K-State veterinarian reviews steps for cattle producers before and after calving.

Kansas State University veterinarian Gregg Hanzlicek said being prepared ahead of calving season is the best way for producers to ensure they will bring home the newborn calves successfully.

“We’re approaching the end of the second trimester and moving into the third trimester which means the metabolic demands of that cow or heifer are going to increase tremendously,” Hanzlicek said.

A key to having a successful calving and production season is for cows and heifers to be in the appropriate body condition, which according to Hanzlicek is a score of 5 to 7. He said he has seen many cattle in the 3 to 4 range in the past few months.

“We’re far enough away from calving that we can add condition to these cows and heifers without (creating) an economic burden,” he said. “It really comes down to having a formulated ration that is balanced for protein and energy.”

For those wanting to add scour vaccines to their prevention program, “it’s time to decide what vaccine they are going to use,” Hanzlicek said. “Look at the label and schedule on the calendar when they need to start vaccinating the cows and heifers.”

Hanzlicek said heifers will require two doses of the scours vaccine, while cows need one. The timing of those vaccines is “very, very important,” he said.

Also, Hanzlicek recommends establishing a clean calving area to help reduce the risk of scours. “There’s two major risk factors for scours,” he said. “One is the lack of colostrum consumption. The other is a contaminated environment that the babies are born into.”

Hanzlicek recommends having a location to move the pairs off the calving area to keep the calving facility less contaminated with the scour organisms.

Getting the calf here safely is another factor to consider, “Most operations are going to have to help at least one animal during the calving season,” Hanzlicek said. The last national survey indicated that 1 of every 100 heifers and 2 of every 100 adult cows will need assistance.

Being prepared to pull a calf is important. Hanzlicek said producers should have the following items on hand:

• Clean straps or chains;

• Obstetric sleeves;
• Lube;

• Working calf pullers; and

• Veterinarian’s phone number.

Intervening at an appropriate time is important. “If we intervene too early and the cow or heifer is not dilated, we can injure the tissues and hurt the calf,” Hanzlicek said. “If we intervene too late, a lot of times that’s when we end up with stillborn calves.”

According to Hanzlicek, once a cow has reached the second stage of labor, they should give birth within 30 minutes. A heifer should calve within an hour. Second stage labor is when the heifer or cow can be observed experiencing uterine contractions, or the water-bag or calf’s feet are visible.

If assistance from the producer is needed, and they are unable to extract the calf within 15 minutes, then help—either a veterinarian or someone with more experience—should be called.

Following calving, the calf should be up and nursing within two hours, Hanzlicek said. If not, a colostrum replacer can be given to help get the calf started.

“Colostrum-based powders are the best way to go, and I would recommend that every producer have one or two bags of powder replacer on hand during the calving season,” Hanzlicek said.

By K-State Research And Extension News Service

Cattle market prices are as high as they’ve been in a decade. That’s good news for producers who have been able to maintain their herds in recent years, but a missed opportunity for those who weren’t.

Throughout most of the year, both futures and cash markets for steers, calves and more marked a vast improvement over 2022. By the last week of November, prices for medium and large No. 1 steer calves (weighing 500 to 600 pounds) were above $270 per hundredweight, more than $80 per hundredweight higher than the same time in 2022 and more than $100 higher than the average from 2017 to 2021.

James Mitchell, assistant professor and extension economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said that the benefits of high prices largely fell to those with access to good grazing and forage.

“It was an exciting year in terms of markets for cattle,” Mitchell said. “Cattle prices leading up to the fall were as high as we’ve seen them in 10 years—that had lots of people excited about the future. On the production side, it was exciting depending on who you asked.” 

A wide swath of droughty conditions has made its way down the middle of the United States over the last several years—affecting first the Northern Plains states such as Montana and Idaho in 2021-2022, then the Southern Plains of Kansas and Texas and finally the Southeast in 2023.

“About three-quarters of Arkansas was heavily affected,” Mitchell said. “The southeastern United States has been hit incredibly hard by drought. All of our neighbors to the east—Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Florida—are in a pretty tough spot, still very much in a drought. So for them, there’s not much they can do with these high prices, because they don’t have any grass or forage. There was nothing they could really do this winter, in terms of retaining calves.

“So you’ve got significant portions of cattle-producing states suffering through drought, forcing them to shrink or liquidate their herds because of a lack of forage,” he said. “When you have three consecutive years of that, you’re going to have a tightening of beef cow availability, which means you’ve got fewer calves being born each year. So you have tighter and tighter supplies, which of course leads to higher prices—assuming demand holds steady.”

In January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the total U.S. beef cattle inventory was at its lowest since 1962, declining more than 3% from the previous year to 28.9 million head. The inventory reported an entire cattle inventory of 89.3 million. Mitchell said he believes the forthcoming USDA Cattle Inventory report, expected in January 2024, will reflect a fourth consecutive year of contracting cattle supply in the United States.

Of course, there’s almost nothing that can’t price itself out of the market. At a certain point, Mitchell said, consumer resiliency will give way to more competitive pricing for—in this case—other animal proteins, such as poultry, pork and fish.

“People consume less of something when it gets more expensive—it’s just a law of economics,” he said.

Mitchell said that rebuilding the country’s beef cattle inventory will be a multi-year process—one that can’t really even begin under the persistence of drought.

“Pastures are going to have to recover before we see any discussion of expanding cattle numbers,” he said. “Even if that does occur, it’s going to take a couple of years for that expansion to be noticed. We don’t have the cows; it’s going to take a year to develop heifers, another year for them to give us calves, and so on. So we’re looking at a few more years of declining cattle numbers.

“An important thing that’s different from 2014-2015, is that it’s going to be more expensive to buy back in and expand herds,” Mitchell said. “Interest rates are higher than they were 10 years ago. We expanded the herds very rapidly in 2014, we did that with low interest rates—so capital was inexpensive. That should lead to more careful calculation in terms of how we decide to expand herds.”

By Ryan McGeeney │ U Of A System Division Of Agriculture