciting to greet all of my new calves. We calve cows year round, but thanks to the seasonality of the herds that we purchased 5 years ago when we started farming, we calve heavily during the fall and winter months. The farmers that owned the cows before we bought them enjoyed not calving in the hot summer months and during planting. Therefore, we have LOTS of babies to be born in the next few months. Last week we were expecting 10 calves. With a 120 cow herd, that's almost 10% of our herd calving in one week!! We only had 7 calves born, currently I have 3 cows that are 3 days over due. We broke our bull calf streak last week, as we had 4 heifers born in a row! (followed by 3 bull calves in a row, but we are still pumped about the heifers!) The calf barn is once again busy, as is the fresh cow pen. Each morning Jon now has to check a handful of fresh cows to make sure they are doing great. It's awesome to be busy caring for our cows, this is my favorite time of the year. It's very rewarding to help a cow deliver a healthy calf, raise and nurture the calf and watch the new cow excel. I am hoping to post some of the awesome calf pictures in the coming days, so stay tuned! Off to bed, I might have some new calves waiting for me in the morning!!!
Please let us know what happens to the bull calves. How long do they get to live? Do you keep them on the farm and raise them or do they immediately go off to slaughter? Are they kept in crates or allowed space to walk around?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Thanks for your inquiry. Our bull calves are raised on our farm until they are 5-10 days of age. At this age they have transitioned to drinking milk from pails and we can determine if they are in good health. After we decide they are in good health, they are safe to move. They are sold to our neighbor who raises bull calves as steers, which are sold at 2 years of age as beef. None of our calves are housed in crates, but allowed to roam in pens or calf huts. Please feel free to stay connected to our blog to learn more about how we care for our cows!
ReplyDeleteIs it common for dairy operations to have seasonal calving? Or do most have babies born year-round?
ReplyDeleteKB: We try to calve year round, and with good barns that is possible. Most do try to avoid breeding cows to calve during the coldest and hottest months. But some do seasonally calve, most of those are also grazers.
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