By Janelle Atyeo
Days-old black cattle wandered the pastures on a calm morning, the grass taller than their heads.
It was mid-June, but calving season was a week or so from wrapping up at Herb and Bev Hamann’s Blue Bell Ranch in Clear Lake, South Dakota. The ranch on the Coteau Prairie of far eastern South Dakota is operated by the Hamanns and their children, Breck Hamann and Arla Poindexter. Their philosophy of working with nature to manage the sensitive grasslands made them this year’s winner of the South Dakota Leopold Conservation Award.
That same philosophy plays into the way they approach calving season. The Hamanns calve later in the spring than many operations. Most of the Simmental-Angus calves they raise are born in May, and they say it makes sense for the cattle and the workers.
Herb Hamann, 87, is the first to point out that weather is the main factor that prompted them to push calving back to late spring. The Hamanns and their cattle aren’t fighting weeks of snow storms, cold and mud when calves are dropping. It’s nearly eliminated problems with scours in their newborn calves, he said.
Poindexter admits that this isn’t the year to brag about the advantages of May calving. The first day of the month brought several inches of snow. It didn’t last long, but temperatures were unseasonably cold.
The up side when wintery weather comes in May is that it doesn’t drag on for weeks like it can in February and March. When there are poor conditions that stretch into late spring, the Hamanns don’t have as many calves to keep watch over.
At the time of the May 1 storm, they had about 20 calves to keep watch over instead of the 300 or so they would have if calving started earlier.
This year, the first calf was born April 24, and the last calf came before July 1.
The Hamanns are convinced that late calving helps make better mothers.
Pregnant cows are accustomed to walking and foraging, giving them exercise that makes them more fit for calving. Grazing also gives them better nutrition.
They calve on grass instead of in a barn. Left alone, the Hamanns said a mother’s instinct will kick in and she’ll give her calf better care.
“Nature kind of takes over,” Poindexter said. “She’s almost more like a wild animal.”
They check their cattle each morning and at sundown. Poindexter estimates they have to help pull one out of every 10 first-calf heifers. They pull between 1 and 2 percent of calves out of cows, usually when they’re not presented right or twins are tangled in the womb.
Late calving also helps preserve the pastures at the Blue Bell Ranch.
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