Tri-State Neighbor: South Dakota Farm Newspaper

As calving season approaches, Cody Wright, Extension beef specialist with South Dakota State University, says now is the time to ensure your cow is in top pre-calving condition.

“Most people are 45-63 days out from calving, this is when the fetus begins to grow the most - from now until calving time good nutrition is even more important,” Wright said. “Look at the cow's body condition score in terms of nutrition.”

Wright says a good body condition score (BCS) for a mature cow is 5 to 5.5, for younger cows or bred heifers, a good BCS is 6 to 6.5. If it looks like the cows are not where they should be, he says there is still time to make a positive difference.

“If they are a little short, producers have the opportunity to support the cow with corn, distillers grains or soybean hulls. There are a lot of ways you can go - maybe better hay or silage to get a little extra flesh on the cow,” he said.

He says not to forget about the cow's vitamin and mineral program, especially if the cows are on poor quality forages or winter range.

“Mineral levels - vitamin A in particular, can get low. A good vitamin and mineral program is important to maintaining the health of the cow and calf,” Wright said.

The cow's condition pre-calving is important to the success of this calf and the cow's reproductive future, according to Wright.

“It gives you some insurance if their post-calving nutrition is not adequate to meet the needs,” Wright said. “A cow's nutritional needs are the highest 45 days after the calf is born and the cow has reached peak milk production. At this point, they are not only supporting their own maintenance, but supporting lactation. Young cows may still be growing.”

As a reminder, Wright says that producers should not reduce nutrition of the cows in order to reduce birth weight.

“Research shows that there is very little, if any effect on birth weight,” Wright said. “It does show that it can create weaker cows and calving difficulty if nutrition is shortened.”

He also points out that pre-calving health is also important to calf health. He says that research shows that good BCS is related to how much immunity is passed onto the calf through the cow's colostrum.

“As the cow has a better BCS the higher the concentrations of immunoglobulins were passed on to the calf,” Wright said. “If you compare BCS of 5 to 6 as compared to BCS of 3 or 4 - the levels may be twice as high for certain immunoglobulins.”

Timing of colostrum is important to the amount of immunity calves absorb. Wright says it is key that the calf receives 2 quarts of colostrum within 6 hours after birth and another 2 quarts of colostrum within 12 hours of birth.

“If you get out to 36-48 hours they won't absorb any immunoglobulins and you've missed your chance to provide a temporary immune system to the calves,” he said.

For situations where the cow is not a good milker or the calf is not aggressive and does not get up to drink, Wright says it is a good idea to have some extra colostrum on hand.

Even though he says commercial supplements are better than nothing, Wright encourages producers to get colostrum from a local johnes-free dairy.

Once calving starts, keeping them clean and dry helps prevent the spread of disease. If a calf does get scours, having a good calving system in place, where the pens are cleaned frequently, Wright says is important to breaking the scours cycle.

“Work with your vet to help develop a system that will minimize the risk that if a calf gets scours it does not go through the entire calf crop,” Wright said.

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