How much/often do you check your calving cows?

[braunvieh]

We keep our very close calving cows and heifers in a 2 acre paddock and check them about every 4 hours and occasionally at night if we think one is very close or a heifer is close. We are around to see almost all the calves born and sometimes intervene... I think just because we are watching so close.  But, we are 100% live births so far and our system makes it easy to get anyone in that needs help or checked.  We have been known to get someone in and pull the calf just so we know it is warm, inside and we can go to bed!!!
Once the calves are a couple days old and getting along good, they go out into an 80 acre pasture with the other calves and the cows that are farther off from calving. We don't always get up at night but having just a small herd and a purebred seedstock operation, losing just one really hurts and we have considerably more invested in each calf with ET and AI calves.

My dad, on the other hand, has a commercial Charolais herd and calves in huge pastures with live water and good protection, I check them morning and evening and if someone has trouble we either have a "fun" time getting them to a corral or they are on their own. Amazingly, we do not have many troubles with this system. He keeps the 1st and 2nd calvers at home where they can be watched closer and helped easier.

What do you do?

 

[justme]

we also do the 4 hour intervals when cows are due.  Seems to work well for us <beer>

 

[forbes family farms]

Right now we have 15 head of cows in the barn the others ones that are not so close are in a pasture the cows in the barn we check every 3 hours and if they are very close we check every 2 hours. Once the calves are a week old they go out into the pasture if everything is goin well.

 

[sue]

We check before bed and then at 2 or 3 am and that is it. I found a calf in the snow at 7 am - licked off and nursed...thank god for vigor. I am cheap and bedding is expensive.

 

[Show Heifer]

Geesh, you guys make this sound like work.... I check at 5:30 am at chore time. At Noon when I get home. At 5:30 pm at chore time. At 10:00 pm.  If nothing is going on, they are on their own till morning. If something is calving, I will stay up and check in 3 hours. I RARELY assist, even though I am a nervous nelly.
I don't know. I guess I think if I have done my preg cow managment correctly, if I have selected the right AI sires and herd bulls, if I have kept/bought the correct females, then I shouldn't have to babysit them.  I realize many will disagree and thats ok. Do what works for you and whatever your mental status can handle!

 

[aj]

We try and check heifers every 4 hours. Have 3 left out of 22.

 

[Steer Boy 101]

i think if you got 100% dont change a thing. we check ours off and on and at 10 at night and 1 am and agian at 5 am and last couple years we havint loss a one. this year its hurting us. we had some twins and a early,backwards, dead for 12 hrs one. but i wouldnt change a thing if i was you. good work

 

[OH Breeder]

Heifers we watch extremely close and typically pull them in. My circulation is bad so I built a heated calving room.  Put heifers in there and back the temp down after the calve. I am sitting on my BB waiting on one to calve.Cows about every 4 hours close to due date or any change in behavior. 
Do what works for you. I agree if u are batting 100 percent don't change a thing. 

 

[kanshow]

Depends on weather & where we are at in the calving season.      When things get to really hopping around here with the synched group of heifers they are checked every 2 hrs.  Mostly those checks are to keep the pairs sorted out and make sure all the calves get up and suck.

Cows - They get checked morning, noon, evening, and again at bedtime if someone is doing something.  The only time we check cows at night is when it is really really cold - & often if we think a cow is going to calve that night, we bring her up where she can get into the barn & out of the wind..  but mostly our cows are on their own.   

 

[justintime]

I check at 11-11:30 PM and if there are no signs of something calving, I do not check again until 6:30 AM. Have done this for the past 5-6 years and have not had any problems yet. If there looks like something is thinking of calving when I check in the late evening, I put them in the barn and check them an hour later. I do not put them in the barn unless it is very cold. Right now I have far too many close to calving to know which ones to put in the barn.... even with breeding dates on several of them. Even my ET calves are scattered. I have 7 pregnant recips carrying pregnancies from the same flush right now. Three calved 4 days ago and 3 more look to be a few days off yet. Interesting, these were all ultrasounded and the ones that have calved had bull calves as was indicated by the ultrasound. The 3 that haven't calved were all predicted to be heifer calves and they could be a few days yet.

 

[ratmama2]

We check 3 times a day. At the AM feeding, when I get home from work and at the PM feeding. We feed grain at dusk once a day to the brood cows and we have not had an early morning birth in the last 4 years or so. I read about this in the Progressive Farmer mag and decided to try it one breeding season. Now I am hooked. My babies are born anywhere from early afternoon to early evening. No more really early AM births again for me, so I don't have to be up late or checking cows in the wee hours anymore.

 

[CAB]

We try to ck every 4 hours. When we used to have more cows, we would ck every 2 hours we were having inclimate weather. It does make it so that you can fall asleep in a hurry after so long. All you Moms I'm sure know what I am talking about.

 

[P-F]

We check throughout the day but have stopped checking at night after 10:00pm they are on there own.

 

[OH Breeder]

Heifers we watch extremely close and typically pull them in. My circulation is bad so I built a heated calving room.  Put heifers in there and back the temp down after the calve. I am sitting on my BB waiting on one to calve.Cows about every 4 hours close to due date or any change in behavior.  
Do what works for you. I agree if u are batting 100 percent don't change a thing.  

Took us a little while and her little forehead got caught. We had to assist a little. But here ya go. A northern improvement out of a 3C Macho x WMW heifer. She weighed 71#'s and is solid black with white 7 on her forehead. Lively little gal was up and eating in 15 minutes. Couldn't ask for better.

 

[ROAD WARRIOR]

Looks like Lucky 7 OHB! RW

 

[BrechtCattleCo]

Well sence I'm only a sophmore in high school I don't get to check them that often. Just 6am then when I get back from school. I will probly start coming home on my lunch brake if I have an expecting cow, now that I can drive. But for the night I check them quite often if I have one in the calving pen.