Angus — The Business Breed


Sign up!

Quick links:

Share the EXTRA

Connect with
our community:

Follow us on twitterJoin us on Twitter

























Bookmark and Share


Tips for Calving Facilities

Follow these pointers to choose the best calving facilities for your ranch.

In some climates calving barns are a necessity if calving occurs early — as some western ranchers do if they want cows calved and bred before going to summer range. Many seedstock breeders calve early in order to have bull calves old enough to sell as yearlings in their next sales. In some climates you may only need a shed with room for two or three cows — just the ones that might be brought in for assistance. In other climates, you may need room for as many cows as might be calving during any 24-hour period.

Shannon Williams with Lemhi County Extension in Salmon, Idaho, says that whatever you build, it must be easy to clean thoroughly. “If you plan on cleaning it with a four-wheeler with a blade, or with a tractor and blade, are all your gates wide enough?”

Williams gives Rodger Swanson’s barn at the Maybe Ranch as an example.

“All panels and gates are the same length,” he explains. “Panels between calving stalls can be opened up, and he can run a tractor down through all the stalls.”

Design surrounding pens so one person can easily get a cow in and out of the barn. A well-planned system of gates and alleys can eliminate the need for extra people, or any chasing — and make it easy on the cow and the person getting her in.

If people take shifts during calving, you need a designated place for notes about the cows that are in the barn when you have a change of shift.

“Do you post notes on each stall, or use a white board in the warming room? Whatever you choose, it needs to be functional and easy to use,” says Williams.

“You want enough lighting to easily see what’s going on in each stall,” she says. “You also need one stall or place in the barn with a headcatch in case you have to check a cow or pull a calf. Keep your puller, OB (obstetrical) chains, etc., in an accessible place.”

The headcatch should be located where you can readily get any cow in the barn to that area, and designed so that if a cow does go down, you can quickly open it and release her so she can lie flat if she needs to.

“Whatever you use for stall partitions, make sure a person could get out. If a cow got somebody down in the stall, there should be room to roll under the panel. Think about safety at all times,” she says. If the back wall is solid, you might want a panel there anyway — or some rails a person could climb up or roll under to get away from a cow.

You may want a little space under each partition or at the back wall where a calf could go if the cow lies tight up against the side of the stall, and where a calf could be pushed underneath and not be smashed by a confused or aggressive heifer. If you have to tag a new calf or disinfect the navel — and the cow is on the fight — you can safely handle the calf by dragging it under the panel instead of going into that stall with the cow.

“Design barn doors to keep them free of ice and manure so they’ll swing or slide freely,” she says. Snow coming off the roof may pile in front of the doors. Design the barn so you can get in and out without having to shovel snow or use a bar to break loose frozen snow/manure. Build on a well-drained area to prevent flooding during a thaw or wet weather. Don’t build in a low area where groundwater may be a problem in the spring.

comment on this story

Editor’s Note: Heather Smith Thomas is a freelancer and cattlewoman from Salmon, Idaho.



 



[Click here to go to the top of the page.]