I sit here, bleary-eyed, attempting to float my eyeballs with coffee, and feel like it might be interesting for folks to hear a little bit about calving season. My caveat is that it looks very different depending on what time of year your cows are giving birth and if you're a beef or dairy operation.

I'm not going to discuss dairy operations because those guys work way too hard for my taste and I'd probably be incorrect in many fronts so we'll leave that discussion in the corner.

For me, I only have 26 mother cows. 6 of which are heifers, who are about two years old and have never had a calf yet. I had one surprise calf last November and that leaves me with 19 cows left to give birth.

Three are super old and I probably should have gotten rid of them last year, but, as my father says, I have a bit of a love affair with my grandmoo cows. They are staying in good shape so I kept them one more year.

The rest of the animals have had at least one calf. All of them gave birth (even the 14 heifers I added last year) unassisted last year for which I am very thankful.

I calve in spring (late March into April), which largely eliminates one major concern most cattlemen have in Montana: frozen calves. If you calve in February and the temperatures are extreme, you pretty much have to be on top of your cows when they calve and get them warm and dried off as soon as possible. If you have a large herd and not enough help, it's pretty much guaranteed you will lose a calf or three if you calve in February around here. At a minimum, you'll have calves who lose the tips of their ears and tails due to the cold.

I don't have regular help for checking my cows unless my dad or sister volunteers, so I moved my calving later. The major downside to that is we're in the middle of spring work when my cows are doing their thing, so I'm working more, but also having to get up in the night. I think the trade is worth it. Just one frozen calf would make calving in February entirely distasteful to me.

So, what it looks like for me? Checking my cows 3-4 times per day, once at midnight when I decide if I'm going to get up in the night. If I get up in the night, it's usually around 3 or 4 am. Then up at 6am or 7am if nobody was "close" , wash, rinse, and repeat.

I get sleep deprivation sickness, so calving is particularly difficult for me at times, but God has blessed me significantly and I haven't had any problems worth mentioning with my cows this year (or last, or the year before).

As of today, I have 8 calves on the ground. I think have fifteen to go, several of which will be later on. Spring planting will probably start next week, though with a normal year, we'd be in the field right now.

That's all for now. Be blessed!

-Kenny

A few of the 2018 babies!

What does calving season look like?