Calves coming early

I've had 6 calves so far and they have all been early, anywhere from 2-10 days.  All A.I. calves so I'm sure of the dates.  Could all this be weather related or just one of those years?

I've had very few calve on time this year, except all of ours are way late (5-10 days), and they have to be AI calves because we use a different breed bull on them for clean up. I think it's been the weather.  The worst part is everything is weighing very heavy, even the ones that are out of proven calving ease bulls (and cows a lot of times).

squirt71 said:

I've had very few calve on time this year, except all of ours are way late (5-10 days), and they have to be AI calves because we use a different breed bull on them for clean up. I think it's been the weather.  The worst part is everything is weighing very heavy, even the ones that are out of proven calving ease bulls (and cows a lot of times).

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This sounds like our place this year.  Everybody I have talked to in the upper midwest has said the same thing.  Haven't seen the sun much this winter.  Could the less sunlight and photo period cause the longer gestations?

Ron
<cowboy>

Not sure it is the sunlight but with all the snow and mud all  over the mid west I could see a wreck about to happen. Here in Colorado we had a lot of snow in winter or2006 and spring of 2007. My husband was able to get a loader to the pasture after a 3 foot snow, where we keep the cows till about 2-3 weeks before calving then we bring them home. Will he was able to plow a area for the cows to get to water and where we could feed them but that was the only area they could move in. We usually keep them on pasture and only feed some grass hay when the ground is too covered.  Our birth wieghts were up 5lbs and we had a lot that needed help. The cows were not I guess, you could say in shape, and they wore out sooner. The calves were not very aggresive either. Most went over there due dates too and if they were early only a day or two. This year we have had a lot of snowfalls but they are only a inch or three so the cows can still move around the pasture thank goodness. I am a believer in exercise for pregnant cows. Good luck all.