Calving in late summer

[angus9259]

Falls usually start calving the 5th of Sept. As hot as we are in September I sometimes think I have them starting too early. Heat is so awful hard on a newborn calf. The cows calve for 60 days so if I try to push farther into Sept, I'll find myself into winter with baby calves and that's not good either. August calving is a big no-no around here.

X2. If I were in OK, I would start end sept. In MI, 9/1 - 10/15 is about the best window.

[angus9259]

We have both Spring and Fall calving groups.
While the heat may be an issue for the very earliest of those 'Fall' calves, it's still nothing like the problems we can encounter with snow/mud, etc. in the 'Spring' group... although we shoot for March-April calves, some invariably come in Feb.
I'd a whole lot rather deal with pushing a calf to the shade than having to bring one in to the house to warm up after its dam pushed it out into 6" (or 18") of snow, and it melted down to the ground, with its legs sticking up in the air, or the calf can't find the udder, 'cause it's down in the snow.

X2

I got out of "spring" calving altogether for these reasons. April could still mean blizzard here. Or worse - 38 degrees and rain.