Bulls for Sale for Fall Calving

In Focus, Black Angus Bull born March 2011

Cows can have their calves (calving)  at any time of the year (females cycle every 21 days and take nine months for gestation). Traditionally farmers breed their cows to calve in March.  The idea being that the cows will nurse their calves on spring and summer pastures when forage is abundant.

The problem with spring calving for me is wet, chilly or muggy weather that can kill even the hardiest calves.  The result is many farmers delay calving until April and May which means smaller calves when its time to sell them in the fall - a traditional time to sell calves. That means less money for calves, though the cost of keeping the cow doesn't change.  

As a result farmers have changed to breeding their cows for fall calving.  This means the calves are ready to sell in the spring when prices are often higher.  The calves come in good weather on dry pastures and usually the cows have enough nutrition rich forage in the pastures to get the calves off to a good start before bad weather sets in.

BTAP ZZ Tom, born March 15, 2012,  an exceptionally nice 600lb plus bull calf.

Cows nursing calves through the winter need extra nutrition, so feed costs are a little higher, but the extra cost should be offset by higher spring prices and less calf loss. 

Personally I like to breed my cows to calve in January and February.  Usually in those months we have cold, dry weather or some snow, but frozen ground.  Disease can't get started and as long as the cows are well fed and producing rich warm milk, the calves thrive.  I provide a calf pen in the barn that only the calves can access so they get shelter from wind and storms and are safe from the big animals laying on them or stepping on them.

BTAP Thor, born January 2011 in an ice storm.
 

Usually, I'm pretty sure when a cow is going to calve and I keep her near a barn where I can watch her.  I prefer the calves be born on clean pastures to control any threat of disease and mostly the cows like to calve outside as well.  It's important though to provide barn access and most cows who calve outside in cold weather will bring their calves into the barn after the first six hours or so.

The exception was BTAP Thor (pictured above).  His mother, Valentine, (born February 2000) is my oldest cow, the first Limousin ever born on the farm.  She had not had a calf in 2010 after giving birth to twins in 2009, so I was caught off guard when she didn't come to the barn for feeding time one January afternoon.  I found her back in the far woods obviously in labor with an ice storm just starting to pelt us.  There was no time to move her almost half a mile to the nearest barn so I brought her straw for bedding, hay and grain to eat and she chose to keep her calf under a large evergreen wild cedar tree.  Every day for a week it rained or snowed and I worried about the calf. I brought Valentine more hay and grain each day and thought I would surely find the little guy dead of cold. But after a week she proudly brought him to the barn and he has been a strong healthy bull, breeding cows this summer and looking forward to his second birthday this coming January.