Miserable Winter , High Birth Weights

Okay its been a long extremely cold winter right ? I'm having bigger calves than I have in years and also way early . Everything was ultrasounded by my local vet . These calves are coming from 15 to 20 days early , and big ! Now who or what is to blame for all this ha ha ??? Its definitely been catching me off gaurd !

i've heard this theory...not sure if its true, but the colder the temps, the more blood circulates thru the cow, the bigger the calves...im sure theres more to it than that and someone might be able to explain it better

^ hummm very interesting.

had more time this morning, so i googled cold temps and birth weights of calves

found this article from university of nebraska...

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1400&context=animalscinbcr&sei-redir=1#search="cold+temps+and+birth+weight+of+calves"

"Research suggests exposing a pregnant animal to cold temperatures results in increased blood flow to the uterus allowing the fetus to obtain greater nutrients and increased growth. This may explain why calf birth weights are usually heavier in colder climates than warmer climates."

in the study they conducted

"These data indicate a
negative linear relationship between winter
temperatures and calf birth weights.
In general, as winter temperatures increased
1o F, calf birth weight decreased
1 pound."

interesting read...

Everything of mine have been 10% higher.  Vet said they conducted an experiment where they took 100 cows from North Dakota, bred them all to the same bull, moved 50 of them to Florida, and fed them the exact same diet.  They calved around the same time and the Florida calves were 10% smaller than the North Dakota calves. 

It has been a very interesting calving season for us.  Our "heifer" bulls first calf was 132 lbs., since then his biggest was 95 lbs. and most have been in the 75 lb. range but I was getting ready to make a phone call after that first one.! The heifers have averaged 75lbs and the bulls have averaged 105 lbs.!  Last year the heifers averaged 68 lbs. and the bulls averaged 85 lbs. 

We also lost our first six calves of the season and our best cow and her calf.  All the calves were born dead with normal presentation.  Purdue came back negative with environmentals so we are confused as to what happened.  The cow was eating hay at 2 p.m. and by 5 when I went to do chores she was dead and she wasn't due to calve for another month and a half.

    Easy to understand, global warming is the cause.

What would happen if they raised club calves say in jit's country and used heatseeker. Would it kill every cow in Canada? Thats one good thing about the club calf sires......they do reduce the nations cowherd inventory.

To go along with the increased blood flow-- cows eat more when its colder out; they have to! More feed means more nutrients which can go towards calf.

Thanks for the good information , I assumed the long freezing cold winter has something to do with this . The cows are bred the exact same way as last year but these are considerably larger calves ! The good thing is everybody is healthy , fingers crossed , so far ! Makes me nervous for the rest of my first calvers yet to come .

Our birthweights so far"Knock on wood" have not been much higher. We had a couple of cows go overdue in early Feb that had bigger calves but all in all not too bad.

After our cold crappy winter 2 years ago I was expecting more bigger calves but the past two years our cows are not fed as much as we used to till after calving either.

One thing we have had though is a pile of malpresentations. I have been reading and they say that 2-4% is the norm but we are at 12%. Yesterday we had another calf and this one had both front feet back. We dont go without checking at least every 2.5 hours with all the trouble. Had one upside down calf early on and then 4 others with 1 front foot back but have not lost any of them.

Any one else have a lot more this year than normal???

Maybe my bad luck is still to come but so far, I have only assisted 1 calf out of 34 born, and it was a backwards calf. It was an easy enough pull once I got the back legs coming properly. I have had several neighbours say that their calves are considerably bigger than normal, but I would say that our calves have been smaller than normal on average. We have had a long cold winter, with lots of wind and not too many warm spells, so bigger calves are expected. I have had more calves in the 85 lb and under weight than we have had most years. Last night I had a Touchdown calf from a Salute female we bought from Sullivan, and when it arrived I was totally expecting twins as the calf was pretty small. There was no other calf and I weighed it this morning and it weighed 78 lbs.

We had a cow that had a twisted uterus and tail first, had to have it cut out.  Our first calve heifers calves are all big have had only one that we haven't assisted, and had one cut out today.  I sure hope it starts getting better the AI cows haven't even started yet.

Based on the previous posts I would venture that if a northern breeder would calve later in the spring, BWs would also be a bit lighter.  Anyone know if this has been looked at?

Glenstory, our later calves are almost always lighter. Our birthweights this year have been a little higher and I believe it is due to the cold weather. I definitely believe the studies.

Well....... Atleast you guys and have started to have calves haha my first is due March 31st.  Very interesting post to read I would have to say that colder temps = more eating = bigger calf

11 calves born in the past 28 hours. So far our birth weights seem to be smaller than normal despite the rotten miserable winter we have had. Only 1 has broke the 90 lb barrier, out of these 11, and it is a Leroy bull calf at 95 lbs. Have had 3 CYT Pure Power ( by SULL GNCC Pure Solution) ET heifers out of Hall Haven Sonny Sue 6N ( BY WHR Sonny 8114 ET) born in the past 6 hours and they have been 78-85 lbs. I don't think that is bad for being double Trumps. Our calves have been extremely vigorous this year and are up and going fast. I also think there is something to be said for the bigger the calf the slower they are at birth. One of the Pure Power calves was running around the pen 2 hours after birth and her recip mom was having trouble keeping up. I am hoping this trend continues as it nice to just have to weigh them and tag them.

So far our calves have all been average BW.  Our lightest  was a 65 lb heifer calf out of a heifer.  Our heaviest was a 90 lb bull calf out of a 10 yr old cow.

HAB said:

So far our calves have all been average BW.  Our lightest  was a 65 lb heifer calf out of a heifer.  Our heaviest was a 90 lb bull calf out of a 10 yr old cow.

Click to expand...

Do you think the extra good hair coats of the Galloway might help them in the cold winters so the effect of internalizing blood flow is minimized?
We have definitely seen an increase in birth weights this year but it's been one of the coldest winters I remember.

Okotoks said:

HAB said:

So far our calves have all been average BW.  Our lightest  was a 65 lb heifer calf out of a heifer.  Our heaviest was a 90 lb bull calf out of a 10 yr old cow.

Click to expand...

Do you think the extra good hair coats of the Galloway might help them in the cold winters so the effect of internalizing blood flow is minimized?
We have definitely seen an increase in birth weights this year but it's been one of the coldest winters I remember.

Click to expand...

Sure would be a heck of a sales pitch, if I knew for sure.  ;D

All I know, is when it is very cold (-20 to -30) and windy, our Galloways go out to graze, or eat grass hay.  If they are standing around, they are chewing their cud, while the Angus next to them are pleading with me to open up the barn doors.

I like to believe it has to do with the extra excercise I "force" on my cows.  Until the snow got 3 ft deep, they were out grazing corn stalk residue.  Since the third week of January they have been fed grass hay.