I am sitting here smiling to myself at some of the comments here. I dream of calving in some of the weather conditions mentioned here. We don't calve as early as we used to with most of the herd, but we do get some in very cold weather. I had two calves born a few days ago when it was -35 degrees, and with the wind chill it was -48. . While they were born in a barn, it is a big old barn with is hard to keep warm unless you have it full of cows. I always let the mother dry the calf off... always unless I find the calf in very cold state after being born outside. Then they get rubbed vigorously, and then but in a hot box for 2 -3 hours. I am a believer that the mother's tongue warms the calf up better than any rubbing I could ever do. It is also part of the bonding between mom and calf and I think it stimulates the instinct in the calf to get up and nurse. Once a calf has nursed it is quite amazing how much cold they can take ( with the exception of their ears). Keeping the wind off them is important. Several years ago, I helped calve cows at a large Simmental outfit with several hundred cows,for a couple weeks in February. Their calving barn had about 20 individual pens and the mother and newborn were kept there for no more that two days, even in the worst winter weather. They were then turned out into well bedded shed, and I was always amazed how the little calves seem comfortable. On some occasions it was -40 degrees, but they were turned out regardless. The calving barn had a good sized room that was heated, and they hired a retired neighbor to check the cows at night. He would set up all his wood working tools in the heated room, and build all kinds of neat items while checking the cows every couple hours. If a cow had started calving and had not made any progress after two hours, from when she had started, he would phone one of the herdsmen to come.
When I was in college, we were told that the fluid that covers the calf when it is born, actually protects the calf from the cold a little. I tend to agree with this, except I like to see them cleaned up by their mother asap after birth.
Even in the coldest weather, I do not cover the calves ears until the mom has had a chance to clean the calf up some. Of course there are exceptions. For example, I have found calves born unexpectedly outside or in a shed, and they have some frost bite on their ears by the time I get them pulled into the barn with my trusty calf sleigh. In these cases, I warm the ears up a little with my hands, then cover them with a calf hood, or duct tape them to their body. The tuck tape method works well but you have to make sure it is not real tight around the throat.
We lose an occasional calf to the weather conditions at birth. When labor is limited, there is only so many hours a person can live with the cows. Two years ago, I had my first 100 % calf crop. There were 172 calves weaned from 171 cows. We had three sets of twins and had one set stillborn, and lost another two twins. There was one other calf lost that was a malpresentation at birth and it took too long to get it born. Of these I only assisted 3 cows during calving. I have come close some years, but sometimes you can't come close with the best management. For example, with last years wicked winter that ran right through until late March, I had 3 calves that had to be put down because of real bad leg breaks due to being stepped on by their mothers, or other cows. We have calf pens set up in every pen, and the calves learn very young to use them. We had about 80 cows and heifers close to calving at the same time, as we had synchronized a set of heifers, implanted 20 embryos, and turned 5 herd bulls out within 2 days in the previous spring. It was hard to know which would calve first. I remember one bitter cold -30 night, I had picked out 28 cows that I though were the closest to calving, and I pulled 7 newborns in on the sleigh in the night, with none born in the barn.( a blizzard was moving in, and when this happens, you can expect some cows will calve, regardless of when they have been fed, or even when they were due) It was 48 hours before I got out of my winter coveralls and barn clothes. I used to be able to do this much better when I was younger. At one time we calved out 350 cows and I actually enjoyed calving time. Now I have to drag my sorry butt out in the freezing cold, and hope and pray all the way to the barn that nothing is calving. I only do mid night checks in very extreme cold temps. I do a good check at 11: 30 pm and if I do not see anything acting like it is thinking of calving, I go to bed and check them again at 6:30 am. Usually if something has calved, they have just calved or are in the process of calving in the early morning. There is an occasional calf born after midnight, but I try to make sure I put her in a calving pen when I do the late night check, and then I stay up and check her every hour until it has been born. Another thing that has helped me get a liitle more sleep during calving, is that I try to feed the cows just before dark and I start this about a month before the main herd starts to calve. Over the years, I would estimate that 80-85 % of our calves are born between 6 am and feeding time in the late afternoon.
The original thread was a concern about calving when the temps are in the 30s. I dream of calving in these conditions!
I always love seeing pictures of snow and thought I wanted to see snow in person but after the last few days you guys can keep your snow. I found out I am a real wimp when it comes to the cold.
