WHITE MEADOW CHAROLAIS BULL SALE APRIL

30 Late Spring Coming Two and Fall Born Long Yearlings

A program with over 40 years experience breeding and producing bulls with extra age, developed on grass.

FEATURING SONS OF

We have direct sons, and bulls from Sundance daughters in the sale. They have great disposition, good performance, and are sound and well muscled.

12TH Sale Manager 306-584-7937

C 204-522-5469 whitemeadowcharolais@live.ca

Visitors are welcome to view the bulls at the farm anytime.

Catalogues and videos will be available online at www.bylivestock.com

Helge By 306-536-4261 charolaisbanner@gmail.com

While many producers prefer spring calving, Matthew Ramsey shifted his calving season to January to avoid Manitoba’s wet April weather. Matthew Ramsey would much rather calve in January than in April. At least in January, he says, you know what you’re getting into. “We got to the point where April sucked every year,” he says. “Eventually, we came to the conclusion that we weren’t happy with April, we’re either going to go earlier or later to avoid the April wet and snow and just unpredictable weather.”

April’s weather can be variable anywhere in the Prairies, but even more so in Manitoba, where the Ramseys’ operation, Lazy J Ranch, is located. While Saskatchewan and Alberta are a little drier, Manitoba often has wet springs, with areas prone to flooding as months of winter snow melts.

Ramsey runs a herd of 400 head with 60 purebred Charolais near Hamiota, Man., with his wife, Sarah, and their three children. They also farm 1,000 acres of grain and run Rammer Charolais, the purebred division of their ranch.

Producers who calve in the winter usually do so if they run a mixed operation, as the calving season wouldn’t interfere with cropping. Calves have extra time to put on weight before sale. As well, purebred producers often calve in the winter to reach production targets.

Pros and cons

Ramsey says there are pros and cons of calving in the winter.

A pro is that the weather in January is more predictable — producers who calve in the winter know the weather will be cold and that calves need to be born in the barn as a result. In comparison, calving in April has unpredictable weather, often with rain and snow in tandem, and calves spread out.

In January, all the calves are in the same areas, so are easier to manage.

“If there’s a problem with calving, or with a calf not nursing or something like that, you can rectify that problem in minutes,” Ramsey says.

However, producers who calve in January must have the right facilities to ensure calves are born into a warm environment and survive. Having previously calved in April, Ramsey didn’t have the right facilities to move his calving season to January, so they built a barn when they took over the purebred herd.

“As we continually moved more and more cows early, we expanded our barn and erected some loose housing sheds for those young calves so in the winters they can be out of the wind,” he says.

Dr. Karin Orsel is a veterinary epidemiologist at the University of Calgary’s faculty of veterinary medicine. She says it’s important for producers who are winter calving to stay on top of the calving season to ensure calves are getting the care they need. These include shelter, windbreaks, dry bedding and colostrum.

“I think for me it’s thinking about that early intervention,” Orsel says. “And shelter, and bedding, and colostrum, those were the most important things I tend to talk about with producers.”

Extreme cold

On Lazy J Ranch, not a lot changes when an extreme cold warning comes in. Ramsey says there are subtle differences. Usually, they have 50 cows in the barn, but when it gets really cold, he says they’ll have closer to 75.

“Those calves that are born in a real bitter cold, they end up staying in the barn for a prolonged period of time,” Ramsey says. Ramsey says that although he wouldn’t have a calf outside shortly after birth, a calf that is two or three days older can better withstand the elements.

“Usually once they’re outside for a day or two, they’re pretty good,” he says. “And so if they’ve already gone out and are doing well we’re not worried about them.”

Even in extreme cold, calves who have left the barn don’t have to come back to it, unless they left as soon as the extreme cold started. Calves that remain outside in the cold are kept warm by fresh, clean bedding, shelters and windbreaks, and sunshine.