Cold Weather Tips for Spring Calving

With temperatures dipping well below freezing in parts of the plains and midwest, “spring” calving season poses a challenge for cow-calf producers. The cold, wet weather can affect the health of both the cow and her calf, said a Kansas State University veterinarian.

“During cold weather it is essential to get the calves to ‘mother up’ immediately after birth,” said Larry Hollis, a veterinarian for K-State Research and Extension. “Getting the colostrum of ‘first milk’ will help prevent scours (calf diarrhea) and help warm the newborn.”

Colostrum is a concentrated source of protein, vitamins, minerals and energy and also contains antibodies to diseases or vaccines that the mother has been exposed to. In the first 24 hours of life, calves can absorb antibodies directly through their gut wall and into the bloodstream, said Hollis, who specializes in cattle health management. The gut wall ‘closes’ by the end of that 24- our period. Calves can absorb more antibodies in the first one to two hours after birth than they can 20 to 24 hours after birth. Scours is thought to cause more financial loss to cow-calf producers than any other disease-related problem, Hollis said. The condition can result in death in calves due to dehydration or a lack of electrolytes, which are secondary to the infectious cause of the disease.

“It is also important to have enough dry and clean ground for the cows to give birth on,” the veterinarian said. “Giving birth on ground that is covered in manure can cause problems for the calves, like scours.” Also during cold weather, a cow’s energy requirements before and after giving birth are higher than in warm weather, Hollis said. The cattle may not get the energy they need from hay alone. Feeding grains or other high energy feedstuffs is important to the cow herd’s health.

Cattle-Wise.com Locates Online Auctions in Denver’s
Historic Livestock Exchange Building

Cattle-Wise.com, the cattle industry’s one-stop online hub for e-commerce activity and information management, has moved its auction headquarters to Denver’s historic Livestock Exchange building. Cattle-Wise. com’s sales, marketing and information activities will take place in the new headquarters. Opened in 1916, the building was once a marketing epicenter for livestock producers in the western United States, with hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep and hogs bought and sold there annually. “We believe our move into the historic Livestock Exchange makes a powerful statement about our company,” said Dr. John Evans of Path- Wise Corporation, the parent company of Cattle-Wise.com. “The building is an enduring symbol of the industry’s history, of free markets and capitalism. Cattle-Wise.com is a continuation of those things, and represents the future for the U.S. cattle industry. We look forward to having a long- asting presence there.”
Cattle-Wise.com is currently featuring online semen, embryo and cattle auctions operating 24- ours everyday. The company will roll out other auction technologies that benefi t beef producer, feeders and processors in the coming months. To sell semen, embryos or cattle, producers simply register on the website, then begin listing or bidding on items. There are no registration or listing fees, so there’s no risk for producers to participate. Cattle-Wise charges a fl at 5 percent commission on successfully completed sales, and financial transactions are handled instantly and electronically.
Cattle-Wise.com is the e-commerce and information hub for the worldwide cattle industry. It supports the day-to-day business practices of cattle producers in four key activities: e-commerce and trade, herd management, business management and decision support. To reach Cattle- ise, please call (303) 292-WISE or on the web at
www.cattle-wise.com .