Kevin Elliott dressed in layers that included a hooded sweatshirt, insulated coveralls, winter gloves and boots on, Monday, March 27. He walked around the rock-hard ground of the corral checking on cows and newborn calves — without a complaint.
“It’s not muddy right now, so I guess the weather isn’t so bad for calving. I kind of like it frozen a little better, instead of turning to mud and slop. It’s a lot worse,” Elliott said. “You get a lot more disease when you start dealing with the mud.”
On the opposite side of North Dakota, in the southwest part of the state, where record amounts of snow have fallen in some areas, getting the calves dried off and warmed before they get hypothermia is the biggest challenge ranchers are facing, said Kurt Froelich, North Dakota State University Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources in Stark and Billings counties.
“Do they have the facilities?” he asked. “Most guys are probably somewhat set up for it because they’re accustomed to it and have done it for their whole careers.”
Elliott raises Simmental cattle with his sons Keegan and Konner on their ranch called Elliott Livestock, and with his daughter, Mikenzie, and son-in-law Zach Canton, owners of Wild Rose Cattle Co. He has the facilities needed for cold-weather calving. The ranchers use a series of corrals and a barn and have cameras in place to help them keep their herd healthy and monitor them at their ranch 2 miles north of Clifford in Traill County, North Dakota.
Elliott Livestock and Wild Rose Cattle Co. were one-third of the way through calving 150 head of cows on Monday, March 27, and expected the remaining calves to be on the ground by early May.
They artificially inseminate the cows in June, striving for a beginning calving date of late March. The cows that didn’t get bred by AI are turned in with bulls.
During the past several years, the Elliotts have gradually pushed forward their calving dates. Initially they calved in January and February and sold their bulls and heifers early the following year.
In recent years, they began calving in March, feeding the bulls and heifers they plan to sell during the next winter and selling them at 18 months old at a November auction held at their ranch and online.
Elliott believes that the bulls are healthier and have better longevity if they are allowed to put on weight gradually, instead of being fat yearlings when they’re sold.
“We like to ease them through and keep them in the summer and sell them as mature bulls — weed them out a little more, I suppose you could say,” Elliott said.
Source: wctrib.com
Photo Credit: GettyImages - Diane Kuhl
Categories: North Dakota, Livestock, Dairy Cattle