Calving Background

Whiskey Creek Regenerative Farming is a commercial cow-calf operation that uses perennial grass to produce calves for sale into all-natural beef programs supplying grocery stores such as Whole Foods.

Leased bulls are brought in on June 1 to impregnate our cows and taken out on September 1. Cows have a nine-month gestation period, so our calving season begins about March 1 and ends around May 1. A veterinarian does pregnancy checks on the cows in December to determine which are pregnant. This year, 31 cows and 14 heifers are due to give birth.

Heifers are young cows that haven’t had a calf yet. We put them in the field nearest the house so we can watch them closely. Since this will be their first calf, they sometimes need help. The cows are in the second field from the house. We check on them frequently throughout the day and night.

The following chronicle is from my journal. It focuses on this year’s calving season and lists the migrating birds that arrive on the farm, the flowers that bloom, and the seeds we plant in the garden. In no way do I mean to diminish all the other tasks that take place on the farm, such as moving and feeding the cows, checking their waterers, fixing fences, hanging gates, and re-staking the tree shelters on the farm’s nine acres of riparian buffers.

The Perfect Calving Birth

Most cows will give birth on their own. Usually, the calf is positioned in the birth canal with its front feet first followed by its head.

We give the cows and the heifers every opportunity to calve on their own, but when there is no progress, we get them into the chute–a long narrow passage that leads to the head catch that stabilizes them so we can investigate what is going on.

When a cow leaves the herd, that’s often the first sign of labor. Twitching her tail, walking back and forth, not chewing cud, and licking her sides are other early signs. When the birth begins, a water bag emerges from the birth canal, becoming about the size of a softball. Next, the calf’s front feet emerge, followed by its head. Once born, the calf will get up within minutes and find its mother’s udder and begin nursing within an hour. A strong baby and a loving mother are the outcome we hope for, and the one we usually get, but we must be prepared if it’s not.

Tagging a Calf

After calves are born, we need to tag them so we know which mother is theirs and can identify them later. We have to catch them before they are 24 hours old; otherwise, we can’t catch them on foot because they can outrun us. We ride into the calving field in an old Jeep Cherokee. Jeanne drives and I sit in the back with the tailgate open. When we arrive near the cow and her calf, I hop out, give the cow a flake of hay hoping to distract her, and grab the calf. This is the tricky part of tagging a calf. Will the mother remain calm and allow me to grab her baby? Most of the time she will.

Once I have stabilized the calf, Jeanne gives the baby two shots of vitamins, drenches its navel with iodine, places a band around the scrotum if it’s a bull calf, and attaches an ear tag that matches its mother’s. All this takes place in less than 60 seconds. When a chronicle entry notes just the cow’s number and the sex of her baby, that’s what happened.

Move to Greener Pastures

After we tag the calf and we are sure the baby knows who its mother is, we move the pair to a separate field—the nursery field. We check and feed hay to three groups now: the pregnant heifers, the pregnant cows, and the mothers in the nursery.

The Chronicle for the First Month of Calving

Week One

3/1: We can’t believe there are no calves yet. Usually, calving starts a few days early.

3/5: Common Grackles arrived.

Planted tomato seeds.

3/10: Finally, a calf is born, and calving season begins! Cow 19 calved, black heifer.

Brown-Headed Cowbirds arrived.

Week Two

3/11: Cow 131 calved, black bull.

Pussy Willows began blooming.

3/12: Cow 105 calved, black heifer.

Daffodils began blooming.

3/13: Heifer 34 calved, on her own, black bull.

Cow 17 calved, black heifer.

Planted peas.

3/14: Cow 9A, calf DOA. She was in labor, switching her tail, walking back and forth, not eating, with no progress at all. We got her in the chute. Jeanne put her arm through the birth canal to investigate. The calf’s front feet were back. Our hearts sank. I called the vet. No answer. Jeanne worked very hard to push the head backward while trying to bring a leg forward. I called a neighbor to help. Butch came right away. By the time he arrived, Jeanne had brought one of the calf’s legs forward and could attach one end of a calf obstectric chain to its hock. I held the chain firm. Jeanne then managed to attach a chain to the other leg and Butch held that. Jeanne got the pulling handles. Butch and I pulled in sync with the cow’s contractions. We got the baby out, but it was dead. We carried the baby to the pen beside the chute and let the mother out. She began licking her dead baby immediately.

Jeanne called a friend who she knew had a twin calf that its mother had rejected. His farmhand was bottle feeding the baby in Craigsville 24 miles away. At 8 p.m. we left for Craigsville to get the orphaned twin. An hour later we arrived back at the farm. We kept the twin in the Jeep while we returned to the mother standing over her dead baby. We carried the baby to the barn beside the chute and hoisted it by its hind legs to cut the skin off. I got the twin from the Jeep and held him while Jeanne attached the skin from the dead baby to the twin with some baler twine. He was now ready to get a new mother. I carried the baby to the pen where the mother was and set him down. The mother smelled the baby and made a good sound. We were relieved. She accepted the baby almost immediately.

Week Three

3/15: Cow 09, black bull.

Tree Swallows arrived.

Planted onions, beets, radishes, spinach, and carrots.

3/16: Cow 68, black bull. When I grabbed her calf, the mother became very aggressive. Jeanne quickly crawled to the back of the Jeep from her seat at the wheel and yelled for me to hoist the calf into the back. I managed to give her the calf’s back legs, and she pulled the rest of him in. I got in the Jeep, and we drove to the watering corral, the cow racing after us. Once in the corral, I ran to shut the gate. Close call! We tagged the calf and let her back with her mother.

3/17: Cow 66, black bull.

Rainfall: .62 inches.

3/18: Cow 04, black-white face, bull.

Cow 9B, black heifer.

3/20: Heifer 32, black heifer.

Cow 45. She was in labor without any sign of progress. Finally, a foot emerged. With binoculars, we concluded that the toes were pointing up, which meant the baby was trying to come out backward. Mother and calf could die. We got her in the chute and put the OB chains on the back feet and with the help of a calf jack, we got the baby out alive. It was a miracle. Most breach babies are dead.

3/21: Cow 14, black bull.

Week Four

3/22: Today was extremely busy with four births. Cow 94 had been in labor with no progress. We decided to get her in the chute to make sure the calf was presented correctly. I held the cow’s tail while Jeanne examined. Everything was correct, but the calf was huge, and the mother was just not doing enough pushing to get the job done. We put the OB chains around the calf’s front hocks and began the process of pulling at the same time the cow had a contraction. We used the hand pulls.

The calf was alive, and we dragged him into the pen beside the chute. We let the mother out into the pen. Sadly, the mother paid no attention to her baby. Not a good sign. Usually, a cow will start licking her calf right away. Jeanne mixed up a half bottle of colostrum, the early milk that the mother produces. I put a black towel around the newborn’s eyes and Jeanne inserted the nipple of the bottle into its mouth. The calf started sucking immediately. That would get him strong enough to nurse on his own.

Cow 95, black heifer.

Cow 7B, black bull.

Cow 106, black heifer.

3/23: 5:30 a.m., Heifer 310 had a baby. Neither the mother nor the baby knew what to do. In cattle-farmer-speak, it’s called a dumb baby and a dumb mother, which is a bad combination. It was 30 degrees outside, so the baby got hypothermic and would not nurse. I put it in the calf warmer.

Cow 13, black heifer.

Heifer 311, black bull.

Rainfall: .13 inches.

After the 310 baby had spent an hour in the warmer, we put it with its mother, but neither one paid any attention to the other, so we put the mother in the chute. Jeanne gave her a shot of some calming cattle drugs. Once she was sedated, I opened the side gate to the chute, and Jeanne positioned the baby’s head near the mother’s udder. Jeanne pulled on one of the teats to open it up, squirted some milk on her fingers, and inserted them into the baby’s mouth. He liked it and wanted more. Eventually, Jeanne sneaked the mother’s teat into the baby’s mouth. After many attempts, the baby finally picked up on the system. We will keep a close eye on these two to make sure both understand how nursing works before we put them in the nursery field.

Cow 92 had been in labor with no progress. We started to move her toward the pens, and to our surprise, she trotted on her own through two fields to the pens. We believe she knew she needed help. Once the cow was in the chute, Jeanne massaged her vulva while I went into the shop to get the OB chains and the calf jack.

Sure enough, it was a huge calf, but it was positioned perfectly. We attached the OB chains around the calf’s front leg hocks and began to slowly jack the baby out. Once it was out, we put mother and baby together, and they were fine.

3/24: Cow 02, black bull.

Planted potatoes.

3/25: Cow 7A, black heifer.

Heifer 37, black bull.

3/27: Cow 103, black heifer, very nice cow.

3/28: First Chipping Sparrow arrived.

Heifer 35, black bull, mother aggressive. We put the baby on the ground, and I stood between the baby and the mother with my cow stick to keep her away from the baby and Jeanne. While Jeanne did all the tagging tasks, I kept moving around and around to keep the mother from interfering.

Cow 62, black bull, very aggressive cow. When I grabbed the sleeping calf by the leg to begin the tagging process, he screamed, and the mother came after me. I let go. Thank God she was in the night pen with the heifers. We managed to open a gate and move them toward an open pen. Once the cow was in the pen, Jeanne swiftly closed the gate on her, and I grabbed the calf’s leg. He screamed bloody murder and so did his mother. We tagged the calf and put them back together.

Week Five

3/29: Cow 107, black bull.

3/30: Heifer 33, black bull. On her own.

Cow 08, black bull.

Jeanne has been watching and worrying about Heifer 312 all day. At 9 p.m., we took our flashlights out to see how she was doing. Oddly, there was a piece of placenta near her, and a foot was protruding from the vulva. Her calf was huge. We got her in the chute and slowly jacked the calf out. It was alive, and the mother accepted it.

3/31: Serviceberry trees in bloom.

This concludes the first month of calving season at Whiskey Creek Regenerative Farming. We have two months to go with eight cows and five heifers to calve.

Note: This was written by a real person: me. There are no paywalls, ads, surveys, AI, or pop-ups. All photos were taken by me.