South Dakota State University Extension veterinarian Russ Daly says producers should be keeping the future productivity of the calf in mind early in the calving season.

“When it comes to the future production of the calf and future health of the calf, we know that the way that animal survives in those first few weeks of life can have an effect on his future productivity and profitability - whether he's going to be a steer we sell in the fall or a replacement heifer that we want to keep,” Daly said. “It's definitely something a little up front advice and a little up front knowledge of what we need to treat these calves with can pay off big time as that calf gets older.”

Daly says the first step in keeping that productivity and profitability high is to make sure producers have a clean area for cows and heifers to calve. A clean calving area can help prevent the spread of harmful, disease-causing bacteria.

“Hopefully we have a place that's fairly well drained that has not seen a lot of cows and calves already,” Daly said. “In other words, we like to calve separately from where we winter the cows.”

Daly says it is not always necessary to calve indoors, but cows and heifers should at least calve on clean ground. He reminds producers that they may have calved a lot of cows out in one spot they think may be clean, but organisms can still build up in these places.

“Something that started out as a nice clean place can become a place where we help the spread of disease by bringing all of the calves into that area,” he said.

Source: Farm & Ranch Guide