Farms.com Home   Expert Commentary

Ready To Deliver - What Producers Should Know This Fall During Calving Season

Aug 24, 2016

By Dr. Glenn Selk Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist

Dr. Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, offers herd health advice as part of the weekly series known as the "Cow Calf Corner" published electronically by Dr. Peel and Dr. Glenn Selk. Today, Dr. Selk offers advice on when and how to assist fall-calving cows and heifers, citing research conducted jointly by Oklahoma State University and USDA.

"Fall calving season is (or soon will be) upon the Oklahoma ranches that have fall and winter calving. An issue facing the rancher at calving-time, is the amount of time heifers or cows are allowed to be in labor before assistance is given. Traditional text books, fact sheets and magazine articles stated that “Stage II” of labor lasted from 2 to 4 hours. “Stage II” is defined as that portion of the birthing process from the first appearance of the water bag until the baby calf is delivered. Research data from Oklahoma State University and the USDA experiment station at Miles City, Montana clearly show that Stage II is much shorter, lasting approximately an hour in first calf heifers, and a half hour in mature cows.
 

Click here to see more...