Beef: Night feeding helps to encourage day calving

Managed properly, feeding after 5 p.m. results in day-calving in about 80 per cent of trials and nature is more forgiving of a calf dropped in daylight

by DON STONEMAN

Night feeding for day calving doesn’t work for you? Maybe you aren’t doing it right. The key, says Nancy Noecker, a provincial cow-calf specialist, is not to leave feed in the bunk all day. “If there is feed lying around all day, there is no incentive for cows to eat when there is feed.”

Managed properly, night feeding after 5 p.m. results in day-calving in about 80 per cent of trials, Noecker says.

Better Farming - May 2008