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Calving season means green grass is coming

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With spring on its way, hands are starting to itch to weed, plant and dig. The winter has been mild, and grass is starting to green up. It’s March, though, and unpredictable weather “comes in like a lion, out like a lamb,” or vice versa. Weather is an important factor for ranchers and farmers.

Cows are calving this time of year, and with about 26,500 producing beef cows and heifers in Lake County, it’s a busy time. Calves are one of a ranch’s cash crops, and every calf represents an investment for ranch families.

“U.S. cattle numbers have dropped to their lowest level since 1952 on the heels of record-setting drought that decimated feed supplies and forced producers to cull animals,” according to Purdue Extension agricultural economist Chris Hurt on the Purdue University Agricultural News website. 

The Mission Valley had a little more moisture than most areas last summer and survived.

Calving season is a tiring but great time of year.

Feeding hay is a daily chore, especially during calving season, when mother cows need extra feed to help produce milk and main their own condition. 

Midwifing the cows and getting the calves up and eating takes lots of time and effort. Ranchers check heifers in the middle of the night to see if they are struggling as they give birth; they ear-tag and vaccinate the newborn calves. If a cow proves to be a recalcitrant mother, ranchers rope the cow or put her in a chute to make sure she lets her calf nurse.

If there’s real trouble, ranchers call their veterinarian or haul the cow and calf to the vet.

Mike and Rhonda Hinman ranch in Valley View and raise black Angus and crossbred cattle.

They feed about 30 pounds of hay per cow per day. Mike feeds in the afternoon because he thinks cows calve in the daytime more often when fed in the afternoon. 

During calving time, Mike checks the cows to see if any are ready to calve about 5:30 p.m. when he feeds, and again at 10 p.m., at 2 a.m. and before he goes to work every morning. It’s a time of little sleep for both the Hinmans. 

So far, about halfway through calving season, the Hinmans have had to pull two calves. Pulling a calf means helping the heifer or cow when she is exhausted or the calf is being born in an odd position. Usually obstetrical chains are fastened on the calf’s front legs and gently pulled as the cow has contractions. Very large calves or breech presentation may require a veterinarian.  

When a new calf is born, Mike or Rhonda clips an ear tag on the baby, vaccinates him with eight-way vaccine, which stops overeating disease, and other clostridial disease, Mike said, and sprays his navel with iodine to prevent infection. Each new baby also gets a mouth full of Bio-Mos powder, which contains probiotic and an anticoccidial.

It’s been a mild winter so weather hasn’t been much of an issue for livestock, but Mike spreads straw in the calf sheds and on the ground in front of the shelters so the cows and calves can keep warm and dry.

It’s a daily routine for ranch families, one that repeated millions of time across the west, and it’s one that keeps American tables supplied with top quality beef.

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