Question for Canadians

How many have a calving barn? Is it heated? How much do you use it?
Someone posted on another thread that insinuated that all Canadians have calving barns. I can think of only one place that had a heated barn with cameras. They are a large Simmental place north of Edmonton. Other than that I only remember sheds, that broke the wind more than anything.

frostback said:

How many have a calving barn? Is it heated? How much do you use it?
Someone posted on another thread that insinuated that all Canadians have calving barns. I can think of only one place that had a heated barn with cameras. They are a large Simmental place north of Edmonton. Other than that I only remember sheds, that broke the wind more than anything.

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We have a 5 stall barn we use if it gets really cold. We have not used it yet this year. It is not heated but if you put a couple of cows in it warms up compared to outside. Our neighbors have a couple of barns that they put the cows in loose and have a couple of smaller pens if they need them. It's pretty critical to get them out of the wind on colder days, as soon as the calves are dry they can take some pretty severe temperatures if they have shelter.

I recently saw a show on RFD-tv that had some guy from Canada showing all the stuff he had fabricated for calving, the hot box he had was made so he could tow it behind an ATV, tractor and my guess a snow mobile. I would have to assume that he calved in the open if he needed it to be portable like it was.
They guy was quite the fabricator, his calving pen was very impressive as well.

We have cold barns, all animals are in doors since 1 December and they will go out around may 25. The problem we have here is it can rain one day and the next  it's minus 25 degree Celsius with a lot of wind. It took a lot of chip wood, straw or sand but in calving time the working conditions ares more stable. We have around 360 purebred charolais heads including 122 calves right now for 118 cows already done. No camera but someone passed the night watching. (I hope my english is readable, my french is better!)

We have a big hip roof barn that was built in 1917. Unless there are 20 or more cows in the barn it is often colder in the barn than outside. This year we have only calved 2 cows in the barn, and the rest have been born outside. The only heated thing I have is a calving box where I can put a newborn calf in until it is dry in severe cold weather, but I haven't used it in the past 3 years either. Most of our calves have been born this year beside portable porosity fences because it has been so mild. I know of a few people who have heated rooms in their barns to calve in but I don't know of many.

And then of course there is Coyote's calving pasture.......
Great pics

http://www.steerplanet.com/bb/index.php?topic=38046.0

We do have a barn. We had a pole shed built in 2009. The shell was put up and we did all the work after that. It was built for calving which we start in later January, and as a show barn. It is 30x60 and we started by putting a wall down the middle. Half is for calving, and is not insulated but we have cameras and again the other evening I know for sure we would of lost a heifer calf without the cameras. The cow layed down and started calving and the water had not broke and I seen the shoulders out and the little farts head was covered with the sack yet. I ran out and could not break the sack and found the end by her hips and peeled it off and momma would NEVER of had it off in time. That is the 4th calf now in 3 years so we would not be without them. Some may think they are a total waste of money but with our back luck we would NOT be without them now! We originally purchased the cameras because Momma Hilltop could not fall back to sleep after going out when it was -30 to check cows and I am not always around so she is on her own. We wonder about calving in the cold sometimes, but with the dirt the way it is at our farm we would not want to have them all in March or April. Just works better for us. We have 2 pens that are in a insulated room that we can heat and a maternity pen (Washrack) in a heated 15x24 room. We have always felt that calves look much better with their ears ;D

We calve outside in a paddock with plenty of clean straw, wind fencing, and an open shed.  We like to use a paddock because it is easier to light and check cows at night.  We have a barn that is used for horses, milking cows and any animal that needs doctoring.  The barn is also used to store equipment etc.

Like JIT we have an old hip roof barn it is getting to the end of its useful life. When the wind blows the old barn has a few holes in it.  The part of the barn we use now was the horse barn where the draft horses were stalled.  The stalls were removed and pens made.  We have added a calving pen last year which we should have done years ago.  The lean-to was the cow barn it has stanchions that are cemented in.  They use to milk shorthorns and sell the cream.  Our cows these days don’t really fit in there anymore because the gutter was poured for little butter ball shorthorns. Now our cows back feet stand in the gutter.   Most calves are born outside if it is really cold we put them in the barn until they dry off.  We use Cozy Caps if it's cold out so we don’t lose any ears.  Once they are dried off they go out to the open front shed on the straw pack they can with stand a lot of cold with some good bedding.  Some day we will have to replace the old barn I would like a heated room with a wash rack.  

We have a calving barn, and most of the people around her have something that they can put a cow inside if the weather is cold, most are not heated or insulated though. We calve in March so we can get some pretty cold weather. Put a camera in it this year, so we have 3 pens that we can watch a cow in now. It has saved 3 calves for us now. Our barn is not heated, but if you get 3 or 4 cows in it warms up quite nicely. How much we use it depends on the weather and, if we have to help something it goes in the barn of course cause that is where the maternity pen is. I find that with the camera, and the fact that our one 'heifer' bull isn't so easy calving we tend to stick the heifers in there so we can keep a closer eye on them without bugging them a bunch. This year, most of our calves have been born outside since the weather has been amazingly warm. Last year most of our calves were born inside since it was such a nasty, cold march.

We have a 40x60 "calving barn" that was built almost 20 years ago when we were still in the purebred business and calving in Jan/Feb.  Now it stores the chore tractor most of the winter.  It's not insulated/heated, just a couple pens and a hot box for when we get those nasty March cold snaps. 

I've heard of people using rabbits to heat greenhouses.

We do have an old barn, it is not insulated. We calve in February. We try not to put the cows in there if we don't have to. If the cow calves at night or late in the afternoon or if its really windy we will put her and the calf in there. This year has been very mild so it got used very little.  We will put a hood on the calf to keep his ears from freezing. This year we bred all our cows to shorthorn and all the calves have been very active right from birth, so they stayed on the straw pack outside

No heated barn here,

I do have a small uninsulated barn with a few pens that pairs can be put into if need be, So far I have used vey little.

I preffer to calve outside and bring the pair in out of the weather after birth if the weather requires. Some cows that are not used to being inside (like mine) fret more about being locked in then they do calving and just never seem to get to it and calve.

More natural and healthier in my oppinion to calve outside.

We calve in two main areas at our place. We had built a 120 X 80 Barn and have put 4 pens in the back with a maternity pen. We can get roughly 45 cows in there when a storm is moving in and it is right off our main pen. We have cameras set up in it, no heat but a drop roof at 25 feet. It stays warm in there on a cold night when cows are locked in. We also calve in a sheltered pen with an open front shed. We utilize this on warmer days and mainly run our cows that are still 2-3 weeks off of their due dates. Older calves when they are dry are pushed back outside into this pen from the barn as well. It is bedded quite well and they keep warm.
We live on the open prairies in Saskatchewan and deal with extreme weather especially when calving Jan-March. The barn is not a must, but easily the best investment we have made. With such a mild winter this year we have only locked cows in the barn twice, the rest have been calving out on the straw pack, the calves tagged and moved  to the back pen.

Whether you need a barn or not depends on when you calve.  We used to start calving in January, but now we don't start calving until mid April so the only roof our cows ever see is the sky.  When we increased the number of cows we calved we had a decision to make.  Either make a capital investment in barns, or turn the bulls out later in the year.  Now that we calve on grass I would never go back to winter calving.  Less capital investment, less work, less disease, and more sleep at night.

we have a little two stall barn that we built this year for those really cold days,  but its not heated, its small enough that two cows can keep it nice and toasty

turning grass into beef said:

Whether you need a barn or not depends on when you calve.  We used to start calving in January, but now we don't start calving until mid April so the only roof our cows ever see is the sky.  When we increased the number of cows we calved we had a decision to make.  Either make a capital investment in barns, or turn the bulls out later in the year.  Now that we calve on grass I would never go back to winter calving.  Less capital investment, less work, less disease, and more sleep at night.

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(clapping)

That is the way to go for sure!  I calve after mud, wet/cold... April & May calving makes the most sense for low maintenance operations.  Also, peak grass growth is just around the corner when your newly lactating cows need it most (when they double their intake vs dry period).