The men of the farm, walking back home at day’s end.
Welcome to the Week 3 post on our 2019 Calving Season.
Please be sure to check out Week 1 and Week 2 of our 2019 Calving Season.
Week of Monday, May 13th – Sunday, May 19th
Monday, May 13th – Thursday, May 16th – Very quiet. No activity on the farm in terms of calves being born. Lots of calves playing in the field!
Friday, May 17th – While doing an afternoon check with my youngest son, baby calf #14 came into the world. Immediately upon going through the gate to the back pasture, I could see a mama cow in labor. This cow’s tail was lifted and bent in that tell-tell sign of labor.
Tail lifted high and slightly bent
I have seen many baby calves born over the the last five calving seasons and the awe and wonder has never wavered with each birth. Each birth and new life is just as exciting as the previous. This particular birth was extra special as my youngest son was able to witness it with me. I quietly explained to him what was happening and why. As we watched the mama cow push out the calf, he was so amazed! My camera died on me during the delivery but here are a few pictures of calf #14 being born.
Zoomed in on calf #14 entering the world!
Head out!
Almost all out!
Calf #14 a few hours after being born.
Saturday, May 19th – I was doing a check before supper and as was the case the previous day, I immediately knew we had another calf coming. This mama cow was way across the field but I could see 20 cows, standing and grazing, and one cow laying on her side and I could see a speck of white by her tail. I excitedly walked across the field. I discovered that this cow was one of our first-calf heifers. We have four this year and one had already given birth. This heifer already had her calf’s hooves pushed out but seemed to be a bit stalled.
First-calf heifer laboring hard to push out her calf.
First-calf heifers often labor longer and this one was no exception. In the end, though, she was able to deliver a beautiful baby calf – all on her own. She worked HARD. Calf #15! All four of us were able to witness this birth – a first on the farm! Jer and I have only been together for births that required us to pull the calf! It will be a neat memory to look back on, all four of us silently cheering on our first-calf heifer and pumping our arms in the air when calf #15 finally made his/her appearance AND was healthy!
and we have a calf! Good job, first-time mama!
Calf #15 standing!
Calf #15 the day after been born.
Sunday, May 19th – I had predicted the previous evening that one of our remaining mama cows would have a baby the next day, and I was proved correct during the morning check. Calf #16!
Calf #16!
This calf was already walking around like a champ with his/her mama and nursing like a pro.
Taking a Sunday stroll with mama. Calf #16
What a great start to our Sunday morning!
Our calving season is winding down. and we only have a few more calves left to be born. So far, we have not had to assist with any births. We believe that this is mainly due to our calving-ease bull. He had already proven himself to be a sire of primarily smaller calves, that are easy to deliver. Proof of his reputation as a calving-ease bull is currently in our back field, in the form of 16 beautiful baby calves!
On our farm, we want our baby calves to just slip-out, so to speak. As such, we cannot stress enough how important bull selection is to your operation. Selecting the right bull should be a top priority (and given very careful consideration to) when planning out your breeding season.
Before we knew it, THAT time was upon us again.Our 60-day breeding season had come and gone in the blink of an eye and it was time for us to answer the question that had been looming over our heads all summer – are they pregnant?! They, of course, being our 20 cows.
Just another day at work.
We leased a red Angus bull (known for calving ease calves) for our breeding season this year, and we witnessed many of our cows and first-year heifers being bred by him over the course of the season.
The mounting behavior shown by the heifer in this picture was a good sign to us at the time that she was – or would soon to be – cycling. While we did not observe an actual breeding session, her pregnancy test was positive.
That being said, though, there were no guarantees that we would have viable pregnancies. In addition, we had a good handful of cows with no observed breeding but for almost all of them, though, we did at least observe signs of estrus or cycling. We were cautiously optimistic!
Our breeding season this year was especially important and critical to the success of our operation as half of our herd were actively nursing their calves – their first ever calves – during the breeding season. First-calf heifers are notorious for not breeding back. After ensuing the demands of a first-time labor and delivery and then, nursing that calf for months on end, some of these cows simply never regain the body condition needed to resume estrus.
We had our eyes on this momma cow all summer. She appeared to be struggling with maintaining good body condition while nursing. Fortunately, though, she showed signs of cycling and while we did not observe a breeding session, her pregnancy test did come back positive. We were also keeping our eye on this momma cow. On the positive side, she was nursing and eventually weaned, a very nice sized heifer calf. On the negative side, the demands of lactation proved too much for this momma cow as she never did cycle again after giving birth. We recently culled her from our herd.
In our herd, we had a few momma cows struggling to maintain a good body condition while still nursing.
In addition, we encountered an especially dry summer for our region, with grass regrowth and quality not on par with previous years.
Our momma cows were being tested in a very big way this past summer. Could they maintain the body condition needed to provide milk for their calves AND be bred back all the while grazing -at times- on lower quality pastures? It was the question that loomed over our heads all summer and quite honestly, right up to the day we found out who was pregnant and who was open. As you can see in the picture above, we did not have a 100% pregnancy rate.
Cow pregnancy checks – 2013
With last year being our very first year to have cows pregnancy checked, we went the traditional way and had our vet come to our farm and do pregnancy checks on our 10 cows.
This year, though, we had 20 animals to test for pregnancy, and we felt it would be more cost-effective for us to draw a blood sample from each cow and have it tested for pregnancy. We learned that a company called BioTracking (www.biotracking.com) developed a pregnancy blood test for cattle called BioPRYN, which is performed by cooperating labs across the country. This option was very appealing to us not only for financial reasons but also for time reasons. Jer and I could do this together and we did not have to try to work around our vet’s schedule or risk having the weather bad on the day the vet comes. We could make the decision on relatively short notice, depending on the weather and how we ourselves were feeling and if we felt ready one morning or afternoon, we could simply round up the girls and get it done.
We knew that we wanted to do pregnancy checks via a blood sample but we needed to find a laboratory that would test the samples for pregnancy at a reasonable rate and time-frame. We did some research and discovered that the closest lab to us that did the BioPRYN test was the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. As we quickly learned, the process in which the lab uses to determine pregnancy via blood is very straightforward. The lab simply tests for the presence of PSP-B (pregnancy specific protein-B), which is produced by the placenta, in the cow’s blood. The heifer/cow you are pregnancy testing must be at least 28 days post-breeding and 73 days post-calving. The cost of the pregnancy test is $2.50/sample. We ordered a sample kit, which included 50 tubes and 50 needles and needle holders. The cost of this kit was $34.50 (shipping included).
November 2nd – Hello, winter. We meet again.
We ordered the kit while our breeding season was still active. After the kit arrived, we placed the box on the shelf in our office and we waited and waited and waited. We waited until November 11th to be exact. We were getting hit with some seriously early winter weather (1st snowstorm was on the 1st of November) combined with some mild days and our grounds were a sloppy, muddy mess.
November 8th – Melting snow giving way to a muddy, sloppy mess.
The morning of November 11th was a calm one with the ground frozen and no wind, no snow and no rain; the temperatures were definitely bearable to be working cattle through the chute. Jer had the day off as it was a holiday and we were expecting another snowstorm soon. All signs seemed to indicate that today was THE DAY. The timing worked out really well for us because my mom was visiting from Montana and she was able to watch our little boy so the two of us could focus 100% on the task at hand – getting our 20 girls, one-by-one, down the alleyway, into the chute, locked in the headgate and a vial of blood drawn. If my mom had not been visiting during this time, I would have simply worn our son in the backpack or we would have scheduled our work around his naptime.
Jer and I worked together that morning and in less than 2 hours, we had worked each of our 20 cows through our alley/chute/headgate and had 20 samples of blood. The blood was drawn from underneath the cow’s tail. In some cases, Jer was only able to pull a tiny amount of blood and we were very nervous that the sample would not be enough for the test. In other cases, he pulled a bit too much blood (hit a vein) but this was a learning experience and our very first time doing something like this. By the last 10 cows, Jer was quickly becoming an old pro at drawing blood. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures from that morning as I was 100% occupied with my task of keeping everyone in line and staying in the alleyway.
With our 20 cows happily back in their pasture and our work area cleaned up, we really wanted to get the blood samples in the mail ASAP. The lab only does bovine pregnancy testing on Mondays and Thursdays and we wanted our samples to be at the lab for the Thursday testing. Jer rushed to town and shipped our samples via FedEx to the lab in New Hampshire. I called the lab on Thursday morning and they had just received our blood samples and would be testing shortly thereafter. The lady on the phone told me to expect our pregnancy results via email by noon the next day. We were so nervous!!! As it was, Jer ended up being in the field all the next day and the results were sent to his email. My mom and I spent the whole day wondering and wondering and wondering. By 5:30pm, I was beside myself with what the results were. Jer arrived home and we quickly found out that 19 of our 20 cows were pregnant! The one open cow was not a big surprise as we never did observe her cycling after having her calf.
We would like to order 19 more of these, please. Due for delivery in spring/summer 2015.
Needless to say, we were relieved, elated and anxious for another calving season!
Calving season 2015, here we come! We pray for 19 healthy, red Angus baby calves.
The Red Angus bull that we are leasing for the 2014 breeding season. Don’t mind the spots, he is recovering from a bout of ringworm that he got at a different farm.
Here on the farm, a new breeding season is officially underway. Our leased Red Angus bull arrived at the farm a few weeks ago and our 10 heifers and 10 cows enthusiastically welcomed him! Our ten calves were a bit curious at all the excitement. In way of introduction, Nebula bull sniffed the rear of each heifer and cow. After he made the rounds and satisfied himself that no breeding was needed at that particular moment, he commenced to grazing.
With one breeding season and one calving season under our belts, we have learned a bit more about what we want in a bull. We have high hopes for this bull and all reports lean towards him being a calving-ease bull. Time will only tell. Check back with us in May 2015! 🙂
As with our breeding season last summer, we are taking detailed notes on any and all breeding activity and signs of estrus/cycling in the herd. A large majority of active breeding tends to happen between the hours of 7pm and 7am. Therefore, we are conducting our twice-daily, 30-minute minimum observation sessions during this window of time. We transfer our written notes into our CattleMax software. Cattle Max allows us to keep an organized account of breeding as well as notes on cycling and related behavior.
Ready or not?!
Nebula bull is a very interesting bull to watch. He is extremely thorough and he is constantly checking each female to see if she is ready for him. When Nebula isn’t eating or drinking, he is making the rounds of the herd. We are extremely pleased with his performance as well as his personality thus far.
Fleman response
Flehman response.
I have seem him exhibit the Flehman response (curls back upper lip to detect if female is cycling) more times than I can count.
We are just three weeks into our 60-day breeding season, but we believe that the majority of our 20 cows and heifers have been bred. Jeremiah or myself have either witnessed the breeding act itself or observed a bent/lifted tail on one of the heifers or cows that had been followed by the bull, which would indicate a recent breeding. Of course, there is no guarantee that all of the breedings took or that the pregnancy will be viable. As the breeding season progresses, we will be watching closely to see if any of the females that we thought were bred come into estrus again. If some or all do not cycle again, we will feel confident saying that that animal is pregnant!
For the next month and a half we will work hard to continue with our observation sessions and note-taking in the hopes of our remaining girls being bred. In November, we will once again have another pregnancy check and see how well Nebula bull performed.
Our veterinarian, Dr. Simon Alexander, pregnancy checking one of our heifers. November 2013.
Our last few posts have been bouncing back and forth between our current calving season and our breeding season last summer. Today, we bridge that gap a bit with a post on what we like to call “Is that Heifer Really Pregnant? – aka Pregnancy Checks.”
Check out our past Breeding and Calving posts below:
Our last post in our Cattle Breeding series found us nearing the end of our 60-day breeding season, wondering if all 10 of our heifers really were pregnant. From our observation sessions, we felt reasonably certain that eight of our 10 heifers had been bred. If not for those sessions, we really would have had very little clue as to what occurred during those 60 days. Our time spent with the herd and the observations that we recorded did (and continue to) provide priceless insight into the dynamics of our herd and all it costs us is a bit of our time…..
As we neared mid-September, our breeding season was coming to a close and we had winter on the mind. Specifically, we were coordinating our winter hay supply and putting together our winter hay bale grazing strategy. In the course of sorting through the logistics and crunching the numbers, it became increasingly evident that we simply could not afford – financially and otherwise – to carry open heifers through the winter. If one of our 10 heifers was not pregnant, she would be on the truck come Fall.
Since we had very little experience with pregnancy checking, we contacted our veterinarian, Dr. Simon Alexander of Exeter Veterinary Services to schedule a pregnancy check for all 10 heifers. We scheduled for Dr. Alexander to visit our farm in mid-November; he would conduct the pregnancy checks and we would also administer several vaccines at that time.
That gave us roughly two months to prepare for the visit. Roughly two months to figure out how exactly we were going to restrain these heifers in order for them to get pregnancy checked and to get their shots! The vet sure wasn’t going to be able to walk out to the pasture and simply “check” them where they stood! If only. Ha! If you remember our post where we talked about our lack of a tractor?? Well, we also lacked a holding pen with an alleyway and a squeeze chute with a headgate. These are items that we were fully aware we would need in order to work our herd – no mater if the herd is 10 animals or 100. When you work with large livestock, like cattle, you need a safe working environment for both you, the animal and your veterinarian.
Jeremiah was going to build our very own version of an alley and sweep system. At some point Jeremiah will write a post on his adventure in building our very own alley and sweep system. For now, suffice to say, this project ended up being a huge, monumental undertaking and it would consume every free second he had for those two months but the final product was so entirely worth it. I was so incredibly proud of what Jeremiah accomplished. The entire structure was built with wood he cut from our property and milled on our sawmill. Once all the wood was cut, he spent night after night, well past the sun set, putting the whole system together, nail by nail. It was unbelievable what he created.
With the completion of our alley and sweep system, we could check-off on one very critical component to our system. We still needed sort sort of squeeze chute and/or headgate to attach to our alley and sweep system. While we don’t live in a part of the country known for beef cattle, beef cattle farmers are here in northern Maine and they band together when a fellow farmer needs help.
We were able to borrow a portable livestock scale with a headgate and squeeze.
Our homemade alley and sweep system with attached squeeze chute and headgate.
Alley and sweep system.
Our completed homemade alley and sweep system with attached squeeze chute and headgate.
Our system was now complete.
We were ready for our vet visit and…….
to discover the fate of our herd and our entire operation.
We constantly spoke of all of the what if’s that could happen during our vet visit; most notably, we feared that one after one, our vet would announce “Not pregnant”, until all 10 were deemed open at which time we would probably assume the fetal position and cry. A LOT was riding on these pregnancy checks. Our operation could end before it really even started. That was a very real fear for us. Jeremiah and I lean towards more of a proactive approach, and we do not shy away from a bit of risk. We took a leap of faith with breeding 10 heifers to a yearling, unproven, bull.
We were about to find out if our leap of faith would produce rewards or sad, sad tears.
The day had finally arrived and Dr. Alexander was here, about to climb into the chute and pregnancy check our first heifer. Ironically, the first heifer in line was UL220. She is our youngest heifer and she ended up being our first heifer to have her calf this spring.
That first pregnancy check was a very big positive, literally and figuratively.
and another one pregnant!
One by one, each heifer was guided into the squeeze chute, pregnancy checked and then given their vaccinations.
Each heifer was given three vaccinations: 1) Decotmax for parasites, 2) MultiMin90 as a mineral supplement and 3) Bovi-Shield Gold 5 for a range of respiratory diseases.
Just another night on the ranch for baby Wyatt!
My responsibilities during this time were to document the event, with both written and visual records, and watch our 9-month old son. So, I strapped our son to my back, grabbed my notebook, pencil and camera, and I was good to go!
Jeremiah administrating a vaccination.
Jeremiah working the headgate and Derrick guiding a heifer into the chute.
Jeremiah assisted in administrating the vaccinations as well as operating the headgate and keeping the entire operation running smoothly and safely.
Our good friend, Derrick, assisted with encouraging the heifers to work through the alleyway, into the squeeze chute.
All of our fears of the vet yelling out “Not pregnant” were quickly stomped out when one after one, our vet called out “Pregnant!”.
Folks, we had 10 pregnant heifers!! 100% pregnancy rate. We probably still would have curled up in the fetal position and cried – for joy – if we had thought of it.
We celebrated by getting a pizza, uploading pictures and transferring our notes from that night to our computer!
We were certainly not in the safe yet, though. We needed 10 live and healthy calves on the ground in the spring. The hard work was starting, we needed to get these pregnant heifers and their unborn calves through a northern Maine winter!
